SSustainability strategists from five different companies in key industries spoke Monday at the first TIME100 Climate Leadership Forum in New York City about how their companies are working to develop sustainable and transformative climate solutions.

During the panel, moderated by TIME’s Chief Climate Officer Shyla Raghav, business leaders discussed topics such as decarbonization, corporate culture around sustainability, and the role and responsibility of the private sector in working with policymakers.

Panelists, all representing sponsors of TIME’s Climate Leadership Forum, included Ezgi Barcenas, chief sustainability officer of L’Oréal Groupe; Haley Lowry, Global Sustainability Director, Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics; Claire Lund, global vice president of sustainability at GSK; Matt Mayrl, vice president of strategy for American Family Insurance; and Mary de Wysocki, Cisco’s chief sustainability officer.

“Of the $3 to $5 trillion needed for climate action, 80% must come from the private sector,” Raghav said, noting the importance and power of each panelist as sustainability and strategy leaders.

Although each panelist represented very different companies, from makeup to insurance, Raghav emphasized that they tended to agree on the topic of “innovation.”

“We are a very science-based, innovation-driven company,” GSK’s Lund said, speaking about the pharmaceutical company’s culture of prioritizing science and that it was therefore “not really difficult” to focus its efforts on combating the climate crisis and sustainability to anchor their culture. “We employ 70,000 people worldwide in 70 different markets and they make a real, tangible contribution, be it the biodiversity at our site or the recycling of plastic.”

Several panelists also addressed the perceived tension between profitability and sustainability. Specifically, de Wysocki spoke about how important technology is to Cisco’s commitment to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 and how society can equitably develop generative technologies such as AI and contribute to a “livable planet.”

“We should just share quickly what works and what doesn’t,” de Wysocki said. “How can we talk about how we developed our own sustainability goals, how we build our playbooks and share them with all industries and especially small and medium-sized companies?”

The panel then turned to the current issue of politics and cooperation with government, with particular reference to the elections later this year.

“How do we create this framework,” L’Oréal’s Barcenas said of the questions she asks about the relationship between the private and public sectors. “How can we become part of the public debate and help build what I call regulatory bases that support this change and provide the right incentives, grants and subsidies?”

Partnering with government is a crucial part of doing business, but as Lowry emphasized, that partnership must have tangible results in the form of policy.

“Partnerships are critical to actually addressing these major global challenges, but they have only gotten us so far,” Lowry said. “So the real accelerator will actually be the politics that pushes this forward.”

And these companies are also looking beyond traditional partnerships. “We are thinking hard about how we can engage in proactive prevention together with our customers, because the best thing we can do is avoid the waste associated with the climate catastrophe,” said Mayrl. “And that’s a ripe area for partnerships… (And) it will be with other insurers as well. Together with other industry partners and governments, we must all step up to the plate to help us as an industry meet and provide solutions to customers and their evolving risk landscape.”

Finally, Raghav shifted the conversation to all leaders’ experiences with net zero targets in their respective companies, especially since many companies have missed milestones on their sustainability journey.

“The scientific field is not linear,” Barcenas said. “If you look at advanced research, this is how science evolves. … And I think once you start to saturate the market in terms of what you’re looking for, in terms of innovation, then you’re going to see an acceleration of those barriers.”

The TIME100 Climate Leadership Forum was presented by American Family Insurance, Cisco, Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics, Fortescue, Iberdola, L’Oréal Groupe, Siemens and GSK.

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