In this bonus episode of the ESG Insider podcast, we're taking you on the road to the big U.S. sustainability conference GreenBiz22.

We sit down with Joel Makower, who is Chairman and Co-Founder of GreenBiz Group, which produces the three-day event bringing together sustainability professionals from many of the largest U.S. companies.

The event is an opportunity to take the pulse of the corporate world on topics ranging from net zero to biodiversity to social equity. As Joel tells us in the interview, it's also a chance to hear how a diverse group of companies across sectors are handling the explosive growth in the ESG movement.

"All of a sudden, this function within companies that used to be kind of a backwater — sustainability — is now sitting there on Wall Street and sitting there in the boardroom in some fashion in most companies, and that's created a whole new dynamic. So it's a very exciting moment," Joel says.

It's also a "be careful what you wish for" moment, Joel says: "This is the moment where all of a sudden, everybody wants a piece of you."

Tune in to the podcast next week for more interviews on the ground at the conference.

We'd love to hear from you. To give us feedback on this episode or share ideas for future episodes, please contact hosts Lindsey Hall (lindsey.white@spglobal.com) and Esther Whieldon (esther.whieldon@spglobal.com).

Photo credit: Getty Images