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If you put data centers in the wrong
place in the world,

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you're going to have growth at risk.

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Tim, Richard,

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thank you so much for being here.

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Tim, this first question is for you.

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What regulatory trends and priorities
should leaders really be taking into 2026?

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It's such a great question because you
know,

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this whole field started off in a
regulatory manner when we worked on clean

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air, clean water, and that kind of thing.

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And then it became voluntary.

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And for many, many years,
companies have reported voluntarily.

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The new trend right now is for companies
that report their sustainability results

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voluntarily,
is now they're going to be forced to

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report those in their financials.

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So it has to be audited, assured, timely,
comparable—all things that companies

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really haven't figured out how to do yet.

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And honestly,
that's going to take some time and effort.

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So what we've been telling our clients is
start now, work through the process,

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go through it a couple of times,
figure out where the kinks are so you can

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get it right when it actually is required
by governments.

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And right now we're tracking about more
than 60% of the global economy will

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require greenhouse gas reporting in just
the next few years.

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So that's what I think companies should
be focused on.

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Richard,
and how can companies manage the cost of

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sustainability initiatives and also
getting this long-term value?

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I think today the question on cost is
really one of competitiveness, innovation,

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and compliance.

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Those are the things to focus on.

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So really, it's around value.

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It's not necessarily around how much my
sustainability issues going to cost me to

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analyze and how much that team going to
cost me.

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When we look across the industry,
whether it's with corporations or

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financial institutions,
we are seeing definitely like a

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rightsizing of certain teams but an
integration into other teams for sure.

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So I think,
what is the cost of having good

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innovation.

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What is the cost of ensuring your
competitiveness.

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Two-thirds of the investment in the
world's energy system today is with

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renewables, battery storage, EV,
things like that,

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not with oil and gas and fossil fuels.

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And so, if you really want to innovate,
you have to stay true to trends,

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you have to follow those trends.

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AI is a massive trend,
so is energy transition.

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And those are things to spend money on.

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And so,
I think the question of cost can

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sometimes look like it's, well,
we just need to reduce costs.

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But I do think that really it's one of
competitiveness and innovation.

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And that's actually what investors are
looking for.

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And this question is for both of you.
Looking beyond compliance,

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how can companies turn regulation into
real business value?

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Well, I can start,
and I think this will go right into

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Richard, is that the answer to me is risk.

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What really matters is business value,
and business value is increasingly

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manifest in terms of risk.

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So for example, last year,
in terms of natural disasters that

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happened in the US,
the cost to remediate those natural

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disasters was more than 2% of the US GDP,
and that was before the LA fires.

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That gives you a sense of how massive
this risk can be when it comes to a

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corporation.

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And so if the board of directors,
at the C-suite,

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if they're not looking at this,
they're not doing their job.

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So it's super important that companies
focus on where the climate risk is for

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their business.

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Yeah, and

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I would double down on that point.

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But imagine if you think about data
centers,

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you think that's actually what Open AI is
buying, data centers.

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And you think about data centers,
and you think about climate change and

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how that affects data centers.

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Well,
data centers need stable sources of

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energy, and they need water for cooling.

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So if you put data centers in the wrong
place in the world,

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you're going to have growth at risk.

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That's something that investors are very
focused on in both public and private

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markets.

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It's something a lot of companies are
focused on too.

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Flip that into innovation then.

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How do you ensure that you are
competitively positioned with respect to

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that risk?

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And I think that is something that is
across the world many investors and

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companies are really focused on.

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So it's an exciting time, I would say.

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Thank you, both, so much.

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Thank you.