Energy and Supply Chain Leaders Gathered for
Prologis' GROUNDBREAKERS 2022 in NYC
NEW
YORK, Oct. 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Prologis,
Inc. (NYSE: PLD), the global leader in logistics real estate, today
hosted its annual GROUNDBREAKERS thought leadership forum featuring
leaders in global commerce, energy, logistics and supply chain
transformation at The Shed in New
York's Hudson Yards.
To kick off the day, Prologis Co-founder and CEO Hamid R. Moghadam and Dave Clark, co-CEO of Flexport and former CEO of
Amazon Consumer Worldwide, engaged in conversation with
Susie Gharib, anchor and senior
special correspondent Fortune. The three examined the
once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a customer-centric,
transparent, and high-performance global supply chain, and
discussed the current economic environment.
Clark shared insight on successfully managing a company while
facing challenging economic headwinds: "You really have to focus on
the thing that's most important to the customer and most important
to future growth so that when you come out the other side, you're
ready to take an outside share of whatever the new world is going
to be. For us, that's a big technology investment over the next
year or two."
Going beyond the economy, conversations focused on the supply
chain's role in the global climate future. Multiple companies and
countries have committed to climate action over the next three
decades with commitment to get to net zero emissions before 2050 –
including Prologis.
With this as the backdrop, Annette
Clayton, CEO North America of Schneider Electric, Moghadam
and Gharib had a wide-ranging discussion about the impact of these
climate commitments as well as the opportunities, challenges and
progress energy transformation hold for today and in the
future.
"Our customers are serious about ESG and the larger ones have
very sophisticated approaches to it. But the vast majority of our
customers are small and medium with one or two locations," said
Moghadam, reflecting on the customer value of sustainability. "They
don't have a chief sustainability officer, they don't have big
enough staff to do this, so they really look to us and other
players in the supply chain to provide it to them."
Clayton was clear that she views sustainability as a business
imperative.
"If you're on a board or an investor at a company that's not
working on decarbonization, what does that really say about the
resilience of your particular enterprise?" Clayton asked. "I would
contend if we cycle out 10 years, maybe 20 years, that enterprise
may not be viable if they don't have some sort of decarbonization
plan."
As companies look to bridge economies and upskill their
workforces, technology continues to be a driving force in
companies' capital investment, human resource and supply chain
strategies. Businesses are exploring creative ways to use
automation, artificial intelligence-driven predictive analytics and
drones to enhance visibility across the supply chain, agreed the
group of experts discussing the future of fulfillment at Tuesday's
forum. Moderated by New York Times
contributor Ben Ryder Howe, the
panel featured Beta Technologies COO Blain
Newton, Fort Robotics Founder and CEO Samuel Reeves, and Kyslinger Consulting CEO
Ron Kyslinger.
"We see automation clearly as a future opportunity, but we think
the [opportunity for] technology now is to create efficiencies in
throughput and build capacity in the network," said Newton.
Wall Street Journal logistics reporter Liz Young moderated a conversation about
powering a sustainable future with Exelon President and COO
Calvin Butler, AlphaStruxture, CEO
Juan Macias and National Grid New
York President Rudolph Wynter. The
group talked about importance of ensuring equitable access to clean
energy and how partnerships with utilities can help progress
towards the clean energy future.
"We have to make sure this energy transition is clean, fair and
affordable…how do we make sure no communities get left behind in
this transition?" Wynter said. "It's the end of 2022, and we're
still talking about some people who don't have broadband access. We
can't have the same thing happen on the energy transition."
Innovation was the theme of Bryan
Walsh, editor of Vox's Future Perfect, discussion with
Carl Haney, The Estee Lauder
Companies EVP of Global Research & Development, Innovation;
Adam Grosser, Up.Partners Chairman
and Managing Partner; and Lesley Slaton
Brown, HP's Chief Diversity Officer. Consumers and the
global workforce are the drivers behind a new era of innovation,
they agreed, and companies are making significant investments to
remain at the forefront.
"Innovation requires diversity. That is looking at things from
multiple angles. You have to be able to welcome all perspectives
into the thought process, into the conversation," said Brown.
World-renowned chef and founder of World Central Kitchen, José
Andrés, and star of the Emmy-nominated documentary, "We Feed
People," wrapped up the event. Andrés in conversation with
Tracy Ward, managing director of
global marketing at Prologis, entertained and inspired the audience
with stories of how his family and childhood set him on his path to
change the world through food. The chef said innovative thinking
and partnerships with local restaurants, farmers and community
leaders play a huge role in the success of his work responding to
major world disasters – and emphasized those same strategies can
help strengthen the supply chain.
He told the crowd that decision making is a key aspect of
impactful leadership: "The worst decision we ever make is the one
we don't take," said Andres. "When you are making a decision, you
are moving. If you realize that that's not the perfect [decision]
its' okay, because you're moving, you're able to change course and
you can achieve whatever you want. If you don't make the decision,
my friend, people will go hungry."
Hundreds gathered in-person, and thousands virtually, for the
forum, which included additional LinkedIn Live half-time and
post-show commentary.
ABOUT PROLOGIS
Prologis, Inc. is the global leader in logistics real estate
with a focus on high-barrier, high-growth markets. As of
September 30, 2022, the company owned
or had investments in, on a wholly owned basis or through
co-investment ventures, properties and development projects
expected to total approximately 1.0 billion square feet (97 million
square meters) in 19 countries. Prologis leases modern logistics
facilities to a diverse base of approximately 5,800 customers
principally across two major categories: business-to-business and
retail/online fulfillment.
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SOURCE Prologis, Inc.