1.19.2006 ET

(CSRwire) BOSTON --Former Vice President Al Gore and Duke Energy CEO Paul Anderson are among the keynote speakers at the upcoming Ceres annual conference on April 5-6, 2006 at the Oakland Marriott City Center in Oakland, CA.

The 10th annual conference, Accelerating Sustainable Governance, will bring together more than 400 corporate directors, CEOs, national environmental leaders, investors and corporate governance experts to discuss how sustainable governance builds shareholder value and promotes lasting prosperity. Sustainable governance is the practice of managing and integrating critical environmental and social issues into the highest levels of corporate decision-making.

"Whether it's global warming, dwindling water supplies or workplace conditions, global companies face a myriad of environmental and social issues that pose both risks and opportunities to their bottom lines," said Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres. "The Ceres conference is a unique opportunity to hear how business, investor and environmental leaders are managing and integrating these sustainability issues into their day-to-day operations."

For more information on the conference and how to register, see www.ceres.org

(Discounts are available for those who register by Jan. 31.)

Among the dozens of workshops and plenary sessions at the two-day conference:

Insurance: Learning from Hurricane Katrina
The Nuclear Option: Does a Low-Carbon Future Depend on It?
Water: Commodity or Common?
The Billion Dollar Commitment to Clean Technology
Using Market Forces to Drive Forest Preservation
Corporate Governance and Climate Risk: Benchmarking 100 Global Companies
Gearing Up for G3: The Revised GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines

The conference will include keynote speeches from Duke Energy board chairman Paul Anderson, who has called publicly for the adoption of a broad-based carbon tax in the U.S., and former Vice President Al Gore, who is currently chairman of Generation Investment Management, a London-based sustainable investment firm launched in 2004.

Ceres is a national coalition of investors, environmental groups and other public interest organizations working with companies to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. Ceres also directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk, an alliance of more than 50 institutional investors managing nearly $3 trillion in assets.