Sustainability was a checkbox, now it's a growth strategy: 3 practitioners on what the next decade looks like — TFN

At VivaTech 2026, three climate practitioners argued that sustainability has moved from a decade of target-setting to a decade of mandatory action and that AI will accelerate the transition rather than complicate it.

Climate investment is up 10% globally despite political noise, but a new term, “green shouting,” is emerging alongside greenwashing as the real threat to credibility.

The panel: David Ekelund, Chief People Planet Profit Officer at Icebug; Kate Williams, CEO of 1% for the Planet; and Ash Puri, Partner at Lightrock VC.

The sustainability conversation has spent a decade on ambition. At VivaTech 2026 held at Paris last week, three of the people actually doing it argued that the ambition phase is over. What comes next is harder, more interesting, and according to at least one of them, considerably more profitable.

Tech Funding News moderated the panel ‘Impact at a Crossroads: Reinventing Sustainability for the Next Decade’ on the Red Stage at VivaTech Paris, bringing together David Ekelund, Chief People Planet Profit Officer at Swedish outdoor footwear brand Icebug; Kate Williams, CEO of 1% for the Planet; and Ash Puri, Partner at growth equity fund Lightrock.