‘Green’ trends on the docket for conference

BOULDER – The University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business and Connected Organizations for a Responsible Economy are hosts of the first “Sustainable Opportunities Week,” scheduled Feb. 21-25 to highlight trends and innovations in green and natural products business.

The event, to be held at the Millennium Harvest House Boulder hotel, will include a sustainable opportunities summit, Colorado CleanTech initiative, invention to venture workshop and two graduate student competitions. The summit will include information about clean energy, organic food, information technology, green building and venture capital.

CORE is a nonprofit trade association formed last January when Denver-based Colorado Environmental Business Alliance joined forces with Boulder-based People, Planet, Profits of Colorado Inc. The organization unveiled its new name in November.

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Paul Jerde, director of the Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School, said the summit includes four keynote speakers among the 20 lined up to talk about sustainable business opportunities.

“Companies are looking at sustainability as a source of new business opportunities,” he said. “We are really emphasizing opportunity. That is the key to the conference. It is the primary theme of the conference.”

Sun Microsystems Chief Information Officer Bill Vass will talk about Sun’s initiative to lower computer energy consumption. Vass’ department has increased productivity by using sustainable practices throughout Sun.

“It’s important that today’s businesses understand that it’s possible to do good and do well at the same time,” he said in a press release. “Small changes in the way we do business can have a big impact on our productivity and responsible use of resources.”

John Casesa, vice president of Merrill Lynch, will speak about a research report Merrill Lynch completed on climate change pertaining to the automotive and energy industries. Nick Parker, chairman of the CleanTech Venture Network in Toronto, will give attendees information about investing in sustainable ventures, and Tim O’Brien, vice president of corporate affairs for Ford Motor Co., will address the challenges companies face dealing with sustainable issues.

Graham Russell, a CORE board member who is heading the nonprofit’s effort in planning the sustainability week, said major corporations are recognizing it’s in their interest to develop more sustainable business practices.

“The world economy will run out of resources as it develops and will run out of places to put the waste as the developing economies begin to grow,” he said. “We are not going to solve this problem through government action or regulation. Business is the way to solve these problems. We are going to make faster progress when business believes that it can make more money by reducing resource utilization and reducing waste generation.”

Russell said CORE wanted to take the lead in encouraging the growth of sustainable business practices and found a strong common interest with the Leeds School in promoting those ideas.

The Leeds School is organizing the student sustainable venturing business plan competition and the Leeds/Net impact case competition. In the business plan competition, Jerde said eight teams of graduate students in business and engineering will submit business plans that demonstrate for-profit business models.

The Leeds/Net impact case competition involves MBA teams viewing a case problem about a current company that deals with a challenge pertaining to profitability and sustainability. The teams will create and present innovative solutions to solve the case.

Jerde said the event cost is $259 for non-CORE members, $209 for CORE members, and $140 for full-time students. More than 200 people from the business world, academia and the investment community are expected to attend.

In addition to planning events for the week, Russell said CORE and Leeds are working on lining up financial sponsors. He is hoping to sign up companies in Boulder and Broomfield counties, Denver as well as a number nationwide. Russell said there is no money in the bank yet, but if there is a profit after paying expenses, it will go to CORE and the Leeds School to promote sustainable business. The Boulder County Business Report will be a media sponsor.

Russell believes Colorado is a center for sustainable business and the goal of the event is to show how common the business practice has become.

“The goal is to demonstrate that sustainable business is rapidly becoming mainstream in corporate America,” he said.