GCCA CEO Gathering and Leaders Conference – & Circular Cities Summit, June 2025
Details: 2-6 June 2025, InterContinental Presidente Mexico City, Mexico
The GCCA CEO Gathering and Leaders Conference is our annual conference, which brings together the senior leadership of our member companies in person to share insights and progress on our net zero transition and concrete future.
The event provides an important platform for the industry to engage in key strategic discussions – including our industry vision and shared decarbonisation mission. Hear from world class experts including sustainability leaders, CEOs and senior representatives, including: Amazon, United Nations, Gensler, Build Change, US Green Building Council, Urban Land Institute, European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition, and our own industry companies.
Day 1 – Tuesday 3 June. This year’s conference will include key knowledge sharing, strategic industry discussions on our net zero progress, including financing, policy and technology.
Day 2 & Day 3 – Wednesday / Thursday 4 & 5 June. Our gathering will continue with a Circular Cities and Policy Summit, which external stakeholders and policymakers from the built environment will also be invited to attend and interact with us. We have sessions and discussions on
- Circularity and the Built Environment
- Circularity: Energy and Materials
- Policy and Futures Perspectives
- Resilience: Climate Adaptation
- Nature Based Solutions (NBS)
World class speakers have been invited to help bring additional perspectives and to engage with us – including: the Government of Mexico; Secretary-General of the United Nations; Ambassador Corrêa do Lago, President of the forthcoming UN Climate Conference COP30 in Brazil; and key organisations such as: FEMA, C40 Cities, World Green Building Council, Build Change and the Government of the City of Mexico.
Day 3 – Thursday 5 June. We have also organised the first of our two outstanding field trips, which will take us (just 20 mins away from our hotel) to the Torre Reforma district to look closer at sustainability and resilience in action, including a tour of the iconic Torre Reforma earthquake resilient skyscraper, and briefing from its award winning architect. We will also host an Innovation focused afternoon – including Research Network key updates and Start-up Showcase.
Day 4 – Friday 6 June. Cemex are kindly hosting the main conference field trip to their state-of-the-art Tepeaca cement plant – where innovation and investment have transformed the sustainability of its cement production. This is a highly recommended visit and guided tour to one of the biggest and most modern cement plants in LatAm.
Location: InterContinental Presidente Mexico City, Mexico
(View on map)
Date: 2-6 June 2025
Confirmed Speakers
Fernando A. González
Chief Executive Officer, Cemex and GCCA President
Joe Brancato, FAIA
Managing Principal, Gensler
Rana Ghoneim
Chief of the Division of Energy and Climate Action, UNIDO
Amir Ehsaei
Senior Sustainability Engineering, Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Selwin Hart
Special Adviser and Assistant Secretary General for Climate Change, United Nations
Enrique Norten
Principal and Founder, TEN Arquitectos
Scott Dunn
Chief Strategy Officer, Asia AECOM and Executive Committee Chair, Urban Land Institute
Juan Caballero
CEO, Build Change
Peter Templeton
President and CEO, U.S. Green Building Council
Andrei Marcu
Executive Director, European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition (ERCST)
Thomas Guillot
CEO, GCCA
Maria José García
Executive Director, FICEM (Federacion Interamericana del Cemento)
Additional leaders have been invited to speak and to engage with us – including: the Government of Mexico; Ambassador Corrêa do Lago, President of the forthcoming UN Climate Conference COP30 in Brazil; and key organisations such as: C40 Cities and the Government of the City of Mexico.
Gathering Agenda
11:00 am
1:00 pm
3:00 pm
5:00 pm
7:00 pm
Partner Associations Meeting
GCCA Board Meeting
GCCA Board only
Private Dinners: 1. Member Company CEOs 2. Association Partners
(Two separate events)
7:45 am
8:30 am
10:30 am
11:00 am
12:30 pm
2:00 pm
3:00 pm
3:30 pm
4:45 pm
5:00 pm
6:00 pm
6:45 pm
7:30 pm
Registration
Gathering Opening and Leaders Discussion
Industry Strategic discussion, GCCA Progress and next steps
GCCA Members Only
Coffee Break
Conference Launch: Delivering for Society – Net Zero Progress
Cement and concrete are the world’s essential building materials, fundamental to our modern world and for building the sustainable and resilient communities our planet needs. Halfway through the ‘decade to deliver’ on decarbonisation, how are we progressing, and what are the key levers to ensure we can delver for our businesses and for the world.
Lunch & Networking
Global Collaboration To Deliver Policy Change
Industrial transformation requires collaborative action to deliver the necessary enabling policies. How can this be achieved? How can multi-government collaborative action facilitate better policies sooner? What progress is being made with respect to policies that impact across borders? What is the role of industrial advocacy to engage and encourage policymakers?
Coffee Break
The Evolving Business Case: Financing the Transition
The net zero transition cannot happen without the required financing in place. What are the challenges and opportunities in financing each of the steps from research to full scale implementation? What is working and who is helping heavy industry accelerate the transition? What can be learnt from other industries and other regions to support companies deliver decarbonisation results.
Briefing on GCCA Working Group Program By Co-Chairs
Drinks Reception
Gala Dinner
8:00 am
8:30 am
9:00 am
11:00 am
11:30 am
1:00 pm
2:30 pm
4:00 pm
4:30 pm
Registration and Networking
Networking
Circularity and the Built Environment
The construction and operation of buildings and infrastructure are responsible for forty percent of the world’s carbon emissions, and urbanisation means an increasing majority of this is in cities. Circularity underpins much of the decarbonisation potential and brings with it many other benefits. What policies, initiatives and tools can help deliver these benefits to the billions of city dwellers across the world?
Coffee Break
Circularity: Energy and Materials
A circularity approach to the whole life of built assets is opening up many new material resource loops that are being increasingly utilised, bringing to life a new dimension to the traditional focus on waste. What has enabled this new approach to be applied on real projects and how can we replicate this all over the world with many different challenges? How can best practices for waste streams become the new normal?
Lunch and Networking
Policy and Futures Perspectives
Keynote speakers will bring to life a picture of the optimal cities of the future and the accompanying policymaking and policies that can deliver a brighter future. How will challenges be overcome to deliver this vision? How can the non-negotiables of safe, healthy, resilient and sustainable communities be delivered, whilst balancing ongoing aspirations of wealth and health for all parts of the world?
Coffee Break
Resilience: Climate Adaptation
2024 broke temperature records, exacerbating wildfires, droughts, flooding and severity of storms. The result is increased recognition of the value of resilience in our communities and built environment. For climate adaptation to catch-up to mitigation, what is needed from policy makers, material producers and all city stakeholders? Is our resilience deficit too local and too inconsistent to get the policy attention that climate mitigation has achieved? Is the financial risk from lack of resilience going to unlock a fundamental shift in action? A fundamental driver to the Circularity paradigm is reducing resource use – improved resilience delivers this reduction. How can this be increasingly recognised, leveraged and delivered?
8:30 am
10:30 am
11:00 am
12:00 pm
1:30 pm
2:30 pm
3:00 pm
Field Visit – Torre Reforma
The first of our two outstanding field trips, which will take us (just 20 mins away from our hotel) to the Torre Reforma district to look closer at sustainability and resilience in action, including a tour of the iconic Torre Reforma earthquake resilient skyscraper, and briefing from its award-winning architect.
Nature Based Solutions (NBS)
Incorporating NBS in cities can mitigate flash fooding, urban heat island effect and air quality dangers. In densely populated and busy cities, fully “green” solutions are not possible and so blending grey and green infrastructure is the key. Where can best practices at scale be found and what are the underlying enabling conditions. How can the most used material in the world, concrete – be best deployed in these NBS? And what best practice NBS are being applied to the sourcing of concretes constituents: cement and aggregates.
Lunch
Discussion and Close
Official close of the Circular Cities Summit
GCCA Innovation Focus
- Innovandi Start-up Showcase
- Innovandi Research Network
7:00 am
Tepeaca Cement Plant – Site Visit
Join us for an exclusive visit to one of Cemex’s largest cement plants across their global operations in Tepeaca, Mexico, with a production capacity of 4.7 million tons per year. Discover how it operates below Cemex’s 2030 Scope 1 carbon objectives and explore its sustainable initiatives in decarbonisation, alternative fuels, water conservation, and biodiversity, all supported by local communities.
Highlights from 2024
For 2024 conference highlights click here.
To rewatch the event, click here (member’s only).
