Andrew Winston, Principal, Winston Eco-Strategies, Editor, Sustainable Life Media, Eco Advantage Strategies Newsletter

Eric Ryan, Co-Founder, Chief Brand Architect, Method
When co-founders Adam Lowery and Eric Ryan started their business, green wasn’t what they were selling. They focused instead on building a brand that worked from the outside in; beautiful design, effective product, and as it happens, all natural ingredients.  Somewhere along the way, the focus on natural took a step forward.  Hear the story behind Method’s wildly successful brand and learn why they decided it was time to talk green, how they’ve decided to go about it, and what effect this decision is having on their brand.

Erin Carlson, Director of Yahoo! for Good, Yahoo! Inc. and
In 2006, Yahoo’s brand team identified the environment as a compelling issue for their customers. With the blessing of company executives, the team set about to build a green story from the inside out. Come hear how they set, and met the challenge to become carbon neutral, how they’ve engaged each of their stakeholders in their journey, and how they’ve benefited as a result.

JoAnna Abrams, Founder and CEO, and John Burshek, Chief Research Officer, MindClick

From the economic downturn, to corporate use of buzzwords and terminology, to growing expectations about corporate responsibility, MindClick presents their latest research on how current market factors are impacting consumer perceptions and behaviors toward green- and how successfully (or not) businesses are responding.

NETWORKING BREAK

Lee Green, Vice President, Worldwide Values and Brand Experience, IBM
Dedication to every client's success. Innovation that matters, for the company and the world. Trust and personal responsibility in all relationships. These are IBM’s core values which embody IBM’s brand, drive its business and its design philosophy - whether hardware, software or services. From IBM’s first corporate policy on environmental affairs, issued in 1971, to the release of their latest energy-efficient System z10 mainframe and broader focus on the Green data center, IBM has been committed to leadership that helps protects the environment. Design plays a role in all of these initiatives and is a core component of their focus on positive environmental impact. Learn more about what this means to IBM in this session with their executive in charge of worldwide brand and values experience.

Greg Owsley, Chief Branding Officer, New Belgium Brewery
Who better than a brewery to prove sustainable living doesn’t have to be all about abstinence? In 2006, New Belgium Brewing began pondering the question of how to talk about sustainability in a playful yet purposeful way. Join Greg Owsley, New Belgium’s Chief Branding Guy, and his inside partner in sustainability, Jennifer Orgolini, as they walk you through how New Belgium is making that goal a reality.  From staging events like the traveling bicycle carnival, Tour de Fat, to the Redefining Folly advertising/advocacy campaign, come witness how the New Belgium team have created a style of sustainable branding that is as fermented with authenticity as it is dosed with quirkiness.

LUNCH

Diane Ray, Vice President-Strategic Consulting, and Gwynne Rogers, LOHAS Business Director, Natural Marketing Institute
Ethical consumption and values-based consumerism is sweeping the globe. But how do consumers in different parts of the world compare to each other? Who is leading the green movement and how can we learn from them?  NMI’s new research on the European and U.S. LOHAS marketplace provides quantified answers to these questions across a variety of dimensions - sustainability, corporate social responsibility, environmentalism, social issues, and their usage of eco-friendly products and services.  Armed with this knowledge, you can better assess the opportunity for green on an international basis, and better understand how to meet the needs of the ever-changing marketplaces.

Moderator: Larry Vertal, Senior Strategist, Head of Green Program, AMD
Panelists: To Be Announced
The market for Carbon Offsets is projected to reach $5.4 billion world wide in 2008.  But offsetting itself won’t get us out of our global warming bind.  Once you’ve sorted out your carbon footprint, and before you look for offset solutions, its critical to identify opportunities to reduce your imprint. In this session, panelists share their practical strategies for reaching carbon neutrality, from improving building energy efficiency, to greening IT, to employee engagement programs and more.

Eric Park, Creative Director, Ziba Designs
9 in 10 people believe it is their duty to contribute to a better society and environment. But based on current purchase and consumption behavior, this may seem more like good intentions. Are consumers lying about their values? Or are they simply waiting for a better choice- one that doesn't force them to choose between what's good for them and what's good for the planet?

The time has come to create better choices, choices that make sustainability relevant for your customer and authentic to your brand. In this talk, Ziba Creative Director Eric Park shares innovation strategies for creating better choices, and weaves in a few good stories, too - like how a Big Box Retailer, Fast Food Restaurant, and Real Estate Developer moved their customers up the sustainability ladder and captured their customer's hearts and minds along the way.

Steve Pinetti, Vice President for Marketing, Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants

and
Jeff Slye, CEO, Business Evolution Consulting (Kimpton, Destination Hotels, National Restaurant Association)
The hospitality industry is but one in which sweeping changes are afoot with respect to building and communicating a sustainable brand story. In this session you’ll learn what drove Kimpton Hotels to be one of the earliest hospitality brands to go green. You’ll learn how they got started, some of the obstacles they ran in to and how they overcame them, and how they have successfully communicated their commitments to the benefit of their brand.

Jacquelyn Ottman, President, J. Ottman Consulting
with in conversation with Brooks Beard, Partner, Morrison & Foerster and Scot Case, Vice President, TerraChoice Environmental Marketing, Inc.

Scot Case's widely reported article "The 6 Sins of Greenwashing" made the rounds this year, from Sustainable Life Media to USA Today. Come hear Scot discuss the research his article was founded on, and debate with him and SB’08 Co-Chair, Jacquelyn Ottman, the implications for companies who are legitimately attempting to take incremental steps toward building more sustainable brands.

Sol Salinas, Deloitte Consulting with panelists GE AES, New Wind Energy, Native Energy and 3Degrees
Once you’ve exhausted your own carbon reduction options, offsets can be a great way to help mitigate your remaining impact.  Carbon credits, if done properly, can help transition the global economy safely to carbon neutrality without undue disruption in industry or markets.  Unfortunately, not all offset solutions are created equal. Get tips from this panel of experts about what to look for when evaluating solutions, how they’ve made their choices and how the decision to offset purchases is being successfully tied to brand.

Moderator: Paige Poulos
with Milla Handley, Handley Cellars; Katrina Frey, Frey Vineyards; Ann Thrupp, Fetzer Wines; Tim Thornhill, Mendocino Wine Company

This panel reveals the power of sustainable vision as it tracks sustainable practices from the ground to the glass in the wine industry. The panel explores ways to turn green practices at every level into marketplace advantage. From the greening of the winery itself, marketing with a radically decreased carbon footprint and more, the participants share case studies in consumer communication of the "sustainable advantage.

Amy Hebard, Chief Research Officer, Earthsense LLC
Is there one shade of green to define individual consumers and the products they each buy? Decidedly not. The new Eco-Insights biannual study of 30,000 US adults shows how consumer decision making around environmentally friendly products and services varies dramatically by product category and by consumer segment. Green consumption across product categories is rarely driven simply by altruistic goals about the environment. More often, it’s driven by basic needs: health and safety, product performance, economic benefit or the comfort of familiar trusted brands - and these motivations can differ, even for the same individual. Highlights of this new research will be covered in-depth, showing how these drivers vary across 75 different product categories (including groceries, auto, appliances, electronics, home improvement, travel and financial services). The presentation will highlight what smart marketers need to know about category drivers and barriers that influence consumer purchases and how to define the right target consumer for your green product.

Moderator, Pam Van Orden, President, Enlightened Brand with Zem Joaquin, Founder, Ecofabulous.com, Andrea Lim, Event Marketing Manager, Lexus Division, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. and
Kevin George, Founder and President, Articulate Design

From the runways of Paris to the resorts of Abu Dhabi, luxury brands are going green. In this session, Sustainable Brands '08 co-chair Pam Van Orden will moderate a discussion among recognized leaders in the EcoLuxury movement. Our world-class panelists will tell the inside stories of building their EcoLuxury brands. Together, we'll explore what it means to be green and luxurious, who buys high-end green, and the role affluent consumers can play in shaping the broader green marketplace.

Moderator: Steve Bolton, Manager of Business Development, MBDC
with Angela Nahikian, Director, Global Environmental Sustainability, Steelcase Inc.;Richard A. Guinn, Vice President, Business Development, CENTRIA Wyn H. Channer, VP, Strategic Accounts, Shaw Industries, Inc.
Large, medium and small companies are adopting MBDC’s Cradle to Cradle framework within their marketing, product design, operations and stakeholder engagement. The framework features the goal of eliminating the concept of waste and a perspective of enhancing the positive impacts of commerce on the environment and social responsibility. Panelists will discuss their efforts to integrate Cradle to Cradle in their customer messaging and overall brand strategy, challenges they have faced, and value they have received within their industries. The session is intended to help observers understand the potential marketing opportunities inherent in this approach to sustainable design.

Moderator: Joe Sibilia, CEO, CSR Wire
with Mark McElroy, Executive Director, Center for Sustainable Innovation; Jay Coen Gilbert, Co-Founder, B Corporation Gil Friend, Founder, President & CEO, Natural Logic Inc. and R. Paul Herman, CEO + Founder, HIP Investor, Inc.
What gets measured, gets done, and nowhere is there more thoughtful innovation taking place than around the way we should be measuring sustainability. Come hear from some of the top thinkers on this subject discuss where we are now, where we’re headed, and where we need to end up in order to finally accomplish truly sustainable success for business and its all of its stakeholders.

Janet Eden-Harris, CEO and  Averill Doering, Manager of Consumer Insights & Strategy, Umbria, a JD Power and Associates Company
In this session, Umbria takes the lid of just released research - developed from analyzing millions of blogosphere conversations - that examines how the greening efforts of top brands are resonating with consumers. Umbria also outlines consumer sustainability trends that reveal who is most concerned, the level of their concern, and how their concern is affecting buying and other behavior.

NETWORKING BREAK

Moderated by Geoff Beattie, MD, Global Sustainability Practice, Cohn & Wolfe; Claire Alexander, VP Operations, Planet Green, Discovery Communications, Anya Kamenetz, Staff Writer, Fast Company, Betsy Rosenberg, Eco-Talk and Nick Astor, Co-founder, Treehugger.com, TriplePundit.com

Paul Polak, Founder, D-Rev andCheryl Heller, CEO, Heller Communication Design. INtroduced by Jurriaan Kamp, President and Editor in Chief, Ode Magazine
American entrepreneur and philanthropist, Dr. Paul Polak, was named by Scientific American magazine as one of the Scientific American 50- recognizing outstanding acts of leadership in technology because of his leading work with rural farmers in developing nations worldwide. The founder/president and CEO of the non-profit organization, International Development Enterprises (IDE), and a new for-profit organization, D-Rev, Polak has worked for decades to help the world escape the devastating effects of poverty through facilitating income generation. Polak works from the base knowledge that lack of water, particularly clean water, is the cornerstone of poverty. IDE has pioneered the development and rural mass marketing of affordable technologies through the small enterprise private sector in developing countries.

TRANSPORTATION TO OFFSITE EVENT

SPECIAL EVENT! An Evening in Historic Monterey with Featured Guest, FABIEN COUSTEAU, Undersea Explorer