Doing Good Doing Well 2026
Common Ground: Building Tomorrow, Together
The 23rd edition of the Doing Good Doing Well (DGDW) Conference at IESE Business School in Barcelona brought together students, faculty, alumni, and professionals for a day of reflection and exchange on sustainability, impact, and responsible business. Under the theme “Common Ground: Building Tomorrow, Together,” the conference highlighted the importance of collaboration across sectors and disciplines in addressing today’s most pressing challenges.
The program featured a strong mix of perspectives from business, finance, technology, human rights, infrastructure, and social innovation. Speakers included Paul Polman, Business Leader, Investor, and Philanthropist; Sebastian Kind, Founder and CEO of RELP; Professor Michael Posner, Jerome Kohlberg Chair in Ethics and Finance at NYU Stern; Rocio Alcocer, Managing Director at Norrsken House Barcelona; Vincent Cuvillier, Chief Strategy Officer at Cellnex Telecom; Chris Adamo, Head of Global Sustainability Impact & B Corp at Danone; and Samuel Kembou, Global Lead for Learning and Evidence at the Jacobs Foundation.
Conference Focus
The 2026 edition of DGDW was structured around eight programming topics that reflected the breadth of today’s sustainability challenges and opportunities:
- Governance & Global Cooperation: Examining how institutions, policymakers, and organizations can work together to address global challenges and build effective frameworks for collective action.
- Climate & Energy Transition: Exploring pathways to accelerate the shift toward a low-carbon economy, with a focus on clean energy, climate solutions, and resilient transitions.
- Impact Ventures & Social Innovation: Highlighting entrepreneurs and innovators developing scalable solutions to social and environmental problems.
- Sustainable Food Systems & Agriculture: Discussing how food systems can become more resilient, regenerative, and equitable.
- Urban Development & Infrastructure: Looking at how cities and infrastructure can be designed to adapt to changing social, environmental, and economic realities.
- Technology & AI for Good: Investigating the opportunities and risks of emerging technologies, and how AI can be applied responsibly for positive impact.
- Sustainable Finance & Capital Markets: Considering how capital can be mobilized to support sustainable growth and long-term value creation.
- Purpose-Driven Careers & Next-Generation Leadership: Reflecting on how the next generation of leaders can build careers rooted in purpose, integrity, and impact.
Across keynote talks, panels, and fireside conversations, the day explored themes such as the energy transition, AI and responsible innovation, sustainable finance, human rights in business, and systems thinking. Rather than focusing on isolated solutions, the conference emphasized the need for long-term strategies rooted in trust, shared responsibility, and practical collaboration.
The event also offered meaningful opportunities to connect through the Sustainability Company Expo, networking moments, and student-led hackathon reflections. Together, these elements made DGDW 2026 both a showcase of ideas and a reminder that progress toward 2030 will depend on finding common ground and acting on it.