WATCH THE SESSIONS LIVE
March 19
09:00-10:30
The Trust Deficit: Reclaiming Power and Redefining the Table
This session focuses on stakeholder engagement, which is particularly critical at this time as trust between businesses, governments, and communities grows increasingly fragile. With rising concerns over corporate accountability, environmental and social justice, and regulatory shifts, meaningful engagement is essential to bridging the trust deficit and ensuring decision-making processes are inclusive, transparent, and responsive to stakeholder needs.
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11:00-12:30
Sustainable Business Futures: Youth-Led Rights Action for Corporate Change
What competitive advantages emerge when companies meaningfully engage with youth-led sustainability movements? This session will explore how young changemakers across Asia are reshaping corporate accountability through grassroots campaigns, digital advocacy, and climate litigation. It will examine how youth perspectives can strengthen human rights due diligence, drive sustainable practices, and help companies align with the values of an increasingly conscious consumer base while creating meaningful partnerships for long-term impact.
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13:30-15:00
Sustaining Textile SMEs in Asia: Responsible Water Management for Growth and Resilience
Can addressing water pollution transform textile SMEs from compliance followers into sustainability leaders? This session will take a two-pronged approach to addressing the unique challenges faced by SMEs in the textile sector, exploring how small businesses can both navigate environmental and human rights challenges while adapting to mounting regulatory requirements. Through insights from financial institutions and business associations, it will identify solutions for responsible wastewater management and stakeholder engagement that enhance market competitiveness and build resilience.
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13:30-15:00
ESG Under Pressure: Aligning Rights, Regulation and Compliance
As ESG reporting becomes standard practice, how can businesses in Asia move beyond compliance to drive meaningful change? This speed panel features concise interventions from regulators and business stakeholders navigating the intersection of regulations and practical implementation. Through focused dialogue, it will explore strategies for harmonizing diverse frameworks, engaging key stakeholders, and balancing immediate compliance demands with long-term environmental and human rights goals.
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15:30-16:30
Closing Session
This closing session brings together diverse voices to synthesize key themes and breakthrough ideas from across the conference. Through reflection from diverse stakeholders, it will identify practical pathways for strengthening stakeholder engagement, advancing human rights due diligence, and creating enabling environments for sustainable business practices throughout Asia, with clear action points for participants to champion beyond the conference.
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WATCH RECORDINGS
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March 18
9:00-10:30
The Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment: Redefining Corporate Engagement
This opening plenary will examine the fundamental shift in corporate accountability following global recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Through insights from diverse stakeholders, it will explore how meaningful engagement with communities, workers, and environmental defenders can help businesses strengthen due diligence practices, drive innovation, and help companies navigate Asia's complex sustainability challenges while creating long-term value.
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11:00-12:30
From Risk to Resilience: Embedding Human Rights in Asia's Just Transition
This session explores Asia's double transition - toward renewable energy and green industries – amid an AI and automation boom that risks the exclusion of workers relying on traditional occupations. Through a solutions-driven lens, it examines how businesses, policymakers, and investors can secure green finance and drive an inclusive, just transition while safeguarding workers, communities, the climate, and human rights. How can businesses ensure this transition creates competitive advantage rather than leaving workers behind?
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11:00-12:30
For the Right to Clean Air: Partnerships, Policies and Practices in Focus
How can businesses transform air quality challenges into strategic opportunities while meeting growing stakeholder expectations? This session will explore Asia's air pollution crisis, featuring insights from business leaders, regulators, civil society representatives, and health experts examining how meaningful stakeholder engagement can strengthen corporate due diligence, drive cross-border collaborations, and create innovative solutions that benefit both business performance and public health.
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13:30-15:00
Tri COPs on Climate, Biodiversity and Land Degradation: Implications for Asia
With mixed outcomes from 2024's three COPs on climate, biodiversity, and land degradation, what strategic opportunities can Asian businesses identify amid growing global tensions? This plenary will explore key developments including the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund, Riyadh Drought Resilience Partnership, and unresolved climate transition issues. Through collaborative dialogue, it will examine how Asian companies can navigate emerging environmental regulations, harness sustainable innovation, and build resilience while addressing pressing ecological challenges.
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15:30-17:00
Driving Corporate Action on Climate and Nature through Gender Equality
How can integrating gender equity into corporate climate strategies unlock both business resilience and environmental outcomes? This policy lab will examine emerging regional regulations that are driving gender-responsive business practices across Asia. Through dialogue between investors, businesses, and civil society, it explores practical approaches for embedding gender equity in due diligence processes, elevating voices from climate-vulnerable communities, and creating systemic change through collaborative action and inclusive leadership.
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15:30-17:00
Frontline Perspectives: Safeguarding Human and Environmental Rights in New Technology
As technologies like AI and quantum computing reshape Asia's business landscape, how can companies turn stakeholder engagement from a compliance exercise into a competitive advantage? Through dialogue between business leaders and frontline communities, this session explores how meaningful stakeholder engagement with rights holders at the community level can strengthen due diligence, drive innovation, and build resilient business models that balance technological advancement with human and environmental rights.
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