Energy Transition: Strategic Disruption Management Workshop

Why this workshop? Why now?

Energy Transition is an immediate operating reality shaped by policy/regulation, technology, climate change, and market/stakeholder pressures. Treating it as a compliance task leaves value on the table. This workshop reframes the transition as a catalyst for resilient value creation, giving leaders a clear way to translate such pressures into executable plays for their organization.

Workshop Goal & Learning Approach

Participants learn directly from industry experts and apply practical frameworks to navigate disruption, identify value-creating opportunities, and prioritize actions specific to their organization.

Tangible deliverables (you will leave with)

Drafted Challenge Statement that anchors scope, constraints, success measures, and ownership
Executive-ready Brief summarizing implications, options, and recommendations
Robust Action Inventory that includes value-creating opportunities (including “no-regrets” moves)
Prioritized Action Steps informed by decision-making frameworks (owners, resources, metrics, triggers/guardrails, governance cadence)
Quarterly Peer Progress Discussion inclusion to accelerate implementation with the support of the Center for Sustainable Business.

Who should attend

Executives, Managers, and Leaders engaged in Energy Transition work across corporate, government, and NGO settings.

Case Studies Explored

Throughout the Workshop, our Workshop Leaders will use real Case Study examples to share how companies across sectors responded to and created value from Energy Transition. Here are a few we will explore:

Renewable Power

Clearway Energy (California, USA)

Scene Setting: Tightening regulations, falling renewable costs, and shifting utility procurement made fossil-heavy portfolios increasingly risky. Clearway anticipated that grid volatility and rising customer demand for clean energy would accelerate the decline of traditional generation. To stay competitive, the company needed a diversified, future-proof asset base.

What Clearway Did: Clearway expanded aggressively into wind, solar, and battery storage and began exploring hydrogen and grid services. This portfolio gave them flexibility, policy alignment, and opportunities to compete in new markets. Their strategy combined infrastructure investment with market innovation and public‑private partnerships.

What You Can Learn: Clearway treated Energy Transition as an opportunity rather than a regulatory burden. They used customer preferences, incentives, and grid needs to build a profitable clean‑energy platform capable of delivering stable returns.

Strategist Takeaway: Disruption reallocates value. By shifting early, strategists can reduce volatility exposure, secure long‑term contracts, unlock incentives, and build strategic advantage. Energy Transition rewards proactive, not reactive, positioning.

Ørsted – Renewable Energy (Denmark)

Scene Setting: Falling offshore wind costs and tightening EU climate policy threatened Ørsted’s coal‑based model. Leadership realized fossil assets were becoming stranded while offshore wind was becoming commercially viable.

What Ørsted Did: Ørsted pivoted entirely from fossil fuels to offshore wind. Since 2006, emissions dropped 87%, and the firm sold 50% of Hornsea 3 for $6.5B. They now target 99% renewable electricity by 2025 and have an SBTi‑validated net‑zero pathway.

What You Can Learn: Full‑portfolio transformation is possible—and profitable—with aligned technology, policy, and workforce planning.

Strategist Takeaway: Sometimes the winning move is bold. Committing fully can deliver market leadership and investor confidence.

Learn more: Ørsted Decarbonisation Strategy

Technology

Microsoft (Washington, USA)

Scene Setting: Massive growth in AI and cloud computing dramatically increased Microsoft’s electricity needs. Volatile power markets and rising decarbonization expectations meant traditional procurement was no longer sufficient. Microsoft needed carbon‑free, reliable power at scale to maintain business continuity and industry leadership.

What Microsoft Did: Microsoft secured 34 GW of clean power, deployed advanced batteries for grid support, and used AI to optimize energy efficiency. The company signed a 389 MW solar PPA with EDP Renewables and invested $80B into AI‑ready, energy‑efficient data centers.

What You Can Learn: Digitally enabled optimization paired with long‑term clean power procurement creates both operational savings and resilience. Microsoft demonstrates how to integrate energy strategy with core business strategy.

Strategist Takeaway: Align energy, technology, and policy to reduce risk and support growth. Digital infrastructure companies can turn Energy Transition into resilience, efficiency, and market leadership.

Read more here: Microsoft Sustainability Blog

Google – Tech (California, USA)

Scene Setting: As a major renewable energy buyer, Google needed to increase the operational value of wind power, which is variable and unpredictable. Improved forecasting would help the grid and reduce integration costs.

What Google Did: Google applied DeepMind AI to optimize 700 MW of wind energy using 36‑hour forecasts. The system boosted wind power value by 20% and improved grid scheduling.

What You Can Learn: AI can unlock hidden value in existing assets without major capital expenditure. Better forecasting increases renewable reliability.

Strategist Takeaway: Digital optimization should be a core pillar of any Energy Transition strategy. Improving asset intelligence often yields the fastest ROI.

Learn More: Google DeepMind Case Study

Oil & Gas

ExxonMobil (Texas, USA)

Scene Setting: Global policy pressure, major customer decarbonization, and investor scrutiny placed long‑term pressure on hydrocarbons. For ExxonMobil, the disruption was clear: remain solely fossil‑focused and risk declining demand, or diversify into industrial decarbonization solutions the world increasingly requires.

What ExxonMobil Did: The company committed $30B to CCS, hydrogen, biofuels, and lithium through 2030. With 65% of investment aimed at reducing third‑party emissions, ExxonMobil built major CCS hubs and began constructing a hydrogen facility in Baytown, TX.

What You Can Learn: Leveraging core engineering strengths in a new market allows incumbents to lead decarbonization rather than resist it. Exxon is turning policy alignment into a competitive advantage.

Strategist Takeaway: When disruption challenges your core, extend your capabilities into emerging markets. Industrial decarbonization can become a new profit engine for legacy firms.

Learn more: ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions

Utilities

Green Mountain Power (Vermont, USA)

Scene Setting: Climate‑driven outages and rising peak‑demand costs pushed utilities to rethink grid management. Customers were adopting solar and batteries faster than utilities could traditionally integrate them.

What GMP Did: Green Mountain Power aggregated customer‑owned solar and batteries into a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) capable of participating in retail and wholesale markets. Policy shifts accelerated Distributed Energy Resource (DER) adoption and reduced infrastructure spending needs.

What You Can Learn: Customer assets can become grid assets. GMP turned distributed energy into a system‑wide resilience and cost‑saving solution.

Strategist Takeaway: VPPs offer utilities a path to lower capex, improve resilience, and build new revenue streams at speed. Innovation doesn’t always require new hardware—sometimes it requires new coordination.

Learn more: Utility Dive VPP Blueprint

Grid Services

Enel (Rome, Italy)

Scene Setting: Grids across the world face challenges integrating renewables while maintaining stability. Enel recognized a need for flexible, distributed solutions that could scale.

What Enel Did: Enel deployed 8.5 GW of demand response capacity and partnered with Microsoft to use data center batteries for frequency regulation. These collaborations reduced fossil backup needs and enhanced real‑time grid balancing.

What You Can Learn: Cross‑sector collaboration expands what grid systems can do. Non‑traditional assets can provide traditional grid services.

Strategist Takeaway: Look for strategic partners who hold untapped flexibility. Collaboration accelerates decarbonization while creating new revenue models.

Learn More: Enel X Case Study

Finance

JPMorgan Chase (New York, USA)

Scene Setting: Climate risk, regulatory shifts, and capital‑market expectations required financial institutions to rethink investment strategy. JPMorgan saw that sustainability was becoming a core financial risk and opportunity space.

What JPMorgan Did: The bank committed $2.5T to sustainable finance and adopted a cost‑based approach to decarbonization investments. More than $200B has been deployed, and sector‑specific targets now align with a 2050 net‑zero trajectory.

What You Can Learn: Finance plays a catalytic role in scaling decarbonization. Capital allocation must evolve with shifting market signals.

Strategist Takeaway: Treat sustainability as a financial strategy—not a charitable activity. Moving early positions institutions as market makers rather than followers.

Learn more: JPMorgan Climate Report 2024

Retail

Walmart (Arkansas, USA)

Scene Setting: Energy represents a major operational cost for large retailers, and communities increasingly expect local investment in clean energy access. Walmart recognized the opportunity to reduce pollution and create community value.

What Walmart Did: Walmart invested in nearly 1 GW of clean energy, including 31 community solar projects in partnership with Nexamp and Solar Landscape. More than 8,000 households will benefit from reduced energy burden.

What You Can Learn: Retailers can use Energy Transition to improve community relations, reduce costs, and expand ESG leadership.

Strategist Takeaway: Look for ways energy investments can create sticky-factor benefits—customer loyalty, local development, and operational savings.

Learn more: Walmart Clean Energy Investment

Consumer Goods

IKEA (Sweden)

Scene Setting: Supply chains account for the majority of emissions for global retailers. With rising consumer expectations and tightening ESG regulations, IKEA needed to decarbonize rapidly across 27 markets.

What IKEA Did: IKEA launched a major supplier renewable electricity program, expanding to 491 suppliers across 14 new countries. Renewable production reached 75% in FY24 and overall emissions dropped 28% since FY16.

What You Can Learn: Supply‑chain decarbonization strengthens resilience and reduces long‑term operating costs. Empowering suppliers accelerates scale.

Strategist Takeaway: Treat suppliers as partners in innovation. Scaling renewable access across the chain drives efficiency, compliance, and brand trust.

Learn more: IKEA Renewable Electricity Program

Infrastructure

Pittsburgh International Airport (Pennsylvania, USA)

Scene Setting: Airports face growing energy costs, resilience challenges, and rising pressure to decarbonize. Pittsburgh International saw an opportunity to build independence from grid outages and future‑proof operations.

What PIT Did: The airport built a solar‑plus‑natural‑gas microgrid that supplies 100% of its power. Partnering with Avina, PIT also developed the first on‑airport Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production facility in the U.S., producing over 100 million gallons annually.

What You Can Learn: Infrastructure innovation can deliver resilience, savings, and climate leadership simultaneously. Local energy production reduces vulnerability to grid disruptions.

Strategist Takeaway: Critical‑infrastructure organizations can lead the transition by integrating resilience and clean‑energy generation. Energy strategy becomes operational strategy.

Learn more: LLI Engineering Article & Fly Pittsburgh Article

Session Outlines

Day 1 - Foundations of the Energy Transition: Date/Time: Fri, 2/13, 8:00 AM–12:00 PM ET
Focus: Energy Transition Overview, Resilience Framework overview; major risks & uncertainties; regulatory considerations; challenges and opportunities, examples of successful industry-specific models.
Day 2 - Profitable Opportunities & Scenario Planning: Date/Time: Fri, 2/20, 8:00 AM–12:00 PM ET
Focus: Identifying opportunities within Energy Transition; possibility-scenario activity; building a business case that leverages on opportunities while managing risks.
Day 3 - Prioritized Action Steps: Date/Time: Fri, 2/27, 8:00 AM–12:00 PM ET
Focus: Transformational scenario activity; cohort-based learning; finalize prioritized action steps and executive brief.

What are the Strategic Disruption Management Workshops?

Each of our Strategic Disruption Management Workshops addresses a specific disruption and enables participants to develop organization-specific interventions.

Bringing together our ReSET Program with the topic area expertise of an industry leader, these workshops provide context knowledge, techniques, and action plans to equip leaders to embrace specific disruptions as opportunity. Over the course of 3 half-day, live online sessions we will enable you to adapt proven programs and strategies for your organization to create opportunities to find resilient solutions.

This workshop is designed to guide you through crafting a custom strategy based on proven approaches, decades of experience, and years of research that will enable your organization to profit from and thrive through the disruptive challenge of energy transition.

Formatted as an immersive experience, attendees will attend live online sessions hosted by industry and academic experts. These facilitators will guide the cohort through and in-depth understanding of the specific disruption address (Energy Transition, Artificial Intelligence, etc.) and the Resilient Organizational Architecture as developed by the CSB, and how to utilize that framework to create a plan to address the disruptions that your industry is facing, and create value in the face of those disruptions.

You will leave this program with the following items:

A Prioritized Action Steps informed by organizational and decision-making frameworks to take immediate action related to the topic.
An Executive-ready Brief summarizing implications, options, and recommended actions.
Access to future, online Quarterly Progress Discussions to accelerate implementation with the support of the Center for Sustainable Business.

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