The 2024 Sun Valley Forum speakers included:
Xiye Bastida, Climate justice activist & Cofounder, Re-Earth Initiative; Dr. Sylvia Earle, President & Chairman, Mission Blue & National Geographic Explorer; Jenna Johnson, President, Patagonia Inc.; Shannon Wheeler Chairman, The Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee; Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., Founder & CEO, Hip Hop Caucus; Bill Weir of CNN; and actor and activist Nat Kelley.
2024
Restoring Harmony With Nature
At a time when our natural world faces accelerating degradation, we gathered together for the 2024 Sun Valley Forum to showcase and shape solutions to restore harmony with nature.
Participants learned from innovators and leaders to decarbonize industries, scale clean energy, and build climate-smart infrastructure, emphasizing small businesses and vulnerable communities, featuring:
Knowledge: Learning from nature and Indigenous people
Innovation: Scaling solutions for nature
Culture: Shifting the human relationship with nature through art, stories and experiences
Systems Change: Transforming food, energy, business and finance to restore nature
The Forum was honored to host the Keeling Curve Prize Awards ceremony of the Global Warming Mitigation Project, celebrating ten global projects demonstrating the ability to reduce, replace, or remove atmospheric greenhouse gasses.
2023
The Multiplier Effect: Partnering to Accelerate Climate Solutions
The 2023 Sun Valley Forum speakers included : Chante Harris, Jaime Nack, Jeff Goodell, Kathy Baughman McLeod, Ivan Frishberg, Emmy Scott, Lewis Perkins, Lisa Friedman, Bill Weir, Leslie Kaufman, Rhett Butler, Alex Thompson, Jigar Shah
Collaboration is critical in the face of unprecedented urgency of action for people and the planet. We gathered again, surrounded by five mountain ranges in the beautiful Wood River Valley of Idaho, to connect in the theater and working sessions, on nature trails, and around the dining table to build lasting relationships and impact.
We surfaced and advanced the strategies, technologies, business models and financing that can power the urgent transformation of our energy and food systems, restoration of nature and revitalization of communities across the globe.
Mainstage keynotes informed and inspired while targeted "Multiplier Effect" workshops accelerated specific impact initiatives by refining strategies, sparking partnerships and mobilizing resources.
2022
Shaping the World We Need: Accelerating Action for the Decisive Decade
2022 Speakers included business, government, conservation, youth and climate finance experts including Jean Oelwang, CEO Virgin Unite, Mark Campanale, Founder & Executive Chairman, Carbon Tracker, Carole King, Singer, Songwriter, and Environmentalist, Vic Barrett & Kelsey Juliana, Plaintiffs, Juliana v. United States, Gillian Caldwell Chief Climate Officer, USAID, Ron Dembo, Founder & CEO, Riskthinking.ai, and Jeremiah Baumann, Chief of Staff for the Office of the Under Secretary for Infrastructure, U.S. Department of Energy.
We’ve missed connection, inspiration, and the chance to spark new partnerships and strategies, and we looked forward to a wonderful few days together.
We gathered when the devastating war in Ukraine, the pandemic, and the already visible harms from climate change surfaced the dangerous consequences of our unsustainable, inequitable, and insecure world. We are called to take action.
Powered by an ambitious, courageous, and compassionate community of participants, the Sun Valley Forum has a record of catalyzing and accelerating impact. We leveraged the Forum to activate solutions for the now and for the rest of this Decisive Decade and beyond. Gathering diverse perspectives from near and far and across generations, we anticipated rapidly growing resilience for all communities and economies, holding each other accountable for the ambition and results of our collective action.
2020
Resilience Now Summer Series: The Power of We
The new Resilience Now Summer Series addressed the current crisis by bringing together the right cross-section of leaders and changemakers needed at the moment for our recovery and beyond. This creative and action-oriented group focused on catalytic tools for building well-being, shaping economies beyond GDP, expanding resilient food systems, and rebalancing the human relationship with nature. Our curated forum community puts the right people in the virtual room in 2020 to drive the actions we still need now.
2020 speakers included health, food, and nature innovators, investors, and leaders: Louie Psihoyos, Dr. Mark Hyman, Eamonn Store, Barney Swan, Geof Rochester, Mitch Anderson, Maggie Kaplan, and more.
2019
The Future We Want: Transforming Leadership, Accelerating Innovation and Unlocking Imagination
Accelerating environmental harm remains a threat multiplier to our economically interdependent world and calls for urgent, proactive leadership to build resilience. In 2019, our task was informed by the World Economic Forum’s 2019 Global Risks report, Out of Control, which named the top two risks facing our globe as extreme weather events and the failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Environment-related risks account for three of the top five risks by likelihood and four by impact. The 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warned of significant changes to the earth’s life support systems in the next decade, and here in the U.S., the devastating 2018 California fires illustrated how much is at stake. Fortunately, leaders and innovators continue showing the way forward with the needed strategies, technologies, business models, and partnerships. The UN Sustainable Development Goals and initiatives, including One Earth and Project Drawdown are galvanizing action toward the greatest opportunities for impact. We showcased solutions and delivered inspiration and direct results, catalyzing new projects and partnerships at the action-filled Forum.
2019 speakers included global business finance, NGO, government, and youth leaders: Dr. Martin Chungong, Jennifer Morris, Ellen Jackowski, Robyn O'Brien, David Gelber, Vic Barrett, Kelsey Cascadia Rose Juliana, Meagan Fallone, Henk Rogers, Ashley Schulten, Julie Davitz, Amanda Ellis, and more.
2018
Turning Risk Into Opportunity: Vision l Courage l Innovation
In 2018, our task was ever more urgent: The World Economic Forum’s 2018 Global Risks report, Fractures, Fears & Failures, found that three of our top five risks likely to happen in the next 10 years are environment-related: extreme weather events, natural disasters, and the failure to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The report stated that the world is entering a “critical period of intensified risks” and “we have been pushing our planet to the brink.” And yet, the opportunities to build prosperous, secure, thriving communities and economies have never been greater. To succeed at scale and urgency, we must address the interconnections and pursue strategies that serve multiple benefits. To that end, the Sun Valley Forum includes diverse topics and approaches, from energy and food to equity and human resilience and from policy and investment to technology and communications.
2018 speakers included athlete activists, corporate leaders, food innovators, and education pioneers: Gavin McClurg, Brody Leven, Kimi Werner, Andrew Winston, Katherine Neebe, Victor Friedberg, Mark Brand, Julie Wrigley, Burton Webb, and more.
2017
Resilient Prosperity: The Power of Nature, Technology & Community in a Changing World
Each year, the Sun Valley Forum gathers innovators from government, businesses, nonprofits, investment, academia, local leaders, visitors, and residents to share strategies, broaden thinking, and ignite new partnerships at this groundbreaking event to build greater resilience. Environmental shifts, economic interdependence, and social and political upheavals call for proactive leadership to build resilient communities, companies, nations, and economies.
2017 speakers included scientists, leaders, and innovators: Robert Swan, OBE, Dr. Philip Landrigan, Jeff Goodell, Rob Bernard, Freya Williams, Peter Horton, Julie Davitz, P.J. Simmons, Brooks Preston, Alison Carlson, Raina Thiele, Raúl Pomares, Matthew Bishop, Paul Walsh, and more.
2016
From Risk to Opportunity: Collaboration, Innovation, and Investment for a Resilient World
Hosted by the Sun Valley Institute, the 2016 Sun Valley Forum on Resilience gathered leaders across government, business, academia, and advocacy who are solving some of the world’s most complex environmental and social challenges. The Forum explored the opportunities and solutions that are redefining business as usual and acted as a source of information and inspiration for our local efforts, including impact investment in energy, food and water, innovations in public engagement, and groundbreaking social entrepreneurship.
2016 speakers included visionaries and leaders across business, finance, innovation, and government: Paul Hawken, Nancy Pfund, Dana Lanza, Joel Makower, Peter Knight, Jim Lyons, Bob Perkowitz, Michelle Stennett, Lila Preston, and more.
2015
Sun Valley Forum for Resilience
Around the world, resilience is rightly receiving increased attention from individuals, businesses, cities, and nations. The very aspects that make the Sun Valley area so special—its relative isolation, high-desert climate, major economic driver, recreation, and tourism–also leave the region vulnerable from an economic, energy, and environmental standpoint. In partnership with leading foundations, academic institutions, corporations, and nonprofits, the Institute brings together local and global resources and expertise to strengthen the area’s ability to bounce back from harm to the local economy, whether from wildfires, poor snowfall, or global economic conditions and to serve as a global resource to increase resilience far beyond. Through partnerships with leading foundations, corporations, academic institutions, and others, the Institute combined local investments with global resources and expertise to serve as a center for collaboration and learning, convening and delivering impact locally and globally. The first annual Sun Valley Forum brought together global and local resilience leaders to inspire, inform, take action and learn about innovative public-private partnerships, business models, and investment opportunities.
2015 speakers included government, business, and investment leaders: U.S. Senator Cory A. Booker, Collin O’Mara, Raúl Pomares, Nancy Kete, Steve McBee, and more.