Sheri Hinish, Founder and CEO of Supply Chain Queen® and recognized authority on sustainability, AI, and supply chain transformation, is participating in five major events during New York Climate Week 2026. From Africa's critical minerals corridor to industrial AI and supply chain decarbonization, from the rise of women sustainability leaders to the regulatory convergence reshaping capital markets, this is where the most consequential climate and supply chain conversations will happen this September.
Why New York Climate Week 2026 Is the Defining Moment for Supply Chain and Climate Strategy
New York Climate Week has evolved from a sustainability conference into the central convening point for capital allocation, regulatory strategy, and operational transformation across global supply chains. The 2026 edition arrives at a moment of unprecedented convergence: compliance frameworks in Europe and the United States are creating new data infrastructure requirements, Africa's critical minerals are reshaping clean energy supply chains, and industrial AI is making Scope 3 decarbonization financially viable at scale for the first time.
Sheri Hinish, the #1 Global Supply Chain Influencer and Founder and CEO of Supply Chain Queen®, will be on the ground across five events spanning September 20 through 24. Each event addresses a distinct pillar of the climate-supply chain nexus: critical minerals sourcing, sustainability leadership, climate adaptation investment, ESG regulatory convergence, and industrial decarbonization. This post serves as a guide for supply chain, procurement, sustainability, and finance leaders who want to understand what is at stake at each event and how to participate.
The supply chain is no longer adjacent to climate strategy. It is climate strategy. Every decarbonization target, every compliance obligation, and every capital allocation decision runs through the supply chain.
Africa's Critical Minerals and the Future of Clean Energy Supply Chains
The transition to clean energy runs through Africa. The continent accounts for 76% of global mined cobalt and is forecast by S&P Global Market Intelligence to supply 60% of the world's lithium by 2030. African lithium output rose 44% in 2025, according to the IEA's Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026. These are not projections about a distant future. They describe a supply chain reconfiguration already underway, one that procurement and supply chain leaders cannot afford to observe from the sidelines.
Africa's combined GDP is projected to exceed $3.5 trillion in 2026 (IMF), and more than half of the world's fastest-growing economies are African, according to the African Development Bank. The investment case is structural, not speculative. The companies and governments that build durable sourcing relationships, transparent traceability infrastructure, and equitable partnership models now will define the next generation of clean energy supply chains.
Unstoppable Africa 2026, co-convened by the United Nations Global Compact and the African Union, is the leading African-convened business forum outside the continent. Taking place September 20 and 21 at the New York Marriott Marquis, it is designed to catalyze transactions, launch investment vehicles, and forge cross-border partnerships under the theme "Powering Business, Scaling Economies, Shaping the Future." I will be participating as the forum brings together heads of state, CEOs, and institutional investors to address the infrastructure, governance, and supply chain architecture required to translate Africa's mineral wealth into shared prosperity.
Register for Unstoppable Africa 2026.
What the Rise of Women Chief Sustainability Officers Means for Corporate Leadership
The data on women in sustainability leadership tells a story of structural transformation. Women now hold 66% of Chief Sustainability Officer roles at U.S. public companies, according to the Weinreb Group's 2026 CSO Report, a dramatic increase from 28% in 2011. For context, women hold just 29% of all C-suite positions (McKinsey, 2024). Sustainability is the only C-suite function where women hold a clear majority, and that concentration carries both opportunity and risk.
The 2026 Weinreb data also reveals a new tension. The number of CSOs declined 10% in 2026, the first decline in 16 years. At the same time, 42% of CSOs reported that sustainability headcount is increasing outside their core function, meaning the work is dispersing across the enterprise rather than disappearing. This structural shift raises fundamental questions about where sustainability accountability sits, how it scales, and who leads it when the dedicated role contracts. Notably, 96% of CSOs now report directly to the CEO or board, according to Forbes Research (2025), cementing the function's strategic elevation even as its organizational form evolves.
Sustainability is the only C-suite function where women hold a decisive majority. The question now is whether that leadership translates into lasting structural power or remains concentrated in a role whose organizational footprint is shifting.
I will be joining the Women in Sustainability Panel at Sustainability LIVE @ Climate Week NYC on September 22 at 10:45 AM ET in the Enterprise Theatre at the Javits Center. The panel is sponsored by osapiens, with opening remarks from Stephan de Barse, Chief Revenue Officer. My co-panelists include Dr. Márcia Balisciano, Chief Sustainability Officer at RELX; Hélène Gagnon, Chief People and Sustainability Officer at CAE; Sophie Beckham, Chief Sustainability Officer at International Paper; and Danielle D'Silva, Global Head of Sustainability at Booking Holdings. Three of four co-panelists appear on the 2026 Weinreb Group CSO List, making this one of the most concentrated gatherings of recognized CSO leadership at Climate Week.
Register for Sustainability LIVE @ Climate Week NYC.
How Climate Adaptation Investment Delivers Tenfold Returns for Global Supply Chains
The economic case for climate adaptation has moved beyond theory. The World Resources Institute found in June 2025 that every $1 invested in climate adaptation and resilience generates more than $10 in benefits over ten years, based on an analysis of 320 investments across 12 countries totaling $133 billion. Average returns reached 27%. BCG projects the adaptation and resilience market will reach up to $1.3 trillion by 2030. For supply chain leaders, these figures represent an investment thesis: the companies that build resilience into their supply chain infrastructure now are not absorbing cost but creating measurable financial value.
Supply Chain Queen® is a Media Partner for The Nest Campus, taking place September 22 through 24 at North Javits Center in New York City. The Nest Campus is one of the largest Climate Week programming hubs, drawing more than 10,000 attendees from over 80 countries across more than 100 sessions. The speaker lineup reflects the cross-sector nature of climate strategy today: Johan Rockström of the Potsdam Institute, Ryan Gellert of Patagonia, Kathleen McLaughlin of Walmart, Suzanne DiBianca of Salesforce, Cassandra Garber of General Motors, Andrew Cornelia of Uber, Josh Parker of NVIDIA, and CEOs of Fervo Energy, Emerald AI, Inertia, Twelve, and Deep Sky. Programming spans six sectors: energy transition, AI and technology, cities and the built environment, supply chains, food/water/nature/health, and risk and finance.
Complimentary general passes close Friday, September 4, 2026. Register for The Nest Campus.
Why ESG Compliance Data Is Becoming a Capital Markets Asset
The European regulatory landscape has reached a point of structural convergence. The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) now operate as a coherent regulatory system. At the data attribute level, there is significant overlap across these regulations: the foundational supplier data collected for deforestation compliance serves as the same baseline for forced labor due diligence. In the United States, UFLPA enforcement is expanding at the border, and California SB 253 requires Scope 1 and 2 reporting starting August 2026. The compliance infrastructure companies are building to meet these obligations is generating a new class of supply chain data asset, one that capital markets are beginning to price.
BlackRock manages $1.3 trillion in sustainable investing strategies as of year-end 2025, according to its SEC filing. Decarbonization Partners, the joint venture between BlackRock and Temasek, has made compliance infrastructure a core part of its investment thesis. The message is clear: the data supply chains produce to satisfy regulators is the same data investors need to allocate capital.
I will be serving as Executive Panel Moderator at The Compliance-to-Capital Connection, hosted by osapiens and Decarbonization Partners on September 23 at 9:00 AM ET at BlackRock, 50 Hudson Yards. I will moderate the executive panel beginning at 10:35 AM. The speaker lineup includes Pieter Houlleberghs, Managing Director and Investment Committee Member at Decarbonization Partners; Michael Klimbacher, Principal at Decarbonization Partners; Dr. Jan-Hendrik Gnändiger, Partner and Global ESG Reporting Advisory Lead at KPMG; Stephan de Barse, Chief Revenue Officer at osapiens; Ann Tracy, Chief Sustainability Officer at Colgate-Palmolive; Juan Carlos Fuenmayor, Chief Procurement Officer at Syensqo; Alexander Appel, Senior Manager Sustainability at MHP, A Porsche Company; and Alberto Zamora, Co-CEO and Co-Founder at osapiens.
Register for The Compliance-to-Capital Connection.
How Industrial AI Is Making Supply Chain Decarbonization Financially Viable
The financial case for supply chain decarbonization is no longer a matter of aspiration. BCG's Carbon Action Report 2025, based on more than 130,000 carbon scorecards across 83,000 companies, found that companies actively decarbonizing their supply chains achieve a 3 to 6x return on investment. BCG also found that companies failing to act on upstream Scope 3 emissions could face approximately $500 billion in annual liabilities by 2030. Upstream Scope 3 emissions are on average 21 times higher than direct Scope 1 and 2 emissions (BCG), and Scope 3 represents up to 90% of total emissions for consumer packaged goods companies (CDP). Only 39% of businesses actively engage suppliers on climate, according to BCG. Full supply chain decarbonization increases end consumer prices by only 1 to 4 percent.
The cost of supply chain decarbonization is measured in single-digit price increases. The cost of inaction is measured in hundreds of billions in annual liabilities. The math is not ambiguous.
Sheri Hinish, who previously served as EY's Global Consulting Leader for Sustainability, Technology, and Ecosystems and as a Senior Executive at IBM, is among the recognized authorities connecting industrial AI strategy with supply chain decarbonization for global consumer goods companies. She holds advanced degrees from Harvard University and Rutgers University and has been recognized as the #1 Global Supply Chain Influencer, a Top 100 Woman in Supply Chain and Technology, and among the Top 250 Global Leaders in Sustainability.
I will be moderating the Consumer Goods Leaders Roundtable at the Global Decarbonization Forum on September 23 at 1:45 PM ET at Loft 29 in Manhattan. This session brings together consumer goods executives to examine how industrial AI is transforming upstream supplier engagement, emissions measurement, and decarbonization economics.
Register for the Global Decarbonization Forum for the full speaker lineup and session details.
How to Follow Supply Chain Queen® at New York Climate Week 2026
I will be sharing insights, commentary, and behind-the-scenes perspectives from all five events across my platforms throughout Climate Week. Follow along on LinkedIn and on X/Twitter at @supplychnqueen for real-time updates. If you are attending any of these events and want to connect in person, reach out through the links above or through supplychainqueen.com.
Climate Week is where strategy meets action. The five events outlined above span the full arc of the climate-supply chain conversation: from where critical minerals originate, to who leads the sustainability function, to how capital flows toward resilience and compliance, to how AI makes decarbonization operationally and financially viable. I look forward to seeing supply chain and sustainability leaders in New York.
Supply chains are the infrastructure of the global economy, and the decisions made at New York Climate Week 2026 will shape how that infrastructure evolves for the next decade. The leaders who show up, engage, and commit to action this September are the ones who will define what climate-ready supply chains actually look like in practice. This is the year to be in the room.
Sheri Hinish is the Founder and CEO of Supply Chain Revolution Global LLC (d/b/a Supply Chain Queen®), a supply chain thought leadership, advisory, media, and community platform. Previously she served as EY's Global Consulting Leader for Sustainability, Technology, and Ecosystems and as a Senior Executive at IBM, advising Fortune 500 companies and governments on supply chain transformation, AI-enabled operations, sustainability, circular economy, and just-transition strategy. She holds advanced degrees from Harvard University and Rutgers University and is recognized as the #1 Global Supply Chain Influencer, a Top 250 Global Leader in Sustainability, Top 100 Women in Supply Chain and Technology, and Top 100 B2B Influencer in North America. She hosts the Supply Chain Revolution® podcast and speaks globally at COP, NY Climate Week, CES, and major industry events.