Panel Discussion Tomorrow: Economic Realities of Sustainable Business

By Scott Cooney | May 6th, 2009 2 Comments

anderson_ray.jpgTriple Pundit’s good friends at Sustainable Industries are hosting a panel discussion tomorrow, May 7, at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco, focusing on the economic realities of working in the sustainability sphere during this economic downturn. From everything I’ve gleaned so far, the mood will be one of cautious optimism as Ray Anderson, rock star green entrepreneur, takes center stage.


Anderson’s company, Interface, has been covered widely on Triple Pundit and many other blogs. Their innovative design for carpeting systems made Interface a major success and propelled Anderson to rock star status among social entrepreneurs.
Other panelists for Sustainable Industries’ Fourth annual Economic Forum include Laura Rodormer, Division Manager of Green Construction for Swinterton Management and Consulting, Anup Jacob, founding partner of Virgin Green Fund, a consulting and venture capital firm affiliated with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, and Bob Davis, CEO of Sentilla, an energy management company that specializes in reducing energy usage in data management centers.
I will be attending the event, and invite readers of 3P to join me by registering here. It is sure to be one of the best and most focused events for the demographic readership of this blog. I invite feedback from 3P readers who attend the event for a followup posting I will write tomorrow afternoon. If you simply can’t make the event, but still want to chime in, feel free to comment below and I will try to address those issues at the event.
Scott Cooney is the author of Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur (McGraw-Hill), and hopes that someday, the green economy will simply be referred to as…the economy.
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2 Comments

Categorized: Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship|

  • Clay

    I have a question, maybe to pose to ray – why, after many years of celebrity in the green world, are there still so fee CEOs in a position of leadership like yours? Is it only something a private company can do? It seems like there has been more than enough time for otheres besides you and yvon choinard and a few others to “get it”… So what’s the problem?

  • Nick Aster

    Excellent question. Here’s one from me (sadly I won’t be able to make it). Does it always require top-down buy in to make real change take place in a larger company or organization? What kind of role can “green teams” or other grass roots efforts by “regular” employees play? At the end of the day does it really go nowhere unless the CEO has his/her “Ray Anderson” moment?