by Jen Pennington and Mary Rose

Last Thursday, January 21st, a panel of business leaders spoke at Antioch University to a full room of entrepreneurs, students, faculty and members of the business community. Each gave a great presentation on how their company is working to create social and environmental benefits through innovative practices.

NBIS presented the program as part of Antioch University’s Center for Creative Change series on Global Issues and Perspectives. Karl Ostrom, Co-director of the Network for Business Innovation and Sustainability (NBIS) moderated the discussion with Seattle-based executives from a variety of businesses with global footprints.

First up to speak was David Basson, the CEO from Greensource Organic Clothing Company. His is an eco-friendly company, mitigating the negative environmental impacts of the apparel industry, particularly the toxins used in the growth and processing of cotton. He spoke eloquently about how their brand is not just the products they sell, but more how they do business in the world marketplace. One of the highlights showed how their traceability tracking system gives their customers the benefit of being able to trace their garments from field to final production. He also spoke about giving back to the communities where the organic cotton is grown. They have built three schools to provide access to education for the children in these rural communities. The also have medical clinics on site in several locations. Organic cotton is still only about 3% of the world’s cotton supply, yet conventional cotton is the most pesticide-dependent crop in the world. For every Cotton T-Shirt made with conventionally grown cotton, six ounces of toxic chemicals containing pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers and defoliants are used and these find their way into the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the food we eat.

Next up was Valerie Bone, Director of Quality/Corporate Social Responsibility from Pacific Market International. PMI is best known for their Aladdin and Stanley Thermos brands. Her presentation covered the strategic approach the company took in becoming more sustainably aware. Building on the company’s strong foundation in codes of conduct and quality, she spoke about PMI’s Corporate Social Responsibility charter that embeds sustainability in the core mission and vision of the company. PMI has been conducting extensive R&D to develop BPA-free alternatives to polycarbonate material. One result of these efforts was the co-development of eCycle, a food grade quality plastic that is made from 100 percent recycled materials with a 25 percent post consumer content. It’s also recyclable where [5] plastic is collected. In 2008, PMI used more than 1 million pounds of recycled plastics in its products. As a result of these product innovations, PMI has strengthened its relationships with customers like Starbucks and Nike that have aggressive sustainability goals for products and vendors.

Speaking from the Aerospace industry was David Okrent, Brand Director for Environment for Boeing Commercial Airplanes with additional duties as the coordinator for the European section of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group and as the project manager for the Boeing Sustainable Biofuels Steering Team. It was obvious that Mr. Okrent certainly has his work cut out for him. For Boeing it is more a question of trying to reduce their environmental footprint. When you look at how large a company Boeing is, it becomes very interesting to see how this aerospace giant is seeking to talk about sustainability. Boeing’s work in pioneering new technologies and materials to reduce fuel consumption, striving to find better fuel solutions and even looking at air traffic efficiencies to reduce fuel usage made for an eye-opening presentation. If you are interested in learning more about their progress, read the company’s Environment report.

Last up was Dennis Gawlik, a Faculty member at Bainbridge Graduate Institute and the Director of Purchasing Services for the University of Washington. Mr. Gawlik raised the bar on sustainability imperatives noting that while many companies are striving to achieve better sustainability performance, most, in his view, are not currently going far enough. He engaged the audience in a whiteboard session challenging those in the room to come up with the top ten issues identified in a survey of purchasing agents in the U.S. as their biggest sustainability concerns. At the top of the list were Biodiversity and Water. It was a great way to bring the presentations to a close and get the audience to think in terms of the global economics and impacts of American businesses.

After the presentations the panel joined in a discussion on what sustainability means to each of them. Questions were taken from an enthusiastic audience, and Antioch was pleased to see so many people stick around afterwards to converse with the speakers. It just makes you realize it’s how we harness people energy that will make the business world a better place.