West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum will present its 2015 Fall Conference on Monday, October 19 at The Ballroom at City Flats in downtown Grand Rapids, 11:30 am to 4:30 pm.
Featured speakers for the half-day event include Rob Kaplan, Managing Director of the Closed Loop Fund, Janelle Kearsley, Senior Director of Stakeholder Engagement for Walmart, Bill Stough of Sustainable Research Group, and Liese Dallbauman, former Director of Water Stewardship for PepsiCo. Presented by Amway.
Kearsley played a key role in launching Walmart’s sustainability initiative. She will discuss the retailer’s approach to social and environmental sustainability, including case studies on food, energy, and waste. Kaplan, until recently the Director of Product Sustainability for Walmart, will also share his perspective during a joint question and answer period.
Founded in 2014, Closed Loop Fund is a social impact investment fund that provides cities access to the capital required to build comprehensive recycling programs. The fund aims to invest $100 million by 2020 with the goal to create economic value for cities by increasing recycling rates in communities across America. Closed Loop Fund brings together the world’s largest consumer product, retail, and financial companies committed to finding a national solution to divert waste from landfills into the recycling stream in order to be used in the manufacturing supply chain. It was recently cited by the Harvard Business Review in its review of the 10 Most Important Sustainable Business Stories of 2014.
Until recently, Liese Dallbauman was Director of Water Stewardship for PepsiCo’s global food and beverage businesses. Her responsibilities included in-plant water conservation training, water use analysis, and global water risk assessment and mitigation. These programs made major contributions to PepsiCo’s success in reducing its operational water use ratio by 20% from a 2006 baseline – four years ahead of the 2015 schedule. Before assuming her global role, she was a member of an interdisciplinary team focused on reducing energy and water used to manufacture PepsiCo’s Quaker, Gatorade, and Tropicana products.
Register by September 30 for $20 early-bird discount: just $25 online, $35 for non-members.
Source: WMSBF