Business & The Economy

Speakers cover all aspects of sustainable business, corporate leadership, environmental business opportunity, environmental economics, and sustainable development. Specific topics covered include sustainability as a competitive strategy, green strategic planning, opportunities in new technology, leading change, performance measurement, corporate social and environmental responsibility reporting, the triple bottom line, engaging stakeholders, employees, and managers, green product design, green marketing, pollution and carbon markets, credits, and taxes, greening supply chains, green purchasing and printing, green property management, industrial ecology, globalization, resolving environmental conflicts, and green investing.

Sustainable Business. Businesses of all sizes and types are discovering that sustainability can bring benefits for owners and managers, for shareholders, for employees, for the communities in which they do business, and for the environment. More >>

Sustainable Development: Economy & Ecology Together. Focusing primarily on the developing world, but also on economically struggling communities and areas in developed countries, speakers on this topic deal with how economic development and be achieved sustainably, improving conditions in developing countries and struggling communities while preserving and restoring the natural environment and natural resources for future generations. More >>

Ecotourism. Tourism and recreation done in more sustainable ways, and tourism channeled to provide economic support for the protection and conservation of natural resources. More >>

Sustainability, Profitability & Competitive Advantage. Embracing sustainability can be a highly productive business strategy, producing competitive advantage and enhancing profitability. See L. Hunter Lovins, Bill Shireman, Jerry Yudelson, Dan Chiras, and Darcy Hitchcock.

Leading Change In Large Business Organizations. Large organizations of any kind aren't easy to change. They have cultures, traditions, long-established practices, entrenched bureaucracies, and a myriad of other barriers to adaptation and innovation. Leading change toward sustainability requires many skills, tools and techniques. See Bill Birchard, Bob Doppelt, Jack Giampalmi, Bill Shireman, L. Hunter Lovins, and Darcy Hitchcock.

Employee Empowerment & Change. People who work at all levels and roles in an organization can identify waste, spot opportunities for improvement, and generally participate helpfully in all kinds of ways in sustainability efforts. Mobilizing this potential requires a focused effort. See Bill Birchard, Bob Doppelt, Melissa Everett, Pamela Gordon, and Darcy Hitchcock.

Sustainability Performance Measurement & Reporting. It is axiomatic in large organizations that what gets measured gets done. In recent years, a plethora of measurement and reporting tools have been created. Choosing the right ones and using them for the best results is key to making business organizations more sustainable. See Gil Friend, Bill Shireman, Darcy Hitchcock, L. Hunter Lovins, and Bill Birchard.

Markets, Regulations & Sustainability. Deciding how to accomplish the transition to sustainability involves picking the best methods to achieve that goal, methods that minimize unproductive costs to businesses, governments, and communities. Smart use of markets can often be an effective alternative to costly regulations, and when regulation is employed, it can often be designed to allow flexibility and minimize unnecessary costs. See Christine Ervin, Gil Friend, and Bill Shireman.

Green Purchasing. Businesses can support each other as they move toward sustainability by selectively purchasing "green" products and products that have been made by other environmentally responsible companies. See Bill Shireman and Tom Kemper.

Green Printing & Paper. Selection of paper type and printing technology can have major environmental consequences. See Don Carli, Tom Kemper, and Thomas Rymsza.

Green Marketing. One of the reasons it can be effective to argue that environmental sustainability makes good economic sense for business is that consumers will often give preference to responsibly provided (often green certified) products and services. To close the loop and secure this result requires green marketing. See Jacquelyn Ottman, Rob Caughlan, Walter McGuire, Diane MacEachern, Jerry Yudelson, Annette Frahm, Don Carli, and Christine Ervin.

Corporate Social Responsibility. The idea is spreading that corporations have responsibilities to all of their stakeholders - shareholders, employees, customers, the communities in which they do business, and the broader environment their business operations and products impact. See Gil Friend, Bill Shireman, Denis Hayes, Nancy Lee, Jack Robinson, Don Carli, and L. Hunter Lovins.

Environmental Economics. Our economy is entirely dependent on a healthy and sustainable environment, and a sustainable future means rebuilding and restructuring our economy so that is sits on a foundation of environmental sustainability. See Lester Brown, Eban Goodstein, Gil Friend, Bill Shireman, L. Hunter Lovins, and Kate Troll.

Globalization. The global interconnectedness of businesses, economies and trade relationships presents both opportunities and problems for the transition to sustainability and sustainable development. See Medard Gabel, Mark Van Putten, Bill Shireman, Mark Dubois, and L. Hunter Lovins.

Motivating Businesses To Change. How can businesses be motivated to change? Prompts to change may come from the outside, from shareholders, from employees, from middle managers, from top managers, or from the Board of Directors. There are at least as many effective ways to motivate change as businesses have interests. Many approaches have been successful, and many of those are shared by our speakers. See Denis Hayes and Bill Birchard.

Resolving Environmental Conflicts. In many instances of conflict over environmental issues, both sides can benefit from a reasonable resolution of their differences. Conflict often consumes resources that could be better spent actually implementing solutions to problems, and many differences are not as costly or difficult to resolve as the parties to the conflict initially believe. See Chris Maser, Gloria Flora, and Bill Shireman.

Send Us Your Suggestions…

We are constantly on the lookout for the best new speakers on all aspects of Business & Economy… speakers with the most important ideas and the most dynamic presentations. We are also always open to ideas for new Business & Economy related topics. Send us your speaker or topic suggestions here.

Related Topics Coming Soon…

We are working now on new topic pages in the areas listed below. They will be added here as they become available.

Corporate Governance
Greening Product Design & Manufacturing
Green Investing
Subsidies Good & Bad
Pollution Markets & Credits
Green Taxes, Carbon Taxes, & A Level Playing Field
Stakeholder Analysis & Engagement
Natural Step for Business
Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S)
Green Manufacturing/Industrial Ecology
Corporate Greenwashing
Fair Trade
Green Facility Management
Green Strategic Planning
Making A Difference As A Business Manager
New Technologies & Business Opportunity
Sustainability & The Triple Bottom Line
Total Quality Environmental Management