Keynote speeches and panel discussions were held on the topic of creating competitive advantage through sustainable practices at the University’s eighth-annual Sustainable Business Symposium
this weekend.
Law student Kyle Smith, project manager for this year’s symposium, which drew about 1,000 people, said students from the business; architecture; law; planning, public policy and management; and the international studies departments helped run the conference.
Smith estimated that 60 percent of the conference attendees were students and 40 percent were businesspeople. He said he saw students walking around with resumés, using the conference as an opportunity for professional networking.
Smith said the conference avoids big-name speakers, for reasons of both cost and content.
“(Big-name speakers) say the same things every year,” he said. “You’re not getting anything new.” Smith said a community board of influential businesspeople from Eugene and Portland helps the student leaders select local speakers with sustainable business expertise.
Thursday’s keynote speech, a joint effort between Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury and Apollo Alliance co-founder Dan Carol, emphasized the importance of sustainable business practices at local, state and national levels.
“Sustainability is an economic opportunity we just cannot ignore, and I just feel that to the bottom of my soul,” said Bradbury, who is also chair of the Oregon
Sustainability Board.
Bradbury said the world has reached its peak of oil production and must begin to search for alternative energy sources. He exhorted the state of Oregon to work in the development of biofuels.
“Building an infrastructure around biofuels could revitalize areas of our state in ways we can’t even imagine,” Bradbury said. He added that Oregon is perfectly situated geographically to sell biofuels to the large market in California.
Carol described the Apollo Alliance’s goal as “marketing the idea of change.” Named after the can-do spirit represented by former President John F. Kennedy’s Apollo space program, the national organization works to invest resources in stopping the country’s dependence on oil as an energy source.
“We’re essentially financing both sides of the War on Terror right now,” Carol said.
Carol described the organization’s efforts to promote alternative energy sources to various segments of society.
“We kind of marketed this like a Rorschach, one of those inkblots; you see what you want to see,” Carol said. He said the Apollo Alliance has succeeded in reaching out to the organized labor community by emphasizing that environmentally conscious forms of power generation, such as windmills, create more jobs than corporate strategies.
“Everyone’s pretty much coming together around this, except Bush and Cheney,” Carol said. He
said even some Republican politicians have supported the organization’s cause.
“I’m about the results, and the math and the numbers are on our side,” Carol said.
Friday’s keynote speakers were Christine Ervin, first president and former CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council former director of the Oregon Department of Energy, and Pat Nathan, sustainable business director of Dell Inc.
Under Ervin’s direction, the USGBC developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system to certify buildings as environmentally conscious and increase awareness of green building processes. The Lillis Business Complex, where the symposium took place, is a LEED-certified building.
“The production and use of energy causes more environmental damage than any other human activity with the exception of war,” Ervin said, quoting The Economist. She added that current wars over energy compound that effect.
“When you see the logic of green buildings, you just can’t look at buildings any other way,”
Ervin said.
Nathan described how Dell made the move to include sustainable business practices in its operations.
“The tipping point for us was product recycling,” Nathan said. While traveling in Europe, “I got a call saying, ‘Pat, you need to come back and take care of the
tree-huggers.’”
In response to the complaints, Dell instituted a recycling program for its old computers. Dell’s sustainability efforts have since expanded to include improved product design, restricting the use of harmful materials in production and redesigned packaging.
Sustainability touted at conference
Daily Emerald
April 3, 2005
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