Navigating Climate Week NYC 2026: An Executive’s Guide to Action Over Hype

A practical guide to some of the Climate Week’s (September 20-27) most promising sessions – anchored in supply chain data, decarbonization strategy, and conversations that can help move you from commitment to action.

Bypassing the Midtown gridlock

Every September, Climate Week NYC lands on top of the UN General Assembly, and Midtown Manhattan seizes up. Streets close, calendars open, and invitations flood in.

Among the rooftop receptions and the podium pledges, there’s some profound value on offer. This blog helps you find it.

This is a curated, action-oriented guide for executives who would rather leave New York with a decarbonization plan than a stack of business cards. Follow it to prioritize sessions grounded in hard data, honest conversation about supply chain risk, and technology you can put to work when you get home.

Not to be missed: The 2026 Carbon Action Report

Climate Week is about inspiring ambition and providing insights to back it up with action. On Monday, we launch our 2026 Carbon Action Report with Kearney to contribute to both goals. Drawing on one of the world’s largest supplier carbon data sets, it provides a data-led look at what’s slowing Scope 3 progress and how better carbon data is helping companies accelerate reductions across their operations and supply chains.

This matters because it gives you a baseline for every other conversation you’ll have that week. Instead of debating what’s been promised, the report provides a current snapshot of carbon visibility and progress across supply chains. It explores where the data gaps are, how companies are driving reductions, and how much work is left to do.

If you attend one discussion to help shape how you think about carbon for the rest of the year, make it this one – everything below connects back to it.

A day-by-day attendance guide

Monday, September 21: Set the baseline

The week opens on two fronts. Climate Week NYC formally begins with the Opening Ceremony, where senior political and business leaders set the tone for the days ahead and frame the shift from commitment to delivery. It gives the clearest early read on where the week’s conversation is heading, so it’s worth registering your interest well in advance.

For us, Monday is also a launch day. The headline gathering is the EcoVadis & Kearney Carbon Action Report Launch Event (2:00 PM – 4:30 PM EST), hosted at Kearney’s offices in the Empire State Building. It’s an invite-only room of senior sustainability and procurement executives, with both EcoVadis co-founders and co-CEOs Pierre-François Thaler & Frédéric Trinel, SVP & Climate Ambassador Dexter Galvin, and Kearney’s Angela Hultberg walking through the report’s key findings.

Seats are limited and curated – if this is your peer group, request an invitation early rather than hoping to walk in.

The Hub Live, Climate Week’s flagship venue, runs from Monday into Tuesday: three plenary sessions plus dozens of breakouts and, for senior executives, The Executive Series – closed-door roundtables held under the Chatham House rule with a small number of the most senior participants. If you value candor over spectacle, this is where to spend your open hours.

Tuesday, September 22: Practical decarbonization at the Javits Center

Tuesday is the working day. The center of gravity is Sustainability LIVE at The Javits Center (429 11th Ave). Three sessions are worth building your day around:

10:00 AM – 10:45 AM – Workshop: From Carbon Data to Carbon Action. Pierre-François Thaler, Dexter Galvin, and Kearney’s Angela Hultberg present a first look at the data from the 2026 Carbon Action Report, then unpack what’s separating companies delivering on their targets versus those just setting them. They’ll then dive into an interactive discussion and open Q&A, so bring ideas and challenges to discuss.
12:00 PM – 12:15 PM – Keynote: The Resilience Signal: Navigating Value Chain Uncertainty with Trusted Data. Pierre-François Thaler & Frédéric Trinel on supply chain transparency and what real decarbonization progress looks like when it’s measured rather than pledged.
2:15 PM – 3:00 PM – Panel: Global Decarbonization Strategies. A moderated discussion, featuring Dexter Galvin, on executing global procurement and decarbonization strategies at scale – the trade-offs, not the platitudes.

Separately, Antoine Heuty, VP Human Rights at EcoVadis, will be featured on a panel at the World Resources Institute on Tuesday, September 22, alongside Ares Charitable Foundation President Michelle Armstrong and others, discussing the critical role of engaging medium-sized suppliers and their workers to turn sustainability commitments into meaningful results.

Wednesday, September 23: The intersection of tech, AI, and risk

Wednesday runs on both ends of the day, and the morning is the one to protect.

Start downtown. Celonis and EcoVadis co-host Sustainability 4.0: The AI-Ready Sustainable Enterprise, an executive breakfast at Celonis’s One World Trade Center office from 9:00 to 11:30 AM EST. Pierre-François Thaler opens with findings from the Carbon Action Report, specifically the cost, disruption, and disclosure pressures now driving supply chain decarbonization. Celonis follows with how Process Intelligence turns sustainability commitments into operational execution, backed by a customer case study. The rest of the morning is a peer roundtable on AI, risk and resilience, and sustainable operations, with sustainability, procurement, and supply chain leaders in the room. Dexter Galvin joins from EcoVadis, with Ann Rosenberg and Sophia Wieland from Celonis.

This is the session for executives who want the AI conversation grounded in operations rather than positioning. Register here. The roundtable format caps the room, so book early.

In the afternoon, EcoVadis returns to the program at The Nest Campus, where Pierre-François Thaler joins leaders from STX Group and KPMG for a conversation on what it takes to make corporate carbon commitments actually mean something. With supply-chain transparency, sustainability assurance and regulatory disclosure converging, the panel will look at whether companies are truly on track — and what accountability looks like when ambition has to meet the numbers.

(Main Stage, September 23, 4:30–4:55 PM)

Essential NYC survival tips for executives

Skip the car in Midtown: During UNGA Week (held at the same time as Climate Week), security closures turn a ten-block ride into a forty-minute standstill. The subway and your own feet will beat Uber and Lyft nearly every time – and remember the Javits Center sits far west on 11th Avenue, so plan the approach rather than assuming a cab will get you there on time.

Choose the closed door over the big hall: The keynote stages are great for getting the big picture and headline numbers, but the value compounds in the intimate rooms – the roundtables and peer dinners where twenty or forty people speak plainly about the challenges they’re facing. Prioritize even three of these sessions over a dozen larger ones. You’ll leave with relationships, not just impressions.

Anchor your week around conversations, not sessions: Decide before you land which two or three people or problems you most need to make progress on, and let everything else flex around them.

Make the week count

Climate Week rewards the prepared. Those who benefit most treat it as a working week, leaving with a toolkit and a shortlist of partners. Build your schedule around the report launch, the roundtables, and the closed-door sessions above, and the week can help you identify the next step on your decarbonization journey.

To make it count:

Lock your schedule now around the Monday launch, the Tuesday Sustainability LIVE sessions, and the Wednesday Nest Campus session.
Request your seat at the invite-only EcoVadis events hosted alongside Kearney through your EcoVadis contact. Or, come see us on the big stage – register for Sustainability Live or visit the Nest Campus. We’ll also be hosting a booth on the exhibitor floor at Sustainability Live: The Leadership Summit.
Get the data. Download the Global Carbon Action Report when it launches during Climate Week, and stay tuned for our upcoming Green Room series webinar on October 6th to go deeper on the findings. Register here!

Can’t make it to New York?

The insights unveiled at Climate Week don’t stay in Manhattan. We’re taking them on the road. If September in New York isn’t in the cards, register for an EcoVadis World Tour stop this October to join the conversation in a city closer to you.

Register now to secure your spot:

Join us in Chicago on October 15

Join us in San Francisco on October 29