Southwest, IN

With a steadfast commitment to bringing cutting-edge economic and development issues to their members, the Chamber of Commerce of Southwest Indiana hosted the Regional Sustainability Conference on October 28th, 2009 in collaboration with the Wesselman Nature Society. Participants of the conference gathered in downtown Evansville to engage in interactive panel discussions featuring representatives of regional firms participating in sustainable business practices, attend breakout sessions that explored issues from waste stream reduction to marketplace trends, and hear from a number of keynote speakers focusing on “big picture” issues.

 

Keynote speakers at the conference composed an impressive line-up of national thought leaders including Doug Henton, Chairman and CEO of Collaborative Economics and Co-founder of the Climate Prosperity Project, and Sherry Harriman, Regional Vice President of Logistics for Walmart, the corporate sponsor of the conference. During her time at the podium, Harriman shared with conference attendees many of Walmart’s ambitious initiatives including their goal to be 100 percent supplied by renewable energy and their adoption of a new indexing program to determine the environmental impact of products sold in their stores.

The Chamber also used the conference as a platform to announce the creation of the Regional Sustainability Alliance. Through the Alliance, members will have access to resources such as quarterly educational meetings in which regional experts address the latest sustainability practices; regional peer groups for business leaders to discuss challenges and solutions to pressing environmental and business issues; best practice investigations in which members can tour local businesses engaged in sustainability best practices; and a Green Topics speaker series via webcast.

The Regional Sustainability Conference was not a forum to address environmental issues or a gathering to discuss the moral obligation of businesses to participate in green programs. Instead, the conference was a straight-forward presentation of sustainability as a key to businesses’ bottom lines and ability to remain a legitimate competitor in the 21st century economy.