2025 Annual Meeting
NGO Sustainability held its Annual Meeting on June 10, 2025, at the offices of Pryor Cashman LLP in New York City, with corporate sponsor Roth MKM Capital. The event brought together members of NGO Sustainability, its Board of Advisors, interns, associates from Roth MKM Capital, and members of Pryor Cashman LLP. The meeting opened with remarks from Roma Stibravy, President of NGO Sustainability. She was followed by Sagar Sheth, CEO of Roth MKM Capital, who spoke on behalf of the evening’s corporate sponsor. The program continued with presentations by distinguished speakers David O'Connor, Susan P. Kenney, Bingzhuo Li, and Irena Zubcevic, who each offered unique insights into current global sustainability issues.
​Summary of the Welcome Speech by the President of NGO Sustainability, Roma Stibravy
During the Annual Meeting on June 10, 2025, Roma Stibravy, the President of NGO Sustainability,
explained that transportation can be classified as the greatest polluter of the atmosphere today. She pointed out that over a century ago, electric cars were introduced, and prompted the audience to imagine the hypothetical climate change and pollution-reduction progress communitites would experiece if electric-powered vehicles had been a primary mode of transport all these years. Roma then discussed the efforts of NGO sustainability, emphasizing the organization's publications including the monthly newsletter titled “Global Warning,” the University Sustainability Report, and the Sustainable Fashion Guide. Roma next discussed the NGO’s affiliation with the UN and their offices in Nairobi, Kenya, as well as highlighting an intern who has used her experience with NGO
Sustainability to help her receive admission into Columbia University’s graduate program.
Roma then introduced the first host, Ali Panjwani. We then heard from the following speakers.
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Dr. David O'Connor led the analytical support team in the United Nations that shepherded the negotiations of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda to a successful conclusion. The co-chairs were the Permanent Representatives of Kenya and Hungary. Subsequently, upon retirement from the UN, he worked for several years as the Representative of IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) to the United Nations and as sustainable economist for the World Resources Institute (WRI). Before joining the UN in 2003, he was at the OECD Development Centre. Among others, he was involved in studying climate action in several emerging economies, considering that fossil fuel burning and associated air pollution are implicated in public health, human productivity and agricultural productivity. Currently, Dr. O'Connor is a Fellow of Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future and also teaches a graduate course on the SDGs at the University of South Florida.
Dr. David O'Connor
“How have the Private Sector and Civil Society Contributed to Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? What More Can They Do?” David O’Connor.
Dr. David O’Connor, former UN official in the Division for Sustainable Development, and a current Fellow of the Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future, was the keynote speaker at NGO Sustainability’s 2025 Annual Meeting. Dr. O’Connor presented the first half of his slideshow, “How have the Private Sector and Civil Society Contributed to Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? What More Can They Do?”. In his presentation, Dr. O’Connor references the 2023 United Nations Global Compact-Accenture Private Sector SDG Stocktake Report to describe how the private sector is positively and negatively contributing to the progress of the United Nations’ SDGs, which were adopted in 2015, the current major shortfalls, and ten recommended actions to improve the sector’s contributions to achieving the SDGs by 2030 and beyond. Dr. O’Connor emphasizes that while business leaders largely support the mission of the SDGs, which could benefit their own companies and make for a more sustainable world, there needs to be much more progress, requiring sustained enthusiasm and commitment to the SDGs across the private sector.
Susan P. Kennedy
Susan Kennedy is Chairman of the Cadiz Board of Directors and CEO of the Company. In January 2024, Ms. Kennedy was appointed CEO. Ms. Kennedy has led a distinguished career as a policy maker and entrepreneur, a top advisor to two California Governors, former Commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission, and founder and chief executive of a distributed energy company. In her leadership role for two California Governors, Ms. Kennedy was responsible for negotiating some of the largest agreements among agricultural interests, environmentalists, rural and urban water users for multi-billion-dollar investments in water supply, storage and conveyance facilities, as well as conservation and environmental restoration projects including the 8- billion-dollar, 10-year restoration of the San Francisco Bay Delta ecosystem and the early plans to restore the Salton Sea.
“Sustainable Water Solutions”, Susan P. Kennedy
Cadiz, a publicly traded company, owns 46,000 acres in the Mojave desert and is dedicated to developing clean water solutions to improve access across California. The company aims to address the growing water crisis, which has been exacerbated by extreme weather events. The challenge is not a lack of water supply, but inadequate and aging water infrastructure. In Los Angeles, harsh weather destroys the aqueducts that bring water into Southern California. Furthermore, global shifts in hydrology mean that snow and rain are not falling into infrastructures initially built for that purpose. Cadiz has reused fossil fuel pipelines and transformed them into water pipelines, using water treatment technology to make it safe to consume. The company collaborates with Indigenous communities in the U.S. to help facilitate economic growth for tribes through equity investments. The Cadiz project in the Mojave Groundwater Bank will be the first major water feature project majority-owned by these Indigenous tribes.
Bingzhuo Li
Bingzhuo Li is a Legal Officer at the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations. He is on the team focusing on matters relating to marine biodiversity, the protection and preservation of the marine environment, and marine scientific research. He has closely followed the Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) process since 2017, including as a member of the Secretariat team supporting the BBNJ Intergovernmental Conference. Prior to joining the Division, he served for 10 years in the Foreign Service of China, working on a range of public international law issues. He holds degrees from the China University of Political Science and Law, and from the University of Melbourne, law.
“Accelerating Action for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Ocean: BBNJ Agreement and United Nations Ocean Conference”, Bingzhou Li
Bingzhou Li is a Legal Officer at the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea(DOALOS) of the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations. In his discussion at NGO Sustainability’s Annual Meeting on June 10th, Li opened with a brief overview of maritime law beyond the 24 mile national jurisdiction of each country. The new 'Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction' (BBNJ). BBNJ is a vital step in protecting the resources of the world’s oceans and makes important progress in leveling the playing field. The agreement is still waiting to be fully ratified and approved in all countries–its current status is 136 signatories and 51 ratifications.
Irena Zubcevic
Irena Zubcevic has over 20 years of experience in sustainable development, international relations, peace keeping and peace building and diplomacy, policy, advocacy and project management as well as national level experience. Prior to working at the Croatian Mission to the UN as senior policy advisor, she worked at the United Nations Secretariat for 15 years in the area of sustainable development, holding positions of heads of branches for policy review and small island developing states, ocean and climate. She worked to support negotiations on the 2030 Agenda and supported the organization of HLPF and worked with countries on their VNRs. Before that, she worked in the Croatian foreign service. She is also adirector of the Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future. She authored a number of papers, the latest one on Sustainable Development Goals is a chapter in the book “Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy”. She has also been included in Who’s Who in the World, in America and in Professional Women and received a number of awards including the 2019 Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award for the excellence in the field of sustainable development. She holds an M.S. from University of Zagreb and a professional certificate in public administration from Harvard University.
“UN Financing for Development, UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF), UN Social Summit”, Irena Zubcevic
Irena Zubcevic, Senior Advisor at the Permanent Mission of Croatia to the United Nations,discussed UN events that often do not receive as much media attention. The International Conference on Financing for Development, first held in 2002, was the initial event to prioritize financing for poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Subsequent conferences took place in 2008, during the financial crisis, and another in 2015, which focused on directing financial resources toward the 2030 Agenda. The fourth conference will be held later this month in Seville, Spain, focusing on topics such as ocean, nature, and climate financing and resource mobilization. Other events include the annual HLPF in July which will focus on science and evidence-based solutions for the sustainable development goals, and the second World Social Summit in the fall which will cover issues such as poverty eradication, social exclusion and full employment, and strengthening solidarity.
Event Photos
