WASHINGTON -
WHAT: Switching to green power provides significant opportunities for corporations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and thus their impact on climate change and air quality. Green power, however, often can be expensive and require large-up front capital expenditures. WRI’s Green Power Market Development Group is working to find solutions to these challenges.

As part of WRI’s Seventh Sustainable Enterprise Summit, corporate members of the Green Power Market Development Group and energy suppliers will discuss new business models and renewable energy products that are available to corporations looking to build green power into their energy portfolios.

WHEN: Thursday, March 18, 2004 from 9:45-11:00 am

WHERE: Watergate Hotel
2650 Virginia Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20037
(800) 289-1555

WHO: Claire Broido, chief operating officer, Sun Edison

Mark Buckley, vice president, Environmental Affairs, Staples

Vince Van Son, manager, Environmental Finance and Business Development, Alcoa Inc

Moderated by: Craig Hanson, manager, Green Power Market Development Group, WRI

WHY: Burning fossil fuels for energy is the largest source of man-made greenhouse gas emissions and contributes significantly to air pollution. New business models and renewable energy products are making it possible for corporations to address their impacts on climate change and air quality without jeopardizing profits.

Convened by WRI in 2000, the Green Power Market Development Group (www.thegreenpowergroup.org) is a unique commercial and industrial partnership dedicated to building corporate markets for green power. Its members, two of whom will participate in this panel session, are Alcoa Inc, Cargill Dow LLC, Delphi Corporation, The Dow Chemical Company, DuPont, General Motors, IBM, Interface, Johnson & Johnson, Kinko's, Pitney Bowes, and Staples.

WRI’s Seventh Sustainable Enterprise Summit will take place on March 17-18, 2004 at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC. “Today’s Challenges, Tomorrow’s Markets” will bring together innovative corporate leaders and sustainability experts to explore solutions that corporations can provide in response to today’s most pressing global challenges, and, in so doing, position themselves as the competitive enterprises of the future.

For more information on WRI’s Seventh Sustainable Enterprise Summit, please visit http://summit.wri.org.

World Resources Institute

World Resources Institute

The World Resources Institute (WRI) is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research to find practical ways to protect the earth and improve people's lives. Our mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth's environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations. Because people are inspired by ideas, empowered by knowledge, and moved to change by greater understanding, WRI provides—and helps other institutions provide—objective information and practical proposals for policy and institutional change that will foster environmentally sound, socially equitable development. WRI organizes its work around four key goals:

People & Ecosystems: Reverse rapid degradation of ecosystems and assure their capacity to provide humans with needed goods and services.

Access: Guarantee public access to information and decisions regarding natural resources and the environment.

Climate Protection: Protect the global climate system from further harm due to emissions of greenhouse gases and help humanity and the natural world adapt to unavoidable climate change.

Markets & Enterprise: Harness markets and enterprise to expand economic opportunity and protect the environment.

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