Press Release

Sustainable Brands® to Showcase Innovative Performance Metrics that Quantify New Environmental and Social Value Driven by Business

SAN FRANCISCO, August 22, 2013 – Sustainable Brands® announces the program and speaker line up for its annual New Metrics of Sustainable Business conference, scheduled for September 24-25 at the University of Pennsylvania. A gathering point for sustainability executives, business strategists and financial leaders from across the globe, this event focuses on the leading edge of corporate practices and performance indicators that quantify environmental and social impacts and tie them to financial value.

Published 11 years ago | About a 4 minute read

SAN FRANCISCO, August 22, 2013 – Sustainable Brands® announces the program and speaker line up for its annual New Metrics of Sustainable Business conference, scheduled for September 24-25 at the University of Pennsylvania. A gathering point for sustainability executives, business strategists and financial leaders from across the globe, this event focuses on the leading edge of corporate practices and performance indicators that quantify environmental and social impacts and tie them to financial value.

Breakthrough research methods, provocative insights and case studies, as well as innovative measurement tools will all be featured, including continued threads of conversation on new ways to measure the ROI of sustainability, quantify employee engagement and performance, measure shared value and impact along the supply chain and benchmark ESG performance ratings/rankings. Over 60 contributing speakers from companies such as Campbell Soup, BT, Ben & Jerry’s, Diageo and Bridgestone will join executives from the Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade USA, SASB, GISR, Marine Stewardship Council and many others to the share leading edge corporate initiatives that drive improved business and social value.

Key discussion topics and featured speakers include:

Measuring the ROI of Sustainability: Joseph Wolk, VP of Finance at Johnson & Johnson on new techniques in modeling the ROI of risk reduction and product stewardship; Rob Bernard, Head of Sustainability at Microsoft on the first annual results from an internal ‘carbon fee’ program that was put in place to help with voluntary reduction goals; Kevin Moss, Head of Net Good Program at BT on how brands can leverage LCA in product innovation to reduce emissions in the use phase.
Creating and Measuring Shared Value: Amy Longsworth, Managing Director at PwC along with Amy Hargroves, Director of Corporate Responsibility at Sprint on new approaches to elevating supplier responsibility; Andrew Harner, VP at MARS Global Chocolate on creating shared value and saving the future of cocoa; Jessica Grillo from Rainforest Alliance on the evolution of social impact metrics.
Performance Assessment Principles and Ratings: Bob Willard, author of The New Sustainability Advantage with a sneak peek of a gold-standard benchmark for ESG performance; Katie Schmitz Eulitt, Director at Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) in collaboration with Jeffrey Smith, Partner at Crowell & Moring on getting reporting standards to follow the legal language set by the SEC and capital markets.
The CFO’s Role in Integrating Sustainability in Core Strategy: David Stangis, VP at Campbell Soup Company on strategic levers for non-CEOs based on decades of experience; Rachel Parikh, Sustainability Director at SAP on ways to use New Metrics to embed sustainability across the value chain in a unified fashion.

“Redefining and measuring new forms of business value is one of the most critical conversations that senior executives should be having today,” states KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz, Founder of Sustainable Brands. “Today’s leading brands are embracing business opportunities by exploring new forms of value creation, understanding how to integrate financial, ecological, social and health metrics to drive business success and flourishing communities at the same time.”

The more intimate format of this event hosted at the University of Pennsylvania allows for engaging conversation and enriched debate. The conference is expected to draw over 200 senior sustainability and financial executives from the world’s leading companies. Representatives from GE, Disney, Unilever, BASF, Deloitte, Cisco, Eileen Fisher, Panera, Intel, The Nature Conservancy and more have already confirmed participation. Further information about the conference can be found on the Sustainable Brands® website. Registration is open, but capacity is limited. Proud supporters of this event include Energy Points, Avila and Native Energy. Sponsorship opportunities are still available for companies with innovative solutions to share in sustainability metrics.

About Sustainable Brands

Sustainable Brands® is the premier global community of brand innovators who are shaping the future of commerce worldwide. Since 2006, our mission has been to inspire, engage and equip today’s business and brand leaders to prosper for the near and long term by leading the way to a better future. Digitally published news articles and issues-focused conversation topics, internationally known conferences and regional events, a robust e-learning library and peer-to-peer membership groups all facilitate community learning and engagement throughout the year. Sustainable Brands is a division of Sustainable Life Media, headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

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