Post by Jessica Thomas

Last week, I spent three days under the Tuscan sun talking about saving the world. And I left more energized than I’ve been in years. Terras Tuscany was held at Villa Lena, a neo-Renaissance villa nestled across hectares of wilderness, where ancient olive groves meet unbridled nature and centuries of history live in every stone. From under the sea to the top of a Tuscan hill, this place is a living argument for why the climate work is important. Panels on an outdoor stage beneath a centuries-old tree. Conversations that spilled into the gardens. A final night gala under the stars with new friends who already feel like old ones. No walls, no fluorescent lights. Just ideas, nature, and incredible humans. A few things I’m carrying home: Incentives are how to move a company. The most effective sustainability strategies have one thing in common: every employee is incentivized to participate. Tying a meaningful percentage of employee incentives to responsible business roadmap milestones is how you move an entire organization, not just a sustainability team. The AI and climate opportunity is real. Measure the handprint against the footprint. The net impact case for responsible AI is already being proven in supply chain risk, fleet routing, and biodiversity modeling. We just have to hold ourselves accountable to it. B Corp certification is more resilient than most people realize. I asked how certification survives leadership changes that alter a company’s soul. The answer was reassuring. With over 320,000 companies globally and 11,000 certified, B Lab has built something that outlasts market cycles and individual tenures. In a world where values can shift overnight, that kind of structural accountability matters deeply. We need to celebrate the wins louder. The UK quietly surpassed 50% of its national carbon goal. The energy transition is not coming. It is already here. Focus on the signal. Ignore the noise. To our visionary hosts, Marvin Rottenberg, Melanie Hoffmann and Sophia Rees, thank you for building something this intentional and this rare. And to everyone I had the privilege of connecting with, including but not limited to Dr. Andrea Licata, Aurelia Figueroa, Trina Chattoraj Mallik, Subhagata Mukherjee, Emily Farnworth, Agnieszka Kwolek, Toby Aronson, Robert H. Edwards Jr., GCB.D, Emma Gillespie Cox, Velislava Ivanova, Amber Westerborg, Kevin Shirley, Shiena Connolly, Gregg Meyer, Marcello Palazzi, Kurt Harrison, Teresa Johnson, Michelle You, Maarten de Lange, Romain Liot, Philippe Vedrenne, Marielle Canter Weikel, Emma L., Fouad Khan, PhD, Susan Hunt Stevens, Gerardo Aguilar, Kariane Peek Cabrera, Djamel Mekibes and Simon Glynn. I’m already looking forward to what we build together from here. P.S. The Villa Lena Extra Virgin Olive Oil made it back to California safely. Arguably the most important thing I packed. (The Villa Lena vineyard footage speaks for itself.) #Terras #ClimateAction #Sustainability #ResponsibleAI #SoLongLondon

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