The future of sustainability leadership

Across every major economy, the rules governing how businesses invest, report, and operate are being rewritten simultaneously. Since 2019, the EU has committed over €1 trillion to its Green Deal (European Commission, 2020). In 2022, the US Inflation Reduction Act directed $369 billion toward clean energy (US Department of the Treasury, 2023), triggering over $115 billion in private manufacturing investment by 2024. The global carbon credit market reached $114 billion in 2025 and is projected to surpass $480 billion by 2035 (Global Market Insights, 2026). From 2026, CBAM certificates will require importers to pay EU carbon prices, covering approximately 75% of EU emissions (Council Fire Resources, 2026).

The scale of capital in motion is unprecedented. So is the opportunity. And the leaders who are shaping how it flows are discovering that the best decisions happen when perspectives from across sectors, jurisdictions, and functions converge.

This June, Terras returns to Villa Lena in Tuscany for its third consecutive year. Eighty leaders. Three days. No slides, no scripts, no recordings. Over 200 leaders from more than 25 countries have passed through Terras gatherings since 2024. The format has not changed. The world around it has changed dramatically.

A new landscape
When Terras first gathered in Tuscany in 2024, transatlantic regulatory convergence on sustainability felt, if not inevitable, at least plausible. By 2026, the landscape has become significantly more dynamic. The EU's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive is being recalibrated. The political conversation around ESG in the US is reshaping how clean energy funding flows. ISSB standards are being adopted at different speeds. And artificial intelligence is opening new possibilities for how leaders measure, report, and communicate impact.

For the leaders navigating this environment, the complexity is not an obstacle. It is an invitation to think differently. A Chief Sustainability Officer who understands how financial institutions interpret the same EU regulations gains an immediate strategic advantage. A managing director deploying capital into the energy transition who understands the policy environment in both Washington and Brussels can identify opportunity more accurately than any competitor working in isolation.

These are the kinds of connections already forming among leaders like Nancy Mahon at Estée Lauder and Anisa Kamadoli Costa at Rivian, where the intersection of clean energy policy, automotive manufacturing, and capital markets creates opportunity in every strategic decision.

AI as accelerator
Perhaps no theme illustrates the opportunity for cross-sector thinking more clearly than artificial intelligence. Since 2024, AI has moved from a peripheral concern to a central one for sustainability leaders, raising new questions about energy consumption, ESG measurement, and disclosure frameworks, while opening possibilities that were not available even two years ago. Velislava Ivanova, EY's Global Chief Sustainability Strategist, is among those exploring these questions. The value is not in any single perspective. It is in the collision.

Carbon removal enters a new phase
The carbon removal industry is entering a defining period. McKinsey estimates the market could reach $300 billion to $1.2 trillion by 2050, with cumulative investment needs of $6 to $16 trillion (McKinsey & Company, 2023). The voluntary carbon market underwent a significant correction in 2024 (World Economic Forum, 2025) and is now rebuilding around higher-integrity standards. In 2026, the EU is finalizing certification methodologies and planning a buyers' club to coordinate procurement (Heatmap, 2025). In the US, $1.2 billion earmarked in 2023 for direct air capture (US Department of Energy, 2023) reflects the scale of ambition as the policy landscape continues to evolve.

There is something fitting about having this conversation surrounded by 500 hectares of Tuscan farmland. The relationship between natural ecosystems and industrial systems is not abstract at Villa Lena. It is the landscape you walk through between sessions.

Michelle You, CEO of Supercritical, will lead a conversation on where carbon removal stands at this pivotal moment. Charlie McGregor, CEO of The Social Hub, will explore how businesses can embed social and environmental impact into their core model. The question across both conversations is the same: how do you build something that lasts?

The transatlantic opportunity
The relationship between European and American approaches to sustainability governance is evolving rapidly, and the leaders who can navigate both markets simultaneously hold a significant advantage. The EU faces a €620 billion annual green investment gap as the Recovery and Resilience Facility expires in 2026 (Bruegel, 2024). In the US, $67.3 billion in clean energy investment flowed in the first quarter of 2025 alone (Clean Investment Monitor, 2025). The leaders who can read these signals across sectors and borders are the ones best positioned to act on them.

Teresa Johnson at WilmerHale brings the legal perspective. Robert H. Edwards Jr. at Hamilton Clark brings the capital markets view. Michael Kobori, who led sustainability at Starbucks through multiple political cycles, brings the operational perspective. Aurelia Figueroa at Breitling, Iris Van der Veken at the Watch and Jewellery Initiative 2030, and Kurt Harrison at Russell Reynolds Associates each navigate this landscape from a different position. Seeing it from all of them simultaneously is what sharpens the quality of the decisions that follow.

The format as thesis
What three years at Villa Lena have demonstrated is that the format itself is an argument. When you replace keynote stages with outdoor panels beneath the trees, boardrooms with guided hikes through the Tuscan hills, and conference catering with organic farm-to-table dinners made from locally sourced produce, something shifts. Leaders stop performing and start thinking together. A wine tasting becomes a negotiation. A shared breakfast becomes a partnership. An evening with live music under the Tuscan sky becomes the conversation that should have happened at the last three conferences but never did.

The rules are diverging. The leaders must converge.

And at Terras, they already are.

‍

Sources

1. European Commission, "Finance and the Green Deal," 2020. commission.europa.eu
2. US Department of the Treasury, "FACT SHEET: How the Inflation Reduction Act's Tax Incentives Are Ensuring All Americans Benefit from the Growth of the Clean Energy Economy," October 2023. home.treasury.gov
3. Global Market Insights, "Carbon Credit Market Size, Global Report 2026–2035," January 2026. gminsights.com
4. Council Fire Resources, "What is EU Green Deal?," February 2026. resources.councilfire.org
5. McKinsey & Company, "Carbon Removals: How to Scale a New Gigaton Industry," December 2023. mckinsey.com
6. World Economic Forum, "The New Renewable Revolution: Why Carbon Dioxide Removal Will Transform the Carbon Market," 2025. weforum.org
7. Heatmap, "After a Slow 2025, Where Does Carbon Removal Go From Here?," December 2025. heatmap.news
8. US Department of Energy, Direct Air Capture Hubs Programme, 2023. energy.gov
9. Bruegel, "An Investment Strategy to Keep the European Green Deal on Track," 2024. bruegel.org
10. Clean Investment Monitor, "Q1 2025 Update," 2025. cleaninvestmentmonitor.org

‍