LewisPerkins

Join PRSA|GA and renowned environmentalist, Laura Turner Seydel, for an inside look at the evolving environmental movement and the role of communicators in today’s “new sustainable world,” where corporations and non-profits not only co-exist, but collaborate.

Traveling the world for the last 20 years to learn about and communicate the importance of sustainability, Seydel has long believed that a truly sustainable future would only be possible through a collective effort of corporations and community advocacy groups.

Today, she says that collective sustainability effort is not only a reality but also an important marketing tool for both corporations and non-profits.

Focusing on the importance of effective communications in this growing collaboration between business and non-profits, Seydel shares real-life anecdotes from her work as a leader with three Atlanta environmental community organizations – Captain Planet Foundation, Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, and Mothers and Others for Clean Air, as well as her national efforts

Kicking it up a notch, she’ll be joined by leading sustainability strategist, Lewis Perkins, for a lively discussion of:
why corporations are collaborating with non-profits in their sustainability initiatives;
why environmental stewardship has moved to the forefront of many corporations’ marketing strategies, and even become part of overall brand identity, in some cases.
how communications creates an educated public , which influences decisions of corporations on sustainability issues.
their upcoming book, Green Heroes
Perkins and Seydel will discuss the concept of partnership for larger social impact using examples from the work they have both done with Captain Planet Foundation, Global Green USA, US Green Building Council, Upper Chattahocchee Nature Center, and more.

Speaker(s)/Panelists:
Laura Turner Seydel is Chairman of the Captain Planet Foundation, co-founder of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, and Mothers and Others for Clean Air. She serves as: Chairman of Zero Waste Zone; Vice Chair of the League of the Conservation Voters Education Fund; Executive Committee Member of Defenders of Wildlife; Trustee to the Turner Foundation and Jane Smith Turner Foundation; and Advisory Board Member of Environmental Working Group, Georgia Conservancy, Earth Share of Georgia, Ron Clark Academy and Water Keeper Alliance.

A long time advocate for ‘doing the right thing’, Lewis Perkins is a champion for sustainability – personally and professionally. Perkins works with companies both big and small creating programs and awareness for environmental and social initiatives. Over the past several years, Perkins has led the ‘green’ charge as director of sustainable strategies for The Mohawk Group, a leading carpet manufacturer and commercial division of Mohawk Industries. Prior to his current consulting projects, he served with The Clean Air Campaign. Perkins holds a Master of Business Administration in marketing and strategy with a focus on social responsibility from Emory University and a Bachelor of Arts from Washington & Lee University. In 2009, Perkins was honored as one of three speakers in Forbes Magazine Green Visionary Series.

You can follow his corporate sustainability insight on his Fastcompany.com blog “Semantics of Sustainability”.

Day and Date:
Friday, March 26, 2010

Location:
Maggiano’s Restaurant – Buckhead location
3368 Peachtree Rd NE,
Atlanta, GA, 30326-1008
404-816-9650

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In today’s business community, many new conversations are emerging, sounding much more like the type of dialogue you would expect from ministers, rabbis and other people of faith than your typical corporate leader. Words such as authenticity, transparency and truth are infusing corporate speak, but perhaps more significantly their mission statements. Corporate culture is evolving – for the better.

As corporations analyze and strategize their ability to remain profitable for the future, they are having the types of conversations within their organizations that previously belonged to a smaller sector seemingly dominated by health and wellness companies such as the organic food or outdoors equipment or clothing industries. It would not surprise us to learn that conversations about consciousness are taking place within companies who have social consciousness in their DNA, such as Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s or Tom’s of Maine, but would we expect to hear from within the Fortune 500’s? Perhaps we should.

The Call for Conscious Capitalism

Since the executives of Enron were exposed in 2001 for accounting fraud to the more recent Wall Street scandals, such as Madoff Investment Securities, citizens around the world view corporate leadership in the U.S. with a significant level of distrust. All you have to do is visit the Gallup Web site for statistical proof that disapproval of our nation is at an all time high.

Couple this with the shenanigans of the “Big 3” automobile executives and Wall Street’s infamous golden parachutes, and we have a country clearly in great need of a strong dose of good old fashioned ethics.  The thing is, the top business schools have been teaching ethics for well over a decade now and Corporate Social Responsibility has been in the lexicon of companies for even longer. If we have all been talking about it, and in many cases doing it, what’s the problem? Could it be that corporate responsibility is simply an afterthought of major corporations or used as a way to mitigate risk with key stakeholders who could prevent us from doing business in the most profitable way? Clearly, the old way of doing business has not been serving the greater good. And maybe the old way of corporate social responsibility was not serving us well either.

Here enters a new movement called Conscious Capitalism. In short, this new model promotes that businesses can and will exist in the world not only to create products and services that benefit humanity, but in the process of doing so, they can be a part of the solution for the current social and environmental issues that exist in our world today. In the old business model, corporations existed to increase profits and thereby increase shareholder wealth.  In the new model, corporations exist to provide wealth and a better way of living to all stakeholders – customers, employees, vendors, all partners and shareholders alike.  It’s no longer “Company PLUS cause,” it is “Company IS cause.”

Champions of Conscious Capitalism

These ideas are not new and there are many leaders writing and speaking about conscious capitalism.  Even some of our old corporate legends are stepping up to support the new stakeholder centric business model.  Earlier this year, former GE Chairman and CEO,    Jack Welch, publicly stated that running a corporation merely for the purpose to increase shareholder wealth was a “dumb idea.”  He said, “The idea that shareholder value is a strategy is insane. It is the product of your combined efforts – from the management to the employees.”  Welch also says that “our main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products.”

Other companies who are leading this conversation are Whole Foods Markets.                   Co-Founder John Mackey writes the forward in author Michael Strong’s book Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the Worlds Problems. And Mackey himself has an audio CD called “Passion and Purpose: The Power of Conscious Capitalism.”  Both of these works outlines conscious capitalism and led to the creation of an organization called HYPERLINK “http://www.flowidealism.com” Flow Idealism. Mackey and his group believe that you can create a business model which helps to grow your industry in a socially responsibility manner.

In the case of Whole Foods Markets, consider all of the organic food producers and makers of organic textiles, cosmetics and home products (7th Generation included) that have had a venue for shelf space. This kind of conscious capitalism has led most grocery stores chains in this country to add an organic food aisle to their stores. It has also driven companies such as WalMart to call out their vendors and create mandates on consumer packaging that could prevent a company from even working with the world’s largest retailer if they did not meet the reduced consumer packaging material guidelines placed forth.  Other examples include Clorox, which launched its Greenworks natural cleaning products line in late 2007 and purchased Burt’s Bee in 2008; Häagen-Dazs has led a large campaign to save the honey bees, whose product is not only a critical component of several of Häagen-Dazs’ ice creams, but also a major contributor to the health of our agricultural industry.  These companies understand that solving issues of the environment and society means that we will all be around longer to benefit from their corporate offerings – be that a product or a service.

I was recently introduced to the co-founder of an organization called  B-Corp (http://www.bcorporation.net), Jay Coen Gilbert. From Gilbert I learned that B-Corp is built on the idea to create a new category for companies. In addition to the traditional types of incorporations (such as S-Corps, C-Corps and LLC’s), a company can chose to organize as a B-Corp, which operated to create benefit for the environmental and society as a result of its creation or existence.  As it states on its website, the “B Corporations are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.”  B Corporations are unlike traditional responsible businesses because they:

Meet comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards.

Institutionalize stakeholder interests.

Build collective voice through the power of a unifying brand.

Another prime example is Mohawk Industries and its vast recycling initiatives. The largest floorcovering manufacturer in the world, Mohawk has committed to recycling more waste than it products. Each year, it diverts more than 3 billion lbs. from landfills, and recycles its own products, its competitors’ carpets and purchases other waste including home demolition waste to used soda bottles. In fact, it saves 3 billion lbs. of soda and water bottles from landfills annually, and uses these PET bottles to produce millions of pounds of recycled carpet, which is then used to manufacture its floorcovering products. The company recognizes the significant environmental footprint of the products it produces, but its efforts are dedicated to minimizing that impact as much as possible while also helping the communities in which it works and lives.

The Future of Corporate Capitalism

So where do we go from here? Can we really expect to witness such a significant transition of the corporate mindset at the heart of our major corporations?  Can and will this shift to a shareholder centric business model take place? I believe it already has. Just watch: corporate transformation is rapidly occurring to meet the demands of a shifting society.

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A long-time advocate for “doing the right thing,” Lewis Perkins is a champion for                   sustainability – personally and professionally. A sustainable strategies consultant to corporations and businesses, including The Mohawk Group, a leading commercial carpet manufacturer, Perkins draws on this passion to help advance companies’ missions of environmental and social responsibility. He has recently spoken on the issues as part of       Forbes’ Business Visionaries Series, the Sustainable Brands conference and the Lifestyles of Health and the Sustainability (LOHAS) forum. To learn more about Perkins, visit  http://www.lewisperkins.com” www.lewisperkins.com and follow his insight on environmentalism and corporate citizenship on his blog, “http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/lewis-perkins/semantics-sustainability-0″Semantics of Sustainability, on FastCompany.com.

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Green Schools Alliance Event

National Student Climate and Conservation Congress in Shepherdstown, West Virginia this week.

I was pleased to learn that The Green Schools Alliance is holding a National Student Climate and Conservation Congress in Shepherdstown, West Virginia this week. The event was developed in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center (NCTC).

100 outstanding GSA Student Fellows and 10 Faculty Fellows, selected from over 24 states, convene to participate in a national environmental leadership conference. One outcome will be a student toolkit, the foundation for a national student climate & conservation service initiative. The goal is to have schools sign up as GSA Chapter Members, so that the more fellows can be nominated. This is real grassroots change to educate and train the next generation of environmental leaders. Check out the speakers at the conference:

http://www.greenschoolsalliance.org/students/fellowconf.html

Also, join the Cause page on Facebook:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/191326?m=3f1cca43

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LOHAS conference brings Fortune 500s
Walmart, Coca-Cola among major corporations at green forum in Boulder

Click here to learn more from DailyCamera.com.

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atlanta_buyerinvite-23atlanta_buyerinvite-22Go Green Expo in Atlanta

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Title: West Coast Green
Location: San Francisco, CA
Description: The Challenges of Sustainability in Today’s Corporations and The Solution
Start Date: 2009-10-01
End Date: 2009-10-03

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Title: Eco-Innovation
Location: La Jolla, CA
Description: Where Meaningful Environmental, Social, and Economic Innovations Enhance the Corporate Bottom
Start Date: 2009-10-20
End Date: 2009-10-21

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Title: Go Green Expo
Location: Atlanta
Description: Business Panel
Date: 2009-06-26

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