Sustainable Business: Capitalizing on Opportunities

November 20, 2008
8:30 am - 4:30 pm
Westin Hotel, Downtown Pittsburgh

Sustainable business is at once about innovation and opportunity, responsibility to stakeholders and enduring financial performance.  The Palumbo-Donahue School of Business and the Beard Center for Leadership in Ethics present Sustainable Business: Capitalizing on Opportunities, a symposium for business leaders who want to contribute to sustainability while making the day-to-day decisions of running a business.

Keynote speakers and panelists will make a case for pursuing social and environmental goals while helping business leaders build the organizational processes necessary to develop and implement initiatives.  Attendees will leave with a foundation for building the business case for sustainability within their organization.

We ask: How can the costs and risks of meeting social and environmental goals be factored into capital investment and allocation decisions?

Program schedule »

Envisioning a Sustainable Future

Daniel C. Esty, co-author, Green to Gold

An author and businessman, Esty has worked with large global companies—including BP, Toyota, GE, IKEA, Coca-Cola, Unilever and Shell—to foster innovation and competitive advantage through environmental thinking in a range of industries. Expect to capture viable ideas for reducing costs and risks while building your organization's reputation and revenues. Esty will be on hand to autograph complimentary copies of his book.

CEO Forum: Identifying Strategic Opportunities

Moderated by (photos from left to right):
  Dr. Alan R. Miciak, dean, Palumbo-Donahue School of Business
  Greg Babe, president & CEO, Bayer Corporation
  Todd M. Bluedorn, CEO, Lennox International
  Joseph C. Guyaux, president, PNC Financial Services Group
  Diane P. Holder, president and CEO, UPMC Health Plan

Capture the leader's perspective on how sustainable practices fit into corporate strategy in different industries. Chief executives from three Fortune 500 companies and an internationally-renowned healthcare system will present their views. Learn what motivates an executive to support sustainability initiatives and gain insight to the issues that lie ahead for corporate leaders.

Putting Sustainability into Practice

Moderated by (photos from left to right):
  John T. Buckley, SVP and director of corporate social
  responsibility, BNY Mellon  
  Nate Hurst, director, stakeholder engagement, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
  Susan Baker Shipley, SVP & managing director, Citizens Bank
  Dr. Norbert Verweyen, vice president, RWE (Germany)

Senior managers, empowered to execute, share their experiences from building sustainable practices into their organizations. Learn about carbon trading from a leader in the European community; explore the challenges and rewards of metrics-driven accountability for sustainability commitments in a large organization; and follow the path that an organization traveled to leverage its scale while implementing high impact programs across the supply chain.

Building a Sustainability Action Plan

William R. Blackburn
president, William Blackburn Consulting
author, The Sustainability Handbook

William R. Blackburn's global consulting firm focuses on sustainable development; environment, health and safety management; and emergency and crisis response. A 35-year veteran in the field, Blackburn will discuss practical tactics for building a customized sustainability action plan in any organization. He will offer tools and advice for getting started, developing an action plan, adapting for unique operating needs, establishing criteria and implementing initiatives.