Led by Professors Mark Starik and John Forrer, GW Institute for Corporate Responsibility, GW conducted its second climate action conference on May 1 -3, 2008 in the Elliot School Building and the Marvin Center. The event brought together a number of organizations, community representatives, entrepreneurs, and representatives of small-to-medium sized enterprises in the business, academic, government, and nonprofit sectors.
The conference focused on three goals:
(1) To recognize and leverage the value of small-scale climate decisions and actions;
(2) To share strategies for social, environmental, and economic sustainability related to climate action; and,
(3) To map out ways to collaborate to advance the vision that micro-decisions and actions can have macro-implications for our planet’s climate crises.
Speakers at the event included:
• Charles O. Holliday, Jr., Chairman and CEO, DuPont
• Miranda Anderson, Director, Wal-Mart Corporate Affairs, Sustainability
• Ken Zweibel, Recent President & Senior PV Technologist, PrimeStar Solar
• Amy Townsend, Sustainable Development International Corporation
• Kevin Moss, British Telecom
• Pilar Rivera, Alteeva
• Will Ferretti, Chicago Climate Exchange
• Roger Telschow, Ecoprint
• Grady O'Rear, Green Advantage
• Neville Williams, Standard Solar
• Byron Kennard, Center for Small Business & the Environment
• Marie-Ange Binagwaho, Solar Household Energy, Inc.
• Jerry Lawson, EPA Small Business Energy Star
• Steven Lovink, Planet 2025
• John Friedman, SBNOW
• Scot Holliday, IBM
• David Gernshorn, Empowerment Institute
• Cynthia Cummis, Clear Carbon Consulting
• Doug LaBier, Center for Adult Development
• Fred Widicus, Systems & Renewable Energy Consultants
• Susan Nickbarg, SVN Marketing
• Dave Feldman, Bethesda Green
• Anca Novacovici, Eco-Coach
• Margery Moore, Bureau of National Affairs
• Justin Perkins, Care2
• Steven Coleman, Cool Capital Challenge
Some speakers made the case that actions taken by individuals and smaller organizations deserved significant attention by economists and other private and public decision-makers. Others indicated that incorporating scale-oriented issues about pollution and over-consumption is important to reducing the human carbon footprint at the small-scale level so that our overall global carbon footprint is itself reduced.
More information on the conference can be seen at http://www.climateactionconference.org/