Engaging ESG with Jennifer Owens and Kati Kallins

Midway through a New York Climate Week panel on responsible AI, protesters burst in to confront AWS over a new gas power plant. Once security moved the speakers offstage, the protesters turned on the audience.Kati was sitting in the second row.On a windy rooftop after a packed week, Jennifer and Kati unpack what happened and consider where activism fits when it targets a small room of sustainability practitioners. NYCW is one of the few times when so many corporate sustainability leaders gather in public, and most events are free to attend. If companies respond by closing their doors, who loses access?They also compare notes from the rest of the week, especially as sustainability leads get pulled into commercial conversations and what that means for their role and their data. Also, with so much focus on ROI, do values still have a place in the corporate conversation?How should activists and practitioners share the room? Let us know at [email protected] or comment at https://bit.ly/EngagingESGpod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennifer and Kati close out season four with a look back at the conversations that stuck with them — from welcome over shame to hope as a strategy to the quiet reality of the work still getting done — and share their read on where sustainability communications goes from here.They also discuss:• A recent PwC report that finds companies aren't walking away from their net zero targets. Instead, they're getting more rigorous about them.• How the regulatory picture keeps moving, from California's SB 253 to new rules across the EU, APAC and beyond.• The 2026 Ipsos People and Climate Change report that finds fewer individuals seeing their own climate actions as crucial and instead calling for business and government to step up.Have a question for us — or suggestions for season five? Email us today at [email protected]!Learn more about us at https://bit.ly/EngagingESGpod. Season Links The Ipsos People and Climate Change Report 2026 The State of Sustainability in 2026: Progress, Pressure, and the Path Forward The Way Companies Aim for Net Zero Is Flawed. It’s Also Working. PwC's Third Annual State of Decarbonization Report Our theme music is "Lost in Translation" by Wendy Marcini and Elvin Vangard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Women receive less than 1% of climate finance in the US and about 5% globally. And yet research consistently shows that women who do get funded generate more than twice the revenue per dollar invested compared to male peers.So why does the gap persist?Jessica Espinoza, CEO of 2X Global, joins Jennifer and Kati to unpack the intersection of gender equity and climate action. Since 2018, 2X Global has mobilized $34 billion in gender lens investments. Jessica’s work spans creating the Gender Smart Climate Finance Toolkit, launching facilities that back women fund managers and building communities of practice where investors learn from peers already doing the work.Have a question for us? Email us today at [email protected]!Learn more about us at https://bit.ly/EngagingESGpod. Show Links Learn more about Jessica Espinoza Visit 2X Global Explore the Gender Smart Climate Finance Toolkit Learn about the Resilient Futures Fund Our theme music is “Lost in Translation” by Wendy Marcini and ElvinVangard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gus Bartholomew, co-founder of Leafr, joins Jennifer and Kati to talk about one of the most persistent challenges in corporate sustainability: the expertise gap.With most large companies relying on just one to three people to deliver on increasingly complex mandates, sustainability teams are stretched impossibly thin. To help, Gus and co-founder Nick Valenzia created Leafr, a marketplace connecting businesses with more than 1,000 vetted freelance sustainability specialists across the UK, Europe and US.We consider whether the “fractional CSO” model is gaining traction, what Leafr’s annual report reveals about how teams are actually structured, and why sustainability leaders might want to take a page from their marketing colleagues when it comes to negotiating budgets.Have a question for us? Email us today at [email protected]!Learn more about us at https://bit.ly/EngagingESGpod. Show Links Learn more about Gus Bartholomew Visit Leafr Read The True State of Sustainability report  Try the Sustainababble Translator Read: Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss Listen: The Rest Is Politics   Our theme music is “Lost in Translation” by Wendy Marcini and Elvin Vangard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michelle Li, founder of Clever Carbon and Women in Climate, joins Jennifer and Kati to talk about making carbon literacy accessible, engaging, and even joyful.Michelle started her career in Silicon Valley with stints at Salesforce and DocuSign. In 2020, frustrated by the boring, acronym-heavy content she encountered while trying to learn about carbon footprints, she launched Clever Carbon to demystify emissions using the power of numbers. (Think: Nutrition labels, but for carbon.)We also talk about Women in Climate, her nonprofit that has grown to include 35,000 LinkedIn followers, 7,000 members in its global Slack community, and more than 1,200 climate professionals in its speaker database. And we can’t forget the Carbon Newbie Summit, which is an annual highlight of New York Climate Week!Have a question for us? Email us today at [email protected] more about us at https://bit.ly/EngagingESGpod. Show Links Learn more about Michelle Li. Learn more about Clever Carbon. Join Women in Climate. Learn more about the Carbon Newbie Summit. Read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Watch 3 Body Problem. Watch A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.  Our theme music is "Lost in Translation" by Wendy Marcini and Elvin Vangard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices