Against a backdrop of climate crises, biodiversity loss, and geopolitical tensions, the 2025 Luxembourg Sustainability Forum, organised by IMS, offered more than just dialogue, it provided a compelling case for collective action.
Organised by Inspiring More Sustainability (IMS), LSF2025 was delivered to a full auditorium, here are some highlights.
Challenge 1: Greenhushing
Joining the event via video, IMS President Christian Scharff shared insights about a backlash against sustainable development.
“I would like to start with Australia and Asia,” Scharff said. “We can clearly see that there is a slowdown in reforms and laws regarding sustainable development. We see that there is a lot of skepticism among the populations regarding greenwashing.”
On the other hand, he pointed out how levels of education, volunteering, and training are high. It is leadership, he said, that needs to keep up.
Pivoting to the United States, Scharff warned that backlash against sustainable development is at its peak there compared to the rest of the planet.
“Practically all the laws that had been put in place by the Biden and Obama administrations have been removed, whether related to air pollution, water pollution, oil drilling, coal mining, subsidies for wind or solar energy,” he said. “So leadership in the field of sustainable development is critical.”
Challenge 2: Geopolitical
Sharing more on this crisis was Clover Hogan, climate activist and founding Executive Director of Force of Nature. Following the COP21 Paris Agreement in 2015, Hogan detailed how everyone from governments to fossil fuel companies set out with commitment. “Climate action was suddenly cool!” she said.
But what followed was disheartening: “Usurped by the cost of living, national security and immigration, climate and the environment have slid down the ladder of voters’ priorities.”
Environmentally speaking, she said that things have now taken a turn for the worse. “Trump 2.0 has led the largest ever rollback of environmental protections in US history,” she said, “and tech giants who now shape every corner of our lives have quietly shelved their climate commitments in favor of AI, ravenous in its appetite for water and energy.”
The solution is to work together as a collective. “Individual action only becomes transformative when it is joined up,” Hogan urged. “We don’t need 100 perfect activists, we need millions of imperfect ones – whether you feel comfortable calling yourself an activist or not.”
What’s being done
While it would be easy to dismiss future prospects as all doom and gloom, this bleak picture set the stage perfectly for what was to follow: a back-to-back run of 10 business leaders and entrepreneurs who have turned fear into action, defeat into plans, and helplessness into initiative.
Among those who spoke were François Neu, General Manager, Enerdeal Luxembourg, whose company specialises in solar-powered solutions, Evelyne Barberot, Co-Director of GPA, which deals in automotive recycling and the recovery of reusable parts, and Arnaud Gillin, co-funding partner of Innpact, where he leads with strong expertise in the structuring of impact investment funds.
Representing the Ministry of the Environment, Climate, and Biodiversity, Minister Serge Wilmes encouraged the audience to learn from example.
“I invite companies and all participants to take inspiration from the examples presented today,” he said. “These companies have maintained their ambitions, found their solutions, sometimes unprecedented. And we continue to move forward.”
Making space for others
The event concluded with a stunning, interactive activity that put words into action in real time. Led by Alex Steele, an academic by day and professional jazz musician by night, a spontaneous jazz jam session connected everyone in the hall.
Joined by three professional musicians, Steele invited audience members to get involved: A pianist, a bassist, a drummer, and a saxophonist. For each of them, a volunteer who would steer them to take the lead, to stop and listen, to participate as a team player.
Without rehearsal or any discussion, what resulted could have been a mess. Instead, it was an inspiring manifestation of all that the event’s participants had learnt: to listen, to collaborate, to facilitate.
“We need to leave space for others. In jazz, we say ‘Yes, and…’ rather than ‘Yes, but…’” Steele concluded. “Which are you going to say?”
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