Press Release
Sustainable Brands Releases Program Details For Sustainable Brands ’12 Conference

Record Attendance of Over 1,000 Sustainability, Brand and Innovation Leaders Expected at Sixth Annual Conference

SAN FRANCISCO, April 17, 2012 – Sustainable Brands ‘12 today released its conference program and list of confirmed speakers for each of the three main conference days. Attendees will dive into engaging conversation set in motion by some of the world’s leading thinkers and practitioners of sustainability and social innovation –- over 150 speakers in total. Each morning, plenary sessions will inspire interactive discussions, followed by facilitated break-out sessions, evening plenaries, Birds-of-a-Feather dinners and networking activities. Every activity and session is designed to help executives make the business case for sustainable brands and better understand the shift in consumer demand and behavior that is driving the need for radical innovation.

The conference opens on Monday, June 4 with pre-conference sessions that provide skill-building fundamentals for those interested in immersing themselves in sustainability strategy and execution. Three-hour workshops will include foundational learning experiences in building employee engagement from within, designing and marketing a sustainable brand, biomimicry as a business discipline, sustainable product design and more. A wide array of new research will be carefully examined, including new data on consumer attitudes and behavior, as well as business-to-business trends. SB’12 Expo will be open to the general public on Monday June 4, providing a close-up of the products and services available to help support brands looking to delight their customers by delivering exceptional user experience and efficacy, as well as environmental and social benefit.

The main conference program begins the morning of June 5 and features many of the world’s leading thinkers and practitioners of environmental and social innovation. Each day, plenary presenters will facilitate new conversation about trends and drivers sparking the revolution, forward-driving business innovation, and consumer-captivating communications. Some of the plenary session lineup includes:

Umair Haque, author of Betterness: Economics for Humans, will share insights on why this is the year for a sustainable brand revolution and how brands from here onward will be called to create higher-order wealth than before.

• Maria Davlantes, SVP, CMO, Interface on the Milan Design Week re-launch of the InterfaceFLOR brand which puts face forward the connection between their dual commitments to design and sustainability.
• Christiaan Maats, founder of OAT Shoes, will share his breakthrough effort to design and bring to market compostable shoes that grow flowers.
• Phil Giesler, Director of Innovation, Unilever Corporate Ventures will present Unilever’s new open innovation platform, and how Unilever is looking at social entrepreneurs as a path to solving their ambitious change goals.

To provide sustainability, brand and design professionals with the tools needed to build business and brand value, facilitated break-out sessions including skills training sessions, best-practice case studies and group discussions will inspire, engage and equip the SB community in five complete conversation tracks addressing forward looking topics at the intersection of brand and business, retail, supply chain, innovation, consumer engagement and civil society. Some of the distinguished faculty leading these sessions includes:

Albe Zakes, Global VP, Media at Terracycle, with colleagues from NBC Universal, Practically Green and Bennu, speaking on Gamifying Change.

• Mathieu Turpault, Managing Partner, Design at Bressler Group, will cover how to reduce impacts and eliminate waste in the design phase of product development.
• Shama Alexander, Director of Sustainability at Lush Bath & Body, will talk about the myriad ways Lush is revolutionizing sustainable retail while embodying their brand promise, “Life Lush” to the core.
• Gwen Migita, VP, Sustainability & Consumer Affairs, Ceasars Entertainment and Bart Alexander, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer, Molson Coors, will discuss strategies for engaging employees in support of a sustainable brand.

“Every year we are pleased to have major sustainable brand innovation and communications initiatives debut at SB,” said KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz, Founder and CEO of Sustainable Brands. “This year will be no different; however our focus extends even further, toward facilitating a variety of co-creation and collaboration activities at the event geared to identify new initiatives for driving revolutionary shift that might be effectively tackled by the influential stakeholders within the Sustainable Brand community.”

For the first time, specific “Co-Create” sessions and a whole conference open space effort will take place to identify a variety of initiatives falling within our core areas of community focus (enabling the business case for sustainable brands, encouraging revolutionary innovation, and driving shift in consumer demand and behavior) which hold significant stakeholder interest. The goal will then be to pull multi-stakeholder conversations together around these initiatives to brainstorm specific calls to community action. The conference will end with a presentation of community designed collaboration proposals that will help the sustainability revolution continue to unfold and brands to prosper.

About Sustainable Brands

Sustainable Brands is the global learning, collaboration, and commerce community committed to replenishing the world through better brands. Sustainable Brands offers news and views from thought and practice leaders, online and live events, a robust resource library, peer-to-peer learning groups, E-learning, and a set of solutions providers for corporate brand and sustainability professionals, social entrepreneurs and the eco-system of supporting value partners. Sustainable Brands inspires, engages and equips today's business and brand leaders to grow revenues and enhance brand value, reputation and loyalty, while helping create a healthy and sustainable future for all. Sustainable Brands is a production of Sustainable Life Media located in San Francisco CA.