7.24.2007 - 07:45pm ET

(CSRwire) BURLINGAME, CA - July 24, 2007- Sustainable Life Media, a new business to business online community, e-newsletter and event company announced today the official launch of a national tour of "Eco-Advantage Salons" in collaboration 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". Beginning in August, the tour is scheduled to stop in various cities across the US, beginning in Denver and Portland, August 22 and 23. 3M and Sun, along with Net Impact and media partners ENN.com and CSRwire.com, are early sponsors of the national tour.

In his book, "Green to Gold", Winston discusses what is causing the "green wave" in business (the vernacular used in the 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, Winston's book provides case studies from various industries, highlighting companies such as McDonald's, 3M, Toyota and Dow Chemical.

The book provides frameworks for managers at every level in a company to think about where opportunities lie for them to innovate, improve environmental impact, and contribute to a better bottom line. Insights range from how to better understand your carbon footprint, to greening your supply chain, to inspiring a culture that embraces environmental sustainability. No matter your level of current knowledge about business and the environment, everyone can improve their knowledge of eco-strategy by reading and applying Winston's frameworks.

Winston's "Eco-Advantage Salon Tour" is designed to introduce business leaders to the concepts in the book, provide examples from business leaders themselves with examples to share of some of Winston's "4 Pillars of Eco-Innovation" and value creation. Participants will have the opportunity to gain introductory experience thinking through some of the frameworks, leaving them better equipped to return to their companies and tackle their own real-life business situation.

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.

3M and Sun, corporate backers of the tour, are each leaders in their own field in creating value through sustainable innovation. Their support of the tour indicates an interest in helping other companies find their own path to sustainability success.

Sustainable Life Media, convener of Winston's "Eco-Advantage Salon Tour" and publisher of Winston's free bi-weekly strategy guide "Eco-Advantage Strategies", is committed to helping mainstream businesses with limited resources to invest get up to speed quickly on how they too can innovate and create value through 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

To subscribe to Winston's FREE bi-weekly "Eco-Advantage Strategies", visit here: http://www.sustainablelifemedia.com/files/webform/documents/ecoadvantagestrategies06252007_1.htm

For more information about Sustainable Life Media, start here:http://www.sustainablelifemedia.com/about

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

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

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