4.01.2008 - 11:30pm ET

(CSRwire) BURLINGAME, CA –April 1, 2008 - 3M, Green Media Enterprises, SunMicrosystems and WebEx and as well as several local sustainable business NGOs have announced support for the Los Angeles installment of the "Eco-Advantage Salon Tour" with Andrew Winston, the widely acclaimed co-author of "Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage". The Los Angeles Salon, one in a series of national events, will be held May 20 from 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM at the Los Angeles Convention Center in conjunction with the Green West Expo. This event follows successful stops in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Portland and Denver. Additional Salon Tour stops in 2008 are scheduled for Washington D.C. (July 15), Austin (September) and New York (October 21-23).

During the half-day conference, Winston will discuss what is causing the "green wave" in business (the vernacular used in his book to describe business’s move toward sustainability), and how "Wave Riders" (those businesses that are embracing the green wave) have harnessed this trend to create competitive advantage for their business. Based on three years of research while serving as Director of the Corporate Environmental Strategy Project at Yale's renowned School of Forestry and the Environment, as well as his own extensive experience as a business consultant with Boston Consulting Group and his own consultancy, Winston uses up to the minute news as well as various case studies to illustrate the four "Pillars of Eco-Innovation" that can lead to enhanced bottom line value.

Salon Tour participants will work through hands on exercises aimed at helping them become familiar with the tools and frameworks suggested in Winston's book, and assisting managers, regardless of where they sit in a company, in identifying where opportunities may lie for them. To round out the program, local "wave-riders", who are already experiencing success with sustainability, will be on hand to tell their own stories in an interactive panel session. Panelists in Los Angeles will be Donald Wilkes, Founder and CEO of Blue Pacific Flavors, Marcy Scott Lynn, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at Sun Microsystems, and Shelley Billik, VP, Environmental Initiatives at Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Every Los Angeles Salon Tour attendee will also receive complimentary admission to the Green West Expo.

Winston isn't afraid of providing some tough love to would-be Wave Riders. In the book he cautions, "In many cases, eco-efficiency efforts and other environmental initiatives do pay off. But lots of initiatives fall flat. Some don't deliver the promised environmental gains. Others don't work from an economic perspective. Some fail on both accounts," says Winston. Winston is prepared to show Salon participants how to avoid falling into common traps.

Sustainable Life Media, convener of the "Eco-Advantage Salon Tour" and publisher of Winston's free bi-weekly strategy guide, "Eco-Advantage Strategies", is committed to helping mainstream businesses new to sustainability get up to speed quickly on how to find their own profitable path to more sustainable business strategies, operating practices, product design and purchasing. "Retooling for sustainability offers a new frontier of competitive advantage at the moment," said company founder and president, KoAnn Vikoren Skryniarz. "However with growing global attention on the environmental and social impact of business -- from consumers, policy makers and a wide range of other stakeholders, it's only a matter of time before sustainability becomes a competitive business requirement."

For more information about Andrew Winston's upcoming tour, please visit http://sustainablelifemedia.com/events/eco-advantagesalons

For more information about Sun Microsystems' eco responsibility programs, visit: http://www.sun.com/eco

For more information about 3M's environmental management program, start here: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/global/sustainability/s/governance-systems/management-systems/environmental-management

For more information about WebEx's latest innovations, view: http://www.webex.com/companyinfo/press-webex.html

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