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Business Leaders to Outline Corporate Responses to Global Crises at WRI’s Sustainable Enterprise Summit

Business Leaders to Outline Corporate Responses to Global Crises at WRI’s Sustainable Enterprise Summit

Published 03-16-04

Submitted by World Resources Institute

WASHINGTON, DC – 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 most 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.

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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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