Business Leaders to Outline Corporate Responses to Global Crises at WRI's Sustainable Enterprise Summit 3/16/2004
From: Adlai Amor of the World Resources Institute, 202-729-7736 or aamor@wri.org WASHINGTON, March 16 -- Forty-two corporate leaders and sustainability experts, led by Citigroup Inc.'s Todd S. Thomson, will address the Seventh Sustainable Enterprise Summit organized by the World Resources Institute (WRI), March 17-18 at the Watergate Hotel. The summit will focus on the theme, "Today's Challenges, Tomorrow's Markets," which is also the subject of a WRI report that explores the new markets that can emerge when the corporate sector focuses on reversing some of the world's ost challenging global social and environmental trends. There will be panels on serving the needs of the poor, providing healthy food to deal with malnutrition and obesity, responding to water scarcity, harvesting natural resources in sustainable ways, integrating carbon value into strategic business decisions, and overcoming barriers to renewable energy. "In a rapidly globalizing economy, businesses that wish to survive and thrive must respond to major social and environmental trends that are reshaping markets," said Elizabeth Cook, director of WRI's Sustainable Enterprise Program. "The successful enterprises of the future will align their growth strategies with providing solutions to society's most pressing problems." An estimated 200 executives from leading US and international corporations will attend. Todd S. Thomson, executive vice president for finance, operations and strategy and chief financial officer of Citigroup Inc., will deliver the keynote address at 4:15 p.m. on March 17. He will discuss Citigroup's engagement in environmental issues. The keynote address will be preceded by a plenary session on the role of financial markets in supporting sustainable enterprise. It will feature James Harmon, chairman, Harmon and Co.; Barbara Krumsiek, president, Calvert Group, Ltd.; Preston R. Miller, partner, Tremont Group; and Jonathan Lash, president, WRI. Other speakers include Sam Smolik, vice president for environmental health of The Dow chemical Company; Madeleine Jacobs, senior vice president of ABN AMRO; Claire Broido, chief operation officer of SunEdison LLC; Jessica Tuchman Mathews, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Dr. C. K. Prahalad, professor of corporate strategy at the University of Michigan Business School; Mario Rodenstein, senior coordinator of nutritional programs, Unilever Bestfoods; and Vince Van Son, manager of environmental finance and development, Alcoa Inc. ------ The World Resources Institute ( http://www.wri.org/wri ) is an environmental research and policy organization that creates solutions to protect the Earth and improve people's lives. | |