NEW YORK,NY. - August 27, 2008 - Presidential Nominee Barack Obama's top environment advisor Howard Learner and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's own "smartest guy on the environment," Terry Tamminen will both be featured as Keynotes at the SustainPro Conference October 29-30 in Chicago, billed as the largest-ever corporate sustainability event in North America. These two politically-well-connected environmental policy leaders will help the estimated 1,000 corporate operations-level attendees at the SustainPro Conference understand how this political season will impact their often-competing corporate operations responsibilities of making money while avoiding environmental damage.

The man behind world-class innovations such as California's HOV lane for hybrid vehicles and the Hydrogen Highway and author of "Lives per Gallon: The True Cost of our Oil Addiction," former California Environmental Protection Agency head Terry Tamminen will be featured on October 29. Tamminen's boss, Governor Schwarzenegger, has often endorsed Tamminen's critical role in setting energy-guzzling California on the three paths of conservation, regulation and use of renewable energy sources.

On October 30, Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center and Barack Obama's top environmental advisor will be featured. Learner, who headed the Northwestern University Law School, aligned himself early with the former law professor and junior Senator from Chicago who has since become the Democratic Party's Nominee for President. As head of the Environmental Law and Policy Center, Learner has been one of America’s strongest voices for using the law to encourage sustainability initiatives.

"Both Terry Tamminen and Howard Learner represent the best of the sustainability revolution, practical leaders with real-world solutions that work today," says SustainPro Conference Chair Jay Whitehead. "Along with T. Boone Pickens, Terry Tamminen and Howard Learner are the 3 most influential voices on the energy and environment scene."

Registration is now open online at www.SustainPro.com. The SustainPro Conference will be co-located with the CRO Conference, which features the 2008 CRO CEO of the Year Awards. For more information about the CRO Conference, see www.thecro.com/conferences.

The October 29 opening keynote will be provided by Dr. Peter Diamandis, Chairman and Founder of the XPrize Foundation. The XPrizes for achievements benefitting mankind gained fame with the $10 milllion Ansari XPrize for sub-orbital plane flights in 2004 and the newly-announced $10 million Progressive Auto XPrize for a 100+ mpg production automobile. In his keynote at SustainPro, Dr. Diamandis will break news on the largest-ever Energy and Environment XPrize for the first corporate or organizational team to achieve deliver a working suite of energy and environmental technology.

"XPrize Founder Dr. Peter Diamandis' keynote at SustainPro confirms that the most motivated teams will achieve the next big environmental sustainability and energy innovations," says SustainPro Conference Chair Jay Whitehead. "SustainPro exists to motivate and enable the people who have the greatest impact on energy savings and the environment-corporate operations-level pros in manufacturing, IT, procurement, marketing, energy, logistics & transportation, facilities and corporate operations. In North America alone, corporate operations-level executives manage 67% of the impact and cost of greenhouse gases, energy usage and waste. As a result, SustainPro's audience represents today's single-greatest leverage point for saving energy costs and the environment."

Additional keynote speakers include legendary corporate sustainability leader Ray Anderson, Chairman and Founder of industrial flooring pioneer Interface Inc. The inventor of the carpet square, Anderson will tell how Interface has re-defined its manufacturing process based on sustainable cradle-to-cradle design and transformed industrial flooring from a product to a service. Also, Khloro Capital Management CEO and former SAP sustainability and compliance software leader Amit Chatterjee will give attendees an exclusive preview of corporate operations-level sustainability innovations on the horizon.

The conference agenda for the SustainPro Conference & Expo can be found online at www.SustainPro.com, with new speakers being added each week. Attendees will include an estimated 1,000 operations-level corporate executives whose jobs impact their companies’ sustainability profiles and the NGOs, consultants and service providers who support them.
SustainPro initial sponsors and exhibitors to date include Dell, MeadWestvaco, Kodak, Dow, Hydropoint, IBM, GE Energy, GE Financial, American Express Business, Safety-Kleen, Energy Solutions, Microsoft, Khloro Capital Management, Intercontinental, Kyoto Planet, Earth First, Solarsoft Business Systems, Interled, Software Systems, City of Chicago, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Wisconsin, with many more joining every week. The SustainPro Conference is co-produced by Kyoto Planet.

Individual attendee pass prices for the inaugural SustainPro Conference October 29-30, 2008 are: $75 for Expo Floor only, $395 early bird until September 12, 2008, $495 thereafter, and $595 on-site, with special $320 discount rate for trade association members whose associations have joined the Corporate Sustainability Alliance, or CSANow.org.

About the SustainPro Conference and SustainPro.com

The SustainPro Conference, billed as the world's largest corporate operations-level environmental sustainability event, and its online social networking counterpart SustainPro.com focus on professionalizing operations-level corporate sustainability. The conference and online properties are owned by SUPR Show LLC, and co-produced by Kyoto Planet. SUPR shareholders include corporate responsibility media veteran Jay Whitehead, Crossing Media LLC CEO Elliot Clark, sustainability consulting, eco-conscious financial services and media group Kyoto Planet, sustainability venture capitalist James Lincoln and ESG investment rating firm IW Financial. SUPR Show LLC also owns the Sustainable Productivity Seal of Approval, or SUPR Seal, which ranks the sustainability profiles of the largest 1000 companies in the 14 top B2B industries. More information at www.SustainPro.com

The CRO

The CRO

Launched August 1, 2006 by business media veterans Jay Whitehead, CEO and Michael Connor, Editor and Publisher, The CRO is the leading corporate membership media platform in corporate responsibility. The CRO's media products include CRO Magazine, TheCRO.com, CRO Conference and webinars. The CRO covers governance, compliance, ethics, corporate social responsibility, investor relations, citizenship, socially responsible investing, sustainability, philanthropy and related topics. Members include 100+ corporations including IBM, Pepsi, Citigroup, Avon, Mattel, Washington Mutual, Stanford, Harvard, UCLA, Columbia, OCEG, LRN, OPI, and others. Headquartered in New York City and Roseland, NJ. More information at www.The CRO.com.

More from The CRO