08.30 Coffee & registration

Expert convener: Holly Ramer, Business Strategy Consultant

09.00 Welcome address:

Mike Mann, Acting Director, Office of Sustainability & Environment, City of Seattle

09.10 From software to sustainability

Corporate leaders with vision and foresight now realise that isolated programs of incremental improvements through eco-efficiency, public relations, carbon management, public philanthropy or publishing reports cannot fully address the major issues that sustainability present.
Forward thinking companies realise that sustainability is an opportunity to show leadership, it is an opportunity for innovation and invigoration that will develop better managed, more successful and profitable enterprises.

Like most environmentally aware companies Microsoft has a responded to environmental and sustainability issues as and when they occurred but now intend to use sustainability to drive company practice as well as product innovation. So how do you turn a well-meaning but patchwork response to sustainability issues into a companywide focus, strategy and revenue creator?

Rob Bernard, Chief Environmental Strategist, Microsoft

09.35 CEO roundtable – strategic sustainability leadership

• What are the essential elements of a sustainable business?
• How to align sustainability priorities with business priorities?
• Translating strategic objectives into business terms and proper actions
• Developing a structured approach to balancing the risk and opportunity of sustainability
• Reshaping company values to achieve higher business value
• Should you follow a prescribed strategy – Cradle to Cradle, Green Six Sigma, The Natural Step?
• Should companies adopt indicators and metrics suggested by GRI, ISO14001 and 14004?
• How do you make sustainability scalable – building the empire, maintaining the ideals
• Sustainability strategies during a recession
• Maintaining sustainability strategies in a recession

Chair: Gabriel Scheer, Founder & Managing Director, Re-Vision Labs
Jack Graves, Chief Cultural Officer, Burgerville
Tim Fallon, President, North America, Kettle Foods
Andrew Estey, Co-Founder & CEO, End Footwear
Kim Jordan, CEO & Co Founder, New Belgium Beer
David Williams, CEO, ShoreBank Pacific

10.30 Break

11.00 Regional sustainability leadership and corporate strategy
In this session regional governments and regulators will discuss the environmental regulatory landscape that is being currently being formed. We will also hear how companies are responding to this and how corporate strategies are being developed to get beyond compliance and use regulation as a strategic advantage.

• How are regional governments and regulators driving sustainability?
• How are federal regulations likely to develop?
• How are regulations on waste, GHG emissions, energy and water likely to develop over the next few years?
• What do companies need to do now on a strategic level to prepare for future regulation?
• Is there a systematic approach that companies can adopt so that they are not over burdened with compliance?
• How can sustainability strategy anticipate the likely regulatory demands of the next few years?
• Can appropriate strategy get a company beyond regulation and ahead of the competition?

Chair: K.C. Golden, Policy Advisor, Climate Solutions
Janice Adair, Special Assistant to the Director, Department of Ecology, State of Washington
Stan Price, Executive Director, Northwest Energy Efficiency Council
Charlie Cunniff, Director - Seattle Climate Partnership, Seattle Office of Sustainability & Environment
Kevin Wilhelm, Business Sustainability Committee Chair, Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, CEO, Sustainable Business Consulting
Terry Mutter, Head of EHS, The Boeing Company

12.30 Lunch

1.30 An operational definition of sustainability

Based on a recent research project of a dozen leading sustainable companies, William Blackburn, author of the Sustainability Handbook, outlines what it is stakeholders expect sustainable companies to do.

William Blackburn, CEO, William Blackburn Consulting

Session: Setting goals and building the strategic plan

1.55 The explicit commitment and defining the strategic objective - deciding to do things differently
Andrew Estey, Co-Founder & CEO, End Footwear

2.15 Strategic sustainability framework
Regina Hauser, Executive Director, The Natural Step

2.35 Strategic sustainability planning

• Defining your agenda for sustainability
• Determining a transition path
• Stepping away from business as usual
• The importance of a strategic plan

Chair: Michael O’Brien, Sustainable Industries
Esther Speck, Director, Sustainability and Community, Mountain Equipment Coop
Jason Graham-Nye, Founder, gDiapers
Tony Kingsbury, Executive-in-Residence, Sustainable Products & Solutions Program, Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley

3.25 Break

3.55 Changing organisations to drive sustainability

Before launching fmyi, Justin was a Senior Manager in Corporate Sustainable Development at Nike Inc. where his accomplishments included creating innovative organizational change programs, designing collaboration tools, building the business case for sustainability, and managing global employee training.

Justin Yuen, President, fmyi

4.20 Redefining manufacturing principles through sustainability
Kim Jordan, CEO and Co Founder, New Belgium Beer

4.40 Scalable sustainability – sustainability strategies for growing businesses

It is often easier to be sustainable on a small scale but major issues can occur when building national and international companies. What strategies do you need to have in place so that success is not a barrier to sustainability? How do you drive sustainability in a growing company?

Chair: Jean Jerome Baudry, CEO of Baudry Cybernomics Corporation, Founder, Think Green Alliance
David Van Seters, President and CEO, Spud
Sue Long, Environmental Impact Manager, Starbucks
Edie Sonne Hall, Manager Environmental Affairs, Sustainable Forests and Products, Weyerhaeuser

 

08.30 Coffee and Registration

09.00 Climate change and sustainability: realizing the opportunity
Dr. John Robinson, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, UBC , Member, British Columbia, Climate Action Team

09.25 Financing a Strategy: The Relationship of Capital to a Sustainability Strategy
David Williams, CEO, ShoreBank Pacific

09.50 Driving value from sustainability strategies in a downturn

how to maintain sustainability when profits are low
the opportunities for sustainability in hard times
maintaining momentum, focus and enthusiasm for programs under pressure

Chair: Daniel M. Kreeger, Interim Executive Director, Association of Climate Change Officers
Kevin Wilhelm, Business Sustainability Committee Chair, Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, CEO, Sustainable Business Consulting
William Blackburn, CEO, William Blackburn Consulting
Burr Stewart, Strategic Planning Manager, The Port of Seattle

10.45 Break

11.15 Involving non-traditional sources in corporate strategy

How can companies develop in-house processes to accept recommendations from non traditional sources e.g. environmental pressure groups, academics?
Can non-traditional sources be integrated in to the business process in advance of project development?
Undertaking courageous engagement to future-proof business strategy.

Chair: Erik Wohlgemuth, VP, Strategic Operations, Future500
Brian Flaherty, Director of Public Affairs, Nestle Waters North America
Conrad Mackerron, SRI Director, As You Sow
Karl Ostrom, Co-Director, NBIS - Network for Business Innovation & Sustainability

12.15 Mandatory GHG Reporting Requirements in Oregon & Washington: There Can Be No Reductions Until There Is a Baseline

Alex Schay, Project Originator / Owner Carbon Solutions Northwest

12.35 Lunch

1.30 Session: When should marketing get involved in sustainability strategies

Should you create new sustainable products and services or convert old ones to sustainability?
Why do some sustainable products and services succeed while others fail?

Chair: Marc Daudon, Principal and Co-founder, Cascadia Consulting Group
David Quigg, Director of Marketing, Gray’s Harbor Paper
Laurie Demeritt, President & COO, The Hartman Group
Marty McDonald, Founder and Creative Director, Egg

2.30 – 3.00 Break

Session: Carbon strategies

Green house gas accountability and a market based approach to carbon management are already in the pipeline in many regions and set to become reality on a national level. How should carbon management be incorporated in to an overall sustainability strategy?

3.00 Carbon management driving sustainable practice
Michael Contardi, Business Development Manager, Salt Spring Coffee Company

3.20 Partnerships with energy providers for carbon market strategies
Thor Hinckley, Renewable Power Manager, Portland General Electric

3.40 Is going carbon neutral the basis of a sustainable business strategy?

How can carbon efficient operations drive sustainability?
What is the stakeholder response to a neutral status?
What is the business value of the neutral status?
What options should be considered for offset?
Carbon management in preparation for mandatory caps

Chair: Sean Clark, Director of Offset Programs, The Climate Trust
Amanda Pitre-Hayes, Director of Climate Services, Pembina Institute
Angus Duncan, President, Bonneville Environmental Foundation