Being updated
OCTOBER 29, 2025
09:30 - Opening Session
09:45 - Keynote Session | Finding the Sweet Spot | Donald Roy Lessard
Sustainability and profitability are commonly cast as competing priorities. Many executives implicitly assume that advancing environmental goals will come at a high financial cost. This mindset breeds hesitation: sustainability is perceived less as a strategic business opportunity and more as a costly moral obligation. However, this framing is both reductive and misleading. There is a powerful and often under-explored intersection between sustainability and profitability, environmental stewardship, and social benefits — a strategic "sweet spot" where doing good and doing well reinforce each other. Of course, this sweet spot also depends on public policies that favor sustainable solutions, but these policies will be more effective when combined with a strategic business approach.
In this session, we show how a focus on the sweet spot can unlock new solutions, increase employee motivation, and move the frontier of “best practice” much more quickly than an approach that relies solely on ESG compliance. We will also demonstrate the difference between viewing the core tradeoff as “abatement vs cost” in the case of decarbonization to “total business impact vs abatement”, and we will provide concrete examples of the what and how of doing this.
10:45 - Coffee break
11:15 - Oral Presentations | Paralel sessions | Prize: Insure
Carvalho Guerra Auditorium
Chair: João Pinto
- Maria Estarreja – “Technology and Retail: Customer Perceptions and Future Expectations in Portugal”
- Luisa Magalhães – “Promoting Ecoliteracy in Teacher Education: Integrating AI and Children’s Literature in Higher Education”
- Ana Estelita – “Finding Oases in Deserts: Sustainability and Regeneration as Tangible Paths Forward and Strategies to Communicate It”
- Azhar Hussain – “Device Distributed Blockchain (2DB): Cryptographic Journey Fingerprinting for Supply Chain Trust and Insurance Innovation”
- Rodrigo Cestau Oyhantçabal – “Science Based Targets initiative and Firm Greenhouse-Gas Emissions: Evidence from Dynamic Panel Estimates”
EC105 Room
Chair: Manuela Pintado
- Helena Araújo-Rodrigues – “Mycoproteins as sustainable protein sources for tailoring nutrient-rich food ingredients: Insights into the ProxIMed project”
- Josué Gomes Coelho Filho – “Results of the Participatory and Community-Based Management of Pirarucu (Arapaima gigas) in the Municipality of Fonte Boa, Amazonas, Brazil
- Rafael Barroso dos Santos Paiva – “Brycon amazonicus as a strategic resource for artisanal fishing in the southwestern Amazon region”
- Ana Martins Vilas-Boas – “BioUpCycle: Circular Innovation for the Bioeconomy through the Upcycling of Agro-Residues”
12:45 - Lunch
14:15 - Oral Presentations | Paralel sessions | Prize: Insure
Carvalho Guerra Auditorium
Chair: Conceição Silva
- Muhammad Yahya Anwar – “Social Entrepreneurship as a Model for Responsible Business: Mechanisms, Practices, and Sustainability Outcomes”
- Ana Filipa Moreno – “Communicating Sustainability in the Digital Age: Applying AI-Based Analysis to the Be@t Project Social Media”
- Susana Costa e Silva – “Repair as a Circular Strategy: How Consumers Weigh Value in Fashion”
- Cristina Soares – “Plain Language, the bridge to sustainability”
- Cristina Vieira de Almeida – “Educational Spaces and Citizen Science: Innovative Strategies for Sustainability Education in the Amazon”
- Filipe Duarte Mateus Ferreira - “WeFlow CRM: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Automation for Sustainable SME Ecosystems”
EC105 Room
Chair: António Vasconcelos
- Sílvia de Carvalho Homem – “Algorithmic Justice and Social Sustainability: The Challenge of Artificial Intelligence in the Use of Genetic and Biometric Data”
- Wayne Visser – “Regenerative Economy: Linking Theory and Practice”
- Pedro Rodrigues Ribeiro – “How do you buy without constraints? A source localized, fine-grained functional connectivity look into the NeuMa dataset.”
- Bárbara Leão de Carvalho – “Regenerative Marketing”
- Miguel Veríssimo – “A House for the Body”
15:45 - Coffee break
16:15 - Round Table | From Knowledge to Action: Linking Science, Policy, and Innovation
As the world looks ahead to COP30, businesses find themselves at a pivotal crossroads where science, policy, and innovation converge. This session will explore the evolving COP30 agenda and examine how turning climate research into practical regulatory frameworks can unlock bold business solutions for adaptation, resilience, and sustainable growth.
Panelists will dive into ways to close the gap between data and decision-making, strengthen cross-sector collaboration, and accelerate the deployment of innovative models that help organizations respond effectively to climate risks while shaping a more sustainable future.
Moderation: Luis Rochartre
Speakers: Isabel Horta (DSPA) | Ivone Rocha (Telles Advogados) | Luís Silva (PortoTech Hub) | Nuno Oliveira (NBI) | Pedro Cruz (KPMG) | Ricardo Voltolini (CEO of Ideia Sustentável)
OCTOBER 30, 2025
09:30 - Workshop I
Integrated Management in a Radically Changing / Fragmented / Upside Down World | Donald Roy Lessard
In an era marked by rapid technological advances, geopolitical fragmentation, and growing demands for sustainability, traditional business models are under unprecedented pressure. This workshop introduces the concept of integrative strategy as a comprehensive framework for navigating and thriving amidst these transformative forces.
Participants will explore how the dynamic business models that form the core of integrative strategy serve as a guiding vision for organizations and a practical tool for aligning individual roles with overall value creation. By examining the interplay between digital platforms, artificial intelligence, geopolitical shifts, and changing sustainability imperatives, attendees will gain insight into the design of strategic business models that transcend organizational boundaries.
This workshop is especially suited for technology leaders and subject matter experts who aim to proactively shape strategic directions rather than simply adapt to them. Through a combination of theoretical frameworks and real-world applications, participants will be equipped to lead their organizations with agility and foresight in a complex global landscape.
11:00 - Coffee break
11:30 - Workshop II
Designing A Resilient Business Strategy | Martin Rich
- Explore the steps required to develop a resilient business strategy in the face of today’s environmental, social and technological poly-crisis;
- Learn from case studies of businesses that have utilised the Future-Fit Business Benchmark methodology to help on their resilience journey;
- Participate in a fun interactive activity to bring the lessons of this workshop to life.
Free time
14:30 - INSURE.hub Welcome
14:35 - The Use Cases of Regenerative Companies/projects | Prize: Insure
Moderation: João Pinto
Águas do Norte: Susana Carvalho
Fundação Lello: Rita Marques
Re-Store: Silvia Correia
15:35 - The Use Cases of Regenerative Companies/projects | Prize: Insure
Moderation: Manuela Pintado
Lipor: Telmo Machado
SonaeMC: Daniela Correia
SuperbockGroup: Tiago Brandão
16:25 - Coffee break
16:55 - Insure.hub in Action
17:15 - Sustainable Challenges - Iberian view
18:00 - Keynote Corner | Regenerative Economics: New Ways of Seeing, Thinking, Being, and Managing for the 21st Century
The context is the polycrisis, or as John prefers, the "Meta-Crisis" rooted in the reductionist logic of Western thinking. John will dig deep past the symptoms of the polycrisis to diagnose the root cause. He will connect our daily challenges to grasp and cope with what he calls the fatal flaw of neoclassical economic theory and its companion, the finance algorithm that guides so much of our 21st-century decision-making. The polycrisis is proof of the falsification of economic theory, not a "market failure" or a "problem to solve" with the same thinking that created it.
He will then offer a hopeful yet scientifically rigorous pathway through this difficult portal to a new worldview, a life-centred worldview aligned with our latest science of quantum entanglement, which affirms and extends the many ancient wisdom traditions that have stood the test of time. What if we understand the human economy as an interdependent, complex living system of relationships to be nurtured rather than merely a complicated machine of parts to be controlled and optimised? What if the path to true abundance is unseen potential yet often hidden in plain sight, notwithstanding the profound challenges we cannot avoid? In advocating for Regenerative Economics, John will present his Eight Principles of Regenerative Vitality, offering all of us as leaders a more accurate compass to navigate the turbulent times that are upon us.
Moderation: Wayne Visser
Speakers: John Fullerton (Capital Institute) | Paulo Azevedo (SONAE) | Sofia Reis Jorge (Altri)
5th INSURE.Hub Conference closing
19:30 - Conference Gala Diner
