A Call to Action: Reflections on ChangeNOW 2025

“To move faster, we need to move together. Carbon molecules do not have passports. Climate change does not ask permission.” 

So began Brazilian economist Ana Toni’s galvanizing remarks in the opening session of ChangeNOW 2025.

B Lab and the B Corp movement were well represented at this global gathering of change makers, held from 23 to 25 April under the glass dome of Paris’s Grand Palais. Over three days of workshops, keynotes, solutions showcases, and community events, B Lab France, Europe, and Global teams connected with friends new and old to support a growing ecosystem taking action.

The event also served as the kickoff to a year of gatherings culminating in this year’s UN Climate Change Conference (known as COP), to be hosted by Brazil in November. Ana Toni, also CEO of COP30, acknowledged the connection between Paris and Brazil in her remarks: “In the Paris agreement, we had goals; now we have plans. The objective of COP30 is to accelerate. Everyone needs to move. We need the private sector, the people. The speed of change is much faster than we thought, and we must respond.”

As B Lab’s Global Director of Marketing & Communications, I was just one of many voices on site from the movement. Co-Lead Executives Clay Brown and Sarah Schwimmer both took part in panel discussions, while teams from B Lab France held a gathering for B Corps and hosted a booth throughout the event. 

For colleagues from B Lab Europe, it was an opportunity to build connections across international and local teams and brands, showcasing the inspiring growth of the movement in recent years. B Corp brand recognition increased significantly in Europe in 2024, while B Lab teams continued to advocate for policy change, from country-level campaigns to European Parliamentary elections, and this momentum was felt in Paris. 

These are some of my takeaways from the event. 

Thinking beyond carbon

Speakers emphasized the growing recognition and importance of considering the myriad influences and impacts of climate change, beyond greenhouse gases.

Former Irish President Mary Robinson focused on equity and the importance of creating structures that acknowledge the disproportionate contributions and consequences faced by different countries. 

“By creating NDCs, we diluted the sense of collective responsibility,” she said, referring to the ‘nationally determined contributions’ that serve as the backbone of international climate agreements. “Developing countries said they wanted clean energy, but there was no plan to fund it. I’m not happy with how wealthy countries have responded. By making everyone responsible, it weakened the accountability of the polluters.”

Others spoke about the importance of good jobs, both for the workers leading the transition and those at risk of being left behind by it. Some focused on the impacts and role of nature, the fact that all humans and businesses rely on natural resources. A panel on regeneration explored the possibilities and challenges of redesigning financial systems, and another emphasized the critical role of board leaders. “When you have failure, you always have challenges in governance,” observed Denis Terrien, the chair of Institut Français des Administrateurs, a network of 3,700 French corporate directors. You can have courage or comfort, the panel concluded, not both.

The message was clear: aggregate reductions in carbon emissions, while necessary, cannot be our only focus, even in this ‘decisive decade.’

Driving behavior change

Later that morning, I joined a panel discussion on how communicators can help propel the progression to a more circular system and behaviors. The panel included two founders and CEOs well known in the industry: Sophie Pignères of B Corp Weturn, and Tom Szaky of TerraCycle.

Tom made an impassioned plea for simplicity: making it easy for consumers to understand and take action. Sophie focused on working in the value chain, partnering with brands to persuade them that recycled fabrics can deliver all of the beauty and durability that luxury designers expect, while also offering a more planet-friendly product.

My plea to the audience: We need to do this work together. I spotlighted collective action groups like the B Corp Beauty Coalition that are connecting innovative brands with multinational companies that can support and scale new practices.

But that wasn’t our only contribution to behavior change. In the afternoon, a panel of B Lab experts took the stage for an entire session devoted to unpacking B Lab’s new standards. The room was packed, indicating the substantial appetite to learn about this new chapter. 

Over on the mainstage, Paul Polman, former Unilever CEO, urged business leaders to remain steadfast in their commitments despite shifting political winds—suggesting B Corp Certification as a way to strengthen and show resolve.

Choosing action, and the power of agency

Hovering above many of these conversations was ChangeNOW’s tagline: with action comes hope. “At ChangeNOW you meet people with solutions,” observed Virginie Courtin, Managing Director of Clarins, onstage to announce their own recent B Corp Certification (ChangeNOW itself also became a B Corp this year).

“We know that we share the same goal,” Virginie continued. “If we are the only ones being sustainable, we won’t manage to tackle the climate crisis and care for the people and planet on our own.” All of Clarins’ products, she noted, come from plants. There would be no business without a healthy ecosystem. This knowledge supported their choice to become a B Corp.

In our contentious political environment, it’s easy to feel disempowered. But as B Lab Co-Lead Executive Sarah Schwimmer reminded us, “we each have choice and agency.”

“Whenever a movement is gaining traction, there’s bound to be pushback,” she said. “These standards provide a framework for all of us—leaders, investors, consumers—to understand what good business looks like.” Each of us has a choice to make: Will we be part of the solution?

The call for action was omnipresent from the very first session. “The key word is implementation,” insisted former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, who negotiated the Paris Agreement a decade ago. “Green talking, greenwashing, and green acting: there’s a big difference between the three. If we want hope in the long term, we have to act in the short term.”