Living Wage & Living Income Summit: Breakout sessions and more

Find your breakout session below. Each session is assigned a letter from A to I, which you'll see printed on your badge. Room locations and session details are listed on this page.

Location: Van Weelde Zaal

Co-hosted with: Fair Wear Foundation and Living Income Community of Practice 

Due diligence legislation (CSDDD, national frameworks, and emerging reporting standards) is reshaping what companies must demonstrate on Living Wages and Income. This creates an opportunity for companies to strengthen meaningful stakeholder engagement, how they demonstrate progress and move from reporting requirements to measurable impact.

Location: Van Beuningen Zaal

Co-hosted with: TRACT and Agri-logic

Data plays a critical role in how companies design, guide, and communicate their Living Income strategies. Yet many organisations are still navigating what it means to be “data-driven” in practice: what data is needed, for what purpose, and at what level of detail. This interactive session will explore how to start from the why, clarifying the decisions and outcomes data should support, from business case development to tracking progress and shaping interventions. It will unpack different approaches to gathering and using data, highlighting trade-offs between rigour, cost, and usability. Through company reflections and peer discussion, participants will compare pathways and explore how data can more effectively support business practices and impact. 

Location: Round 1 - Willem Burger Zaal

Round 2 - Van Weelde Zaal

Co-hosted with: IDH Solutions

As expectations around Living Wages grow, companies are increasingly asked not just what they commit to, but how credibly they understand their own gaps. This interactive session creates a space for companies to exchange perspectives on Living Wages gap measurement as a foundation for informed social dialogue.  

Together we will explore shared challenges, assumptions, and decision points in measuring Living Wage gaps, and how these choices shape trust with workers, suppliers, investors, and civil society. The session will also touch on the role of verification and assurance in reinforcing confidence in data and enabling more constructive conversations across the value chain.  

Location: Willem Burger Zaal

Co-hosted with: WBSCD & World Benchmarking Alliance 

Most companies know the rationale for Living Wages. The challenge lies in translating that into a business case that secures the buy-in of c-suite, unlocks investment and embeds action across core business functions.   

This workshop will explore the arguments, evidence and framing needed to build an internal case that resonates with decision-makers. Participants will examine the role of social impact, quantifiable data, risk and opportunity assessments, and practical examples that demonstrate business value. The session will also explore how living wages intersect with broader sustainability priorities, including decarbonisation, human rights commitments, and integrated transition planning, surfacing the trade-offs and difficult decisions companies face when competing priorities place pressure on implementation.  

Participants will leave with sharper thinking on how to frame and position the business case in their own context, practical approaches drawn from peers facing the same internal challenges, and a clearer sense of which narratives are most effective in building support for action.  

Location: Van Beuningen Zaal

Co-hosted with: IDH’s Climate and Nature team 

Farmer livelihoods and nature & climate are deeply intertwined - improvement on one depends to a large degree on the other. At the same time, climate risks threaten to disrupt progress on both ends and lead farmers and environments down a vicious cycle.  

Businesses are increasingly successfully pursuing Living Income, nature and climate goals simultaneously, tapping into synergies for higher efficiency and impact across all areas. Cross-cutting actions include regenerative agriculture, ecosystem conservation & restoration, and payments for ecosystem services. We explore business strategies that successfully combine income, nature and climate targets into action. 

Location: Session 1 - Ruys & Van Rijckevorsel Zaal

Session 2 - Van der Vorm & Plate Zaal

Co-hosted with: BRODIE & ETI

As businesses face rising costs, tighter regulation, supply chain uncertainty and demands for transparency and lower prices, the moment for smarter, more sustainable purchasing decisions is now. 

Procurement and sustainability teams have a unique opportunity to collaborate, driving sustainable business growth and long-term value, including Living Wages and Living Income in the value chain. Learn how businesses have tried, learned, and successfully embedded sustainable procurement and their insights from this journey. 

Location: Hudig Zaal

Co-hosted with: CNV

Social dialogue, powered by strong, independent trade unions, is one of the most sustainable ways to raise wages and keep them fair. When unions have a real seat at the table, they don’t just participate in discussions; they shape how wages are set and ensure they reflect workers’ realities. Yet too often, dialogue is reduced to a last-minute consultation rather than a driver of change.  

This session cuts through the rhetoric to examine what makes union-led dialogue actually deliver: the conditions, power, and structures needed to turn commitments into lasting wage increases.  

Location: Session 1 - Van der Vorm & Plate Zaal

Session 2 - Ruys & Van Rijckevorsel Zaal

Co-hosted with: Sustainable Food Lab  

This session highlights practical examples of company-driven interventions that have yielded positive results in different raw material supply chains. Hear from front-running companies on how they are investing with farmers for progress towards Living Income using a smart mix of strategies from procurement levers, farm service groups and work on efficiency and reducing pre- and post-harvest loss to build value for farmers and strengthen resilience of their supply chains. 

Location: Hudig Zaal

Co-hosted with: ILO

Living wages help advance social justice, enabling workers and their families to afford decent living standards while ensuring the sustainability of the enterprises and economies which create their jobs. This session discusses the potential from public-private partnerships to estimate and operationalize living wages worldwide in line with ILO principles — including partnerships with the ILO Living Wage Programme and Global Coalition for Social Justice.