Making endeavors to help develop a sustainable society is an important challenge today. As people say the automotive industry is undergoing a once-in-a-century of transformation, there is a need to achieve carbon neutrality as well as to realize a society where cars are safe, secure, and offer the freedom of movement. Mazda believes it is essential to "continue to meet the needs of the times, coexist with society" and at the same time "continue to provide value to people's lives." Throughout its history of over 100 years, Mazda has tackled these themes with ‘Challenger Spirit’ and has been chosen by customers who love cars around the world for its unique technologies and products. This lecture will focus on Mazda's proprietary ‘rotary engine’ technology, introduce its potential as an environmental engine, and how it can evolve in line with the times to deliver moving experiences and excitement as the ‘joy of driving’ in the future, along with our history with “Challenger Spirit”. All for the joy of driving, and for the joy of living. Please look forward to the future envisioned with Mazda's "Challenger Spirit".

How we define and measure corporate value is rapidly evolving. Recent years have seen companies integrating social and environmental value creation – impact – into their short-, medium-, and long-term business plans and explicitly defining corporate value as both financial and societal value created. But how can companies effectively measure the value they are creating for society and the environment and then communicate the business-relevance of these impacts to investors? In a world of, often noisy, ESG data, how can investors identify authentic sustainability leaders, positioned to create scalable solutions for addressing social and environmental challenges? Impact-Weighted Accounting (“IWA”) is a powerful tool to address these fundamental strategic questions. Developed at Harvard Business School, IWA has now grown into an approach businesses globally are using to identify, measure, and value their social and environmental impacts.

Achieving net zero is a critical priority for companies to manage the increasing risks of climate change and remain competitive in a low-carbon economy. While more Japanese companies are making climate commitments and starting sustainability initiatives, they face uncertainty about how best to take meaningful and credible action. As policies and international frameworks for climate action continue to evolve, which pathways should companies follow? Once targets have been set, how can companies actually reduce emissions? South Pole, a global leader in climate solutions, helps companies navigate the global best practice landscape, develop climate targets and strategies, and identify solutions to achieve net zero.

Danish Crown take the lead in working towards the sustainable transition of food production and step up our investment in sustainability and innovation throughout our value chain from farm to fork to accelerate the development. Sustainability is the foundation of our new business strategy, Feeding the Future. Our ambition is to be a successful leading player in sustainable meat production by 2030. The key to fulfilling that ambition is to create more value from the resources available to us and base our business on sustainably produced high-quality meat.

The automotive industry accounts for 9% of global emissions. Volvo Cars, an almost 100-year-old company in the industry, therefore, bears some responsibility. Taking our mission of safety seriously means taking sustainability seriously and that has led to an ambitious change in Volvo Cars’ company strategy.