Philip Morris International (PMI) CEO André Calantzopoulos announced in 2016 a radical pivot in the Marlboro cigarette manufacturer's strategy: the company would shift to "smoke-free" products in more than 180 countries around the world. One of these products was IQOS, a new "heat-not-burn" (HNB) device aimed at providing the world's over 1 billion "adult smokers with better options." The innovation of the products which, PMI claimed, were less harmful than cigarettes was welcomed by many investors and PMI. Calantzopoulos and PMI's Board of Directors believed that its sustainability strategy was critical to the company's long-term success. Nevertheless, convincing important stakeholders that a tobacco company could be part of the solution to rid the world of cigarettes by offering better alternatives was a different matter. The United Nations, World Health Organization (WHO), regulators, public health advocates, and some sustainable investors said that there was no safe level of use and no opportunity for effective engagement with tobacco companies. After a two-year wait, the US FDA issued an order authorizing the sale of IQOS in the US market of 40 million smokers. The FDA found that IQOS was "appropriate for the protection of health." PMI organized the 2020 Stakeholder Engagement Meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland to convene key stakeholders to engage with PMI's smoke-free business transformation.

Philip Morris International (PMI) CEO André Calantzopoulos announced in 2016 a radical pivot in the Marlboro cigarette manufacturer's strategy: the company would shift to "smoke-free" products in more than 180 countries around the world. One of these products was IQOS, a new "heat-not-burn" (HNB) device aimed at providing the world's over 1 billion "adult smokers with better options." The innovation of the products which, PMI claimed, were less harmful than cigarettes was welcomed by many investors and PMI. Calantzopoulos and PMI's Board of Directors believed that its sustainability strategy was critical to the company's long-term success. Nevertheless, convincing important stakeholders that a tobacco company could be part of the solution to rid the world of cigarettes by offering better alternatives was a different matter. The United Nations, World Health Organization (WHO), regulators, public health advocates, and some sustainable investors said that there was no safe level of use and no opportunity for effective engagement with tobacco companies. After a two-year wait, the US FDA issued an order authorizing the sale of IQOS in the US market of 40 million smokers. The FDA found that IQOS was "appropriate for the protection of health." PMI organized the 2020 Stakeholder Engagement Meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland to convene key stakeholders to engage with PMI's smoke-free business transformation.

Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher founded Zurich-based start-up Climeworks in 2009 based on technology they had developed, which they claimed would help slow the massive challenge of climate change by capturing CO2 directly from the air. Several hurdles still stood in their way, but Gebald and Wurzbacher had an entrepreneurial mindset and ambitious plans for their business and its potential impact on humanity. The pair put all their efforts into developing the robust technology, reducing costs of production and building a viable business model to directly capture and sell carbon dioxide - a market yet to be developed. Climeworks aimed to remove 1% of global CO2 emissions from the Earth's atmosphere by 2025. The vision was bold and could only be achieved through massive growth, including 250,000 installations the size of Climeworks' flagship plant in Switzerland. One main issues Climeworks needed to address was reducing the uncertainty around the desirability of the solution, meaning identifying and leveraging market demand. Once the prototype had been developed, the company needed to find markets for its end product, carbon dioxide. Which industries would be good targets? Could Climeworks create completely new markets for the solution?

Climeworks took a multipronged approach when seeking markets for its end product: emissions reversal, beverages and fuel. Climeworks emissions reversal solution involved the direct physical removal of the same amount of emissions from the atmosphere as had been created. Once captured, the CO2 could then be permanently and safely stored underground. Also, the global beverage industry had become one of the biggest consumers of CO2 in the world. Valser, recently certified as Switzerland's first climate-neutral mineral water, was the first brand to leverage Climeworks' technologies for its drinks. Finally, air-captured carbon dioxide could be combined with hydrogen and turned into a fossil fuel substitute. It was still unclear which of these markets would prove successful for Climeworks or whether government regulations would be adapted to support carbon removal. But it was clear that industry disruption was needed to reduce emissions drastically and avoid the most destructive effects of climate change. What was also sure was that entrepreneurs Gebald and Wurzbacher had no plans to slow down until they had fulfilled their bold vision of solving one of the greatest challenges through innovation.