Thought Leadership.

Minnetonka High School launched the 2025 VANTAGE Mentor Kickoff in spirited fashion this week, with keynote speaker Devry Boughner Vorwerk, founder and CEO of DevryBV Sustainable Strategies, delivering a message that challenged students and mentors alike to embrace getting out of their comfort zone as the starting point for growth.

Amid the confusion surrounding what is truly sustainable, one thing is clear: whenever possible, we need to do more good by finding ways to reduce the amount of waste we produce rather than settling for “less bad” alternatives. James Diebel, a Sustainability Analyst at DevryBV, looked into a range of options for a common source of plastic waste: cups at major events.

Devry Boughner Vorwerk’s latest op-ed, “The Real Trade Emergency—Why the Business Community Must Lead Again,” was published August 18, 2025, in Newsweek. Why does trade matter? Many reasons. But for one, it’s because there’s arguably no better way to achieve business and sustainability goals than enabling the most efficient flow of goods, services, capital, and innovation across borders.

Summer Intern Emily Nicholson shares her experience working on the Main Street Strategy in Minnesota and New York this summer working to build community and relations in preparation for brand expansion. Read to hear directly from Emily and the valuable insight she brought and gained through her Main Street project.

How can interns and students add value to our firm and transform fresh perspectives into action? Time and again young minds have proven to be a vital force in our business development and expansion. Read to learn about how our Summer Interns tackled this question.

My roles in and around food are many. I’m a former executive in Big Food and experienced in international agriculture and food policy. I am also a mother and a board member of the Caux Round Table. From the vantage point of all those roles, I am witnessing a rapidly growing, food-related health crisis in the U.S. and worldwide. I have dedicated my career to food, and it’s time for essential changes to meet the nutritional needs of a growing global population.

How do companies manage their brand when they do not control the message or how and where consumers get their information? This is not a new business issue by any means, but managing brands is much more complicated in the age of AI. Handing the keys to a company’s brand to Artificial Intelligence (AI) is unsettling and dangerous, yet what I have come to understand is that it is too late. Your company’s brand and even an executive’s personal leadership brand are already in the hands of the algorithms that power the AI, and every LLM has its unique algorithms for sourcing information and spitting that back to the requestor. How do we get to the TRUTH ALGORITHM, not just the Truth Discovery algorithm for a company’s sustainable brand? Read further for recommendations.

The global drive for sustainable supply chains is at a crossroads. New, ambitious regulations are clashing with rising political pushback, creating uncertainty for businesses worldwide. At the heart of this tension is double materiality, a concept that urges companies to look beyond just profits and deeply consider their environmental and social impact.

The current wave of tariff escalation has reignited long-standing debates about the U.S. trade deficit, economic nationalism, and global supply chains. Yet beneath the surface of policy headlines and political soundbites lies a deeper story—one that links trade disruption not just to macroeconomic shifts, but to the future of sustainability and environmental resilience.

It’s one of those questions that people ask you at business events, social gatherings, and countless other settings. So, what do you do? When you work at a company that most would know–Apple, BMW, Nike–people might smile and say, amazing! And there it ends. When you work at a small firm that’s not a household name, however, you might get another question. What’s that? When the name isn't instantly recognizable, the follow-up is inevitable: 'What exactly is it that you do?' After a year at DevryBV Sustainable Strategies, I've learned firsthand the breadth and depth of our work. Boiling it down to a concise answer took time, but here's how I now respond to 'So, what do you do?’

Small- and medium-sized businesses are concerned about the US economy and global headwinds, as consumer confidence hit a 12-year low in March. Can SMEs cope with the chaos? Let’s check in and talk about some ideas.

At DevryBV Sustainable Strategies, we are committed to inspiring businesses to courageously serve humanity. To advance this mission, we align our purpose with performance. By embracing a Results-Oriented Work Environment (ROWE), we prioritize outcomes over rigid schedules, fostering a culture of trust, flexibility, and innovation.

DevryBV Sustainable Strategies is a proud sponsor of the Minnetonka Youth Hockey Association. Ice Edge Diplomacy was conceived by our founder while she was living the full experience of being a “hockey mom” for her son, Charlie, and daughter, Seanna.

A question clients often ask us is: “why should my small business report…why does this matter to us?” Even if your business is not yet subject to new disclosure laws and regulations, preparing your company now will lay the groundwork for a more responsible and resilient business in the future. That means more growth and profitability.

Clients and potential clients are calling. The debate over ultra-processed foods has reached a tipping point. It’s one of the rare issues that Democrats and Republicans have converged upon, and momentum is building. What’s around the corner, and what practical steps can businesses take? Read on.

This article blends inspiration and practicality, connecting the psychological reset of the New Year with the actionable strategies in our 2025 ESG Business Roadmap. It’s designed to motivate small and mid-sized business leaders to take the next step and reach out to our company for advisory and strategy services on ways to improve profitability and sustainability at the same time.

At DevryBV Sustainable Strategies, we are committed to inspiring businesses to courageously serve humanity. Our company’s journey toward our purpose has led us to a pivotal decision for 2025: evolving and energizing our business model and invitation to clients and stakeholders to the Stewardverse^TM. Our shift reflects wide multi-stakeholder input and a deep understanding of the leadership and care required to foster a sustainable future for business and humanity. Why the change?

We are delighted to share the Executive Summary and Rapporteur’s Report from “The Humanverse™ Summit: Adapting Business to 2030.”

At our firm, every team member believes that when capital is invested in nature- and humancentric design, profit becomes an outcome of sustainable development. That's why we brought together chief executives and other leaders on Oct. 9th to launch and help us begin the cocreation of The Humanverse. We couldn’t have been more pleased with the way the Summit unfolded.

James Diebel, Sustainability Analyst for DevryBV Sustainable Strategies, highlights the benefits of deploying biomimicry in business. The inagural Biomimetics24 Summit is taking place today, Ocober 8, 2024, at the University of Minnesota. The Summit is the brainchild of Michael Wright, a successful tech executive and leading futurist in business.

It all started at a local chamber of commerce meeting. What sorts of problems are your businesses dealing with regarding waste?

During our first week working as DevryBV’s Summer Interns, we were given an unusual assignment: knock on doors at small businesses in Excelsior, the lakeside town in which our firm is headquartered, and see if they have common interests centered around waste.

Could we help our local businesses connect and work with each other to solve shared problems?

Expo 2031 is pleased to announce that DevryBV Sustainable Strategies has joined the organization as a Founding Partner.

DevryBV Sustainable Strategies is delighted to announce that the firm has become a founding sponsor of Biomimetics24, the inaugural Biomimetics International Industry Strategy Symposium.

Why did we commit to sponsoring?

Simply put, our firm helps companies put nature and people at the center of their business strategy. Meanwhile, biomimicry is an innovative approach that emulates nature’s designs to solve human problems, promoting sustainability and efficiency.

The conference is truly a natural fit with our firm’s mission to help companies get grounded in what we call the Humanverse, a place where people and nature are valued and prioritized to achieve societal impact and profit.

In its May 22 edition, the daily Latin America Advisor published Devry’s comments on Cuba’s latest efforts to reach out to Russia for support as the island struggles with a crumbling economy and continuing food crisis.

Foreign Affairs published "Food Weaponization Makes a Deadly Comeback," an article Devry co-authored alongside Princeton University’s Zach Helder and three former U.S. secretaries of agriculture, Mike Espy, Dan Glickman and Mike Johanns.

Last December, DevryBV Sustainable Strategies crossed a critical threshold by entering into a strategic partnership with Improvability AI.

Together, our companies set an ambitious goal: to transform sustainability at the local level for businesses by using artificial intelligence to manage a company’s data.

Courts across the United States have been put in the position to reconsider how much power federal regulatory agencies should have over rulemaking following the U.S. Supreme Court's June 28 decision to overturn the decades-old “Chevron doctrine.”

Why does it matter, and what does it mean for the future of corporate sustainability?

Big tech companies failed to anticipate the negative consequences that artificial intelligence is having on their energy use and sustainability goals.

That’s unfortunate and important, but there are some specific steps they could begin taking now in order to address the problem.

After four years of contentious debate, in May the European Parliament gave its final green light to new due diligence rules that obligate firms to mitigate negative impacts of their businesses on human rights and the environment.