Thanks to all attendees, presenters, and organizers for making the 3rd Annual International Conference on Business & Sustainability a great success! SURVEY ABSTRACTS PRESENTATIONS |
This conference brings together leading industry practitioners and scholars to share best practices and leading edge research. The conference's innovative format provides for in-depth dialogue from industry representatives during the first day, followed by a series of presentations from academic researchers on the second day.
regenerate: How can sustainability inspire creative solutions? Innovative approaches? New ways of solving economic, social and environmental challenges?
The theme of this year’s conference is regenerate. In the midst of a difficult economic time sustainability provides both an ethos and an operating principle for deriving new methods to revitalize our organizations and societies. Through the lens of regenerate, a series of presentations, interactive case study sessions and keynote addresses during this two day event will provide immediate value to those seeking ideas for sustainability-focused inspiration and implementation in their organizations.
Download our conference overview.
Mark Brodeur, Director of Environmental Sustainability
Nestlé Purina
Mark Brodeur is Nestlé Purina’s Director of Environmental Sustainability. In this role, he is responsible for orchestrating the direction and development of all of the company's environmental initiatives in collaboration with business leaders across the corporation.
Mark also works closely with other Nestlé operating companies to implement sustainable business practices across the broader Nestlé organization. Mark has held numerous leadership positions in Marketing and Sales with in his 17 years with Nestlé USA and Nestlé Purina. He is a graduate of Providence College.
View presentation: Nestlé Purina - Mark Brodeur(.pdf)
Ron Corbin, National Logistics Manager
Toyota Corporation
In his role as Logistics Services Manager at Toyota Logistics Services Portland, Ron Corbin heads a site with 210 associates responsible for receiving, preparing and adding post production options to vehicles for 4 Toyota Regions and 2 Lexus areas. The facility receives approximately 250,000 vehicles per year and adds approximately 300,000 post-production options to those vehicles. The facility ships vehicles to Toyota and Lexus dealers in 30 states. Ron attended St. Mary’s College of Maryland where he received a BA in Social Sciences.
He also has a Master of Science in Business Administration from Boston University. After college Ron served on active duty in the Marine Corps for seven years, and retired from the Marine Corps Reserve as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1999. After active duty Ron worked as a production supervisor for General Motors and Mazda in assembly plants. He joined Toyota Logistics Services in 1990 and has served in various capacities at the Long Beach, Torrance and Fremont facilities as well as Portland.
View presentation: Toyota Corporation - Ron Corbin (.pdf)
Victor d’Allant, Executive Director
Social Edge, Program of the Skoll Foundation (online community for social entrepreneurs)
Victor is a global media executive who started his career as a Paris-based photojournalist reporting on economic and social issues and later worked as a magazine publisher and consultant for Newsweek, Bloomberg and Wired. His executive positions have included Chief Executive Officer of Ascribe, the public interest newswire. His photographic work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, Paris, and he received a 2009 Webby Award Official Honoree mention for his personal video blog. He holds an MA in Social Anthropology from the Sorbonne and an MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
Matt Flannery, Kiva Microfunds
Co-Founder and CEO
Matt began developing Kiva in late 2004 as a side-project with while working as a computer programmer at TiVo, Inc. In December 2005 Matt left his job to devote himself to Kiva full-time. As CEO, Matt has led Kiva's growth from a pilot project to an established online service with partnerships across the globe and millions in dollars loaned to low income entrepreneurs. Matt is a Draper Richards Fellow, Skoll Awardee and Ashoka Fellow. He graduated with a BS in Symbolic Systems and a Masters in Philosophy from Stanford University.
View presentation: Kiva Microfunds - Matt Flannery (.pdf)
Meredith Lopuch, Deputy Director, Sustainable Seafood initiative
World Wildlife Fund
Meredith Lopuch is based in WWF's California Marine Office. As the Deputy Director of WWF's Sustainable Seafood Initiative, Meredith works with major seafood buyers -- like Wal-Mart -- to encourage and assist them in using their purchasing power to secure seafood from environmentally sustainable sources, to assess current seafood supply chains for sustainability of supply, and to use their supply chain to improve fisheries.
In addition, Meredith directs WWF's community fisheries projects, which develops opportunities for community fisheries in priority marine ecoregions around the world to become more sustainable. In addition to her international work, Meredith has also worked on a number of California marine conservation initiatives including deep-sea seamount protection and marine protected area development in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
Before joining WWF in 2000, she spent time at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Meredith has a B.A. in economics, a B.S. in biology-with a focus in marine biology-and an M.S. in environmental studies and environmental economics from Stanford University.
View presentation: World Wildlife Fund - Meredith Lopuch (.pdf)
Stephanie Ryan, B Corporation
Stephanie Ryan currently works for B Lab, a non-profit that certifies triple bottom line companies. Her background includes twenty years consulting to Fortune 100 Firms, Foundations, Educational Institutions and non-profits in organizational learning. Stephanie worked at Innovation Associates consulting firm (founder, Peter Senge, author of best seller, The Fifth Discipline) for six years and is now affiliated with Demeter Matrix Alliance. She co-leads, Powers of Leadership seasonal retreat cycle at the Whidbey Institute on Whidbey Island, where she resides with her son and husband.
View presentation: B Corporation - Stephanie Ryan (.pdf)
Libby Evans, Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers
Libby Evans develops and implements Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers’ Coffee Producer Development Programs across the globe, including the Gombe Coffee Promotion Project--a three year quality improvement and market linkage project for coffee producers surrounding Gombe National Park in Western Tanzania. Libby has received several fellowships from the Lilly Endowment and the Paul K. and Evelyn E.C. Richter Trust to study international development and conservation in Africa. She is a graduate of Occidental College.
Richard Seireeni, Author of The Gort Cloud
Richard Seireeni is a 30-year veteran in design, marketing and brand consulting. He has been art director of Rolling Stone magazine, creative director of Warner Bros. Records, and co-creative director of EnterpriseIG, New York. He coined the term Brand Architect in 1991 and co-published Marks, a compendium of logos designed by himself and his former design group partner. He has managed his own consulting business, The Brand Architect Group, in Los Angeles since 1984, with affiliated offices in Tokyo and Shanghai. Notable clients include Toyota North America, Tokyo-Mitsubishi Bank, Uniqlo, and Wolfgang Puck. Seireeni graduated from the University of Washington School of Architecture and is a member of the US Green Building Council. Seireeni lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and two children. Richard Seireeni is the author of The Gort Cloud: The Invisible Force Powering Today's Most Visible Green Brands (Chelsea Green, Vermont).
Bill Wertz, Divisional Director of Community & Media Relations
Walmart Stores, Inc.
William C. Wertz is divisional director of media and community relations for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., based in Denver, Colorado. Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer with
some $400 billion in annual sales and more than 2 million associates, receives hundreds of requests for information each week from the news media alone. Wertz is
responsible for media and community relations in the company’s Mountain Divison, a 14-state area that includes Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri,
Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming.
Wertz moved to Denver in 2006 after four years as director of international
corporate affairs at the company’s home office in Bentonville, Arkansas. In that role he was responsible for both government and media relations and coordinated the activities
of corporate affairs teams in 15 markets outside the United States.
Before joining Wal-Mart, Wertz had been vice president of public relations for Littlefield, Inc., a Tulsa, Okla., advertising and public relations firm, and director of Corporate
Communications for Phillips Petroleum Co.
Wertz entered the business world after a 12-year career in the news media as a bureau chief, news editor and correspondent for The Associated Press. He served as the AP’s Rocky Mountain bureau chief, directing news and sales operations in Utah, Idaho and eastern Washington. Earlier he served as news editor of the AP's third-largest U.S. bureau in Chicago and was the agency’s chief political correspondent in Illinois and South Dakota. Wertz is a native of New Mexico and a graduate of Stanford University. He lives in Denver with his wife, Marva.
Moderators
Morning Session:
Faye Yoshihara, Forest Fractal, LLC
Principal
Faye Yoshihara merges a twenty-year corporate career with Nike and SC Johnson in emerging market business management with eight years of brokering partnerships to build the restorative economy focusing on supply chain, public health and sustainable livelihoods. She is a founding member of the New World Fight Club, a consulting collaborative, providing sustainable solutions for business. Faye also works with start-up social enterprises and serves as an adjunct instructor at Portland State University School of Business and Pacific Northwest College of Art/Oregon College of Art & Craft joint MFA program.
Afternoon Session:
Scott Exo, Sustainable Food Alliance
Executive Director
Scott Exo specializes in marketing, sustainable agriculture, eco-labels and certification, and how food companies incorporate sustainability issues in purchasing and marketing. As executive director for Food Alliance, one of the nation’s leading certifiers of environmentally friendly and socially responsible agricultural products, Scott works to bring sustainable farms and ranches together with viable consumer markets. In this capacity, he also educates food industry leaders about the benefits of sustainable agriculture and sustainable purchasing and marketing.
With Exo’s help, Portland-based Food Alliance has grown from certifying a handful of Northwest produce growers to nearly 350 Food Alliance certified farms and ranches in 24 U.S. states, Canada and Mexico and 27 certified food processing and distribution facilities offering a range of meat, dairy, vegetable and grain products. Food Alliance has also facilitated support for sustainability practices by partnering with retailers, distributors, and food service providers across the nation to feature foods certified by Food Alliance.
Before becoming executive director in 2004, Exo served four years as Food Alliance's program director, heading up certification and market development initiatives in the Northwest region. Prior to that he was a grassroots leadership director for 1000 Friends of Oregon, a land-use advocacy group. Exo serves on advisory committees for the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Program, the National Good Food Network, and Oregon's Food Innovation Center.
As an East-West Center graduate fellow, Scott earned dual Masters degrees in Geography and in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1989.
Academic presentations will be posted as they become available. Follow the link to download the abstracts from Friday's academic sessions: Abstracts for Academic Sessions (.zip)
"Sustainable Harvest Case Study" by Kathryn Teague
"Educational Strategies for Mitigating Judgment Error in Environmental Risk Assessment” by Randy Schwering
“Supply Chain Management: Creating Value through Product Stewardship and Takeback” by Dale S. Rogers, Zachary S. Rogers & Ron Tibben-Lembke
“No Time to Waste? Organizational Change toward Ecological Sustainability in Recessionary Times” by Leslie Sekerka & Derek Stime
| THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2009 | |
| 7:00 to 8:00 am | Registration: |
| 8:00 am to 12:00 pm | "Real Time" Cases and Learning Forum |
Featuring Nestle, author Richard Seireeni and World Wildlife Fund What are some of the most difficult hurdles to clear for for-profit and not-for-profit organizations? What are some of these organizations dealing with today? In the morning session, ‘real-time’ case studies will be presented by three diverse organizations, with speakers having the opportunity to provide a deeper understanding of the issues they’ve faced, the opportunities they’ve created and the unique experiences they’ve had. A dedicated Q&A component embedded within each session will facilitate a dialogue between these companies and the conference participants. |
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| 12:00 to 1:30 pm | Lunch and Keynote Address by Victor d’Allant, Social Edge and Skoll Foundation: Regenerate the Passion! The Power of Social Media and Storytelling to Build a Sustainable World |
| 1:30 to 5:30 pm | New Ideas and New Directions for Today's Challenges |
Featuring Wal-Mart, B Corporation and Toyota How are for-profit and not-for-profit organizations confronting pressing sustainability-related issues with innovative solutions? The afternoon sessions will showcase three organizations and provide in depth discussion of how they are creating novel approaches to today’s critical environmental and social challenges. |
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| 5:30 to 7:00 pm | Wine reception - Featuring NW wine, beer and food in the Renaissance Room of the Governor Hotel |
| 7:00 to 9:00 pm | "Conversations that Matter" Speaker Series Event |
Inaugural event of Portland State University's "Conversations that Matter" Speaker Series. Featuring: Mark Anielski, The Economics of Happiness: Building Genuine Wealth and David Korten, Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth |
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2009 |
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| 7:15 am | Breakfast, Native American Center, Portland State University campus |
| 7:45 to 8:45 am | Keynote Address by Matt Flannery, founder and CEO of Kiva Microfunds |
| 9:15 to 10:45 am | Academic Research Track #1. Three concurrent sessions, details to come |
| 11:00 am to 12:30 pm | Academic Research Track #2. Three concurrent sessions, details to come |
| 12:30 to 1:30 pm | Lunch, campus location TBD |
| 1:30 to 3:00 pm | Academic Research Track #3.Three concurrent sessions, details to come. |
| 3:30 to 5:00 pm | Academic Research Track #4. Three concurrent sessions, details to come. |
Lodging
Accomodations have been booked in a room block at the Hotel Modera. When making reservations, please reference group name "PSU Business & Sustainability Conference." The conference rate is $109 for a King room.
Hotel Modera
515 SW Clay
Portland, OR 97201
Phone: 503.484.1084
Toll Free: 877.484.1084
Fax: 503.226.0447
www.hotelmodera.com
Email: contact@hotelmodera.com
Venues
Conference events will be held at The Governor Hotel on Thursday, November 5th and on the Portland State University campus on Friday, November 6th.
The Governor Hotel
614 SW 11th Avenue
Portland, OR 97205
Telephone: (503) 224-3400
Toll Free: (800) 554-3456
Fax: (503) 241-2122
www.governorhotel.com
Redwood Sponsor:
Birch Sponsors:
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Media Sponsor:
Learn more about the conference's Sustainable Industries Discount Subscription Offer |
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please download our sponsorship form.