Paris, 22 October 2026: The past two years have tested retail and consumer goods companies from every direction: climate shocks reaching supply chains, shoppers rethinking what they buy, and new rules raising the bar for what companies must prove.
Each of these would be a challenge on its own. Together, they are changing how companies plan, source and sell, and they raise a harder question: how do you keep sustainability on track when everything else is moving?
As Antoine DE SAINT-AFFRIQUE, CEO of Danone, put it at the Sustainable Retail Summit (SRS): “The name of the game is to make sustainability sustainable by making it a part of the fabric of the business.”
On 9 to 10 February 2027, SRS returns to Paris for its 11th edition, bringing retailers and manufacturers together to do exactly that. This year’s focus is supply chain resilience: how to mitigate today’s risks while innovating for tomorrow.
Climate risk is already showing up on the profit and loss account. At SRS 2026, speakers pointed to drought-driven volatility in cocoa prices, and to research suggesting farming will become unviable in some growing regions without investment in regenerative agriculture.
Emissions are a shared challenge, too. More than 70% of retail and consumer goods emissions sit in Scope 3, in value chains rather than in companies’ own operations.
Consumers are changing, as well. According to BCG, two-thirds of European consumers say health and wellness are extremely important to their lifestyle, even as most are trying to cut back on what they buy.
Technology is moving just as fast, if not faster. Research by The Consumer Goods Forum and BCG found that three in four consumer goods manufacturers are exploring AI, and the next step for many is scaling what works. Used well, AI helps companies forecast demand, cut waste and build the case for faster sustainability decisions.
Most of these pressures sit beyond the walls of any one company. Scope 3 emissions sit across suppliers and farms. Packaging recyclability depends on collecting systems. Supplier data becomes far more useful when everyone asks for it in the same way.
Retailers and manufacturers share these challenges, and many of the solutions depend on them working together. Shared reporting platforms can ease the burden on suppliers, and reuse pilots have shown that systems work best when several brands and retailers back them.
SRS is organised by The Consumer Goods Forum, which brings together retailers and manufacturers to tackle shared challenges. Last year, more than 250 senior executives took part, alongside speakers ranging from chief executives to heads of packaging and sourcing. The conversations build on the work under way in our Coalitions of Action and Industry Solutions, and for members of those initiatives, meetings start on 8 February and continue through the week.
The programme’s themes sit across four focus areas, each answering one of the pressures facing the industry:
Leadership, resilience and the financial case for transformation will also run throughout all four.
Animating these conversations are senior voices from across retail and consumer goods. Confirmed speakers so far already include:
More international C-suite speakers are slated to be announced. See the full speaker line-up on our SRS event page.
SRS is built for decision-makers who need answers they can use. Over two days, attendees can expect:
For many attendees, the value lies as much in learning from each other as in what happens on stage.
As Grant SPRICK, Vice-President, Climate and Environment at Ahold Delhaize, put it: “I’m very proud of the work that we do at Ahold Delhaize, but I also recognise that other companies are doing amazing things. This is a great place to share best practices, to share war stories and just learn from one another.”
Ten editions in, the industry’s challenges have grown more complex. So has the case for tackling them together.
Register for the 2027 Sustainable Retail Summit and join leaders from across retail and consumer goods in Paris from 9 to 10 February 2027.
