Time Magazine’s “Visionaries and Entrepreneurs” in New Zealand at Better by Design CEO Summit

July 7, 2008

Better by Design CEO Summit International Speakers focus on Increasing Profits through Sustainable Design for the Bottom Line

Five of the world’s leading advocates of sustainable business have been confirmed as headline speakers at this year’s Better by Design CEO Summit on the September 1st 2008.  Specifically designed for New Zealand CEOs and senior managers, the focus of the one day summit is on how businesses can engage profitably with growing mass-market demand for sustainable products and services.

Each of the international speakers has made headlines around the world with their groundbreaking approach to innovation and sustainable business practice. Three of the five international speakers were named among the world's top 50 sustainability leaders, visionaries, and entrepreneurs by Time Magazine in 2007. Four have written books considered 'must-reads' about business, innovation and sustainability.

The international speakers include:

• Ray Anderson, Founder and Chairman, Interface Inc
• Michael Braungart Principal, McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry. Professor, Process Engineering at Universität Lüneburg (Germany)
• Janine Benyus, Writer, Innovation consultant and founder of the Biomimicry Guild
• Alex Steffen, Founder and Executive Editor, WorldChanging.com
• Lee Weinstein, Principal, LWA PR; Former Director of Nike’s US and global public relations

According to Jeremy Moon, Chairman of the Better by Design’s Advisory Board, the summit will have an opportunity-focused agenda.

“Our exporters have always competed and won by being ahead of the next wave. The sustainability wave is here and it’s not just a fad. Simply acting with tokenism or ‘eco-improving’ your business is not going to cut it. We want to inspire New Zealand business people and help them to address this challenge. The focus of this summit is to showcase how companies can be environmentally responsible at the same time as increasing their profitability,” he says.

“The Better by Design CEO Summit is a must attend event” says Dame Cheryll Sotheran, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s Sector Director for the Creative Industries and Tourism.

“It has a highly respected range of international speakers and local business leaders sharing valuable insights into how sustainability can offer true business opportunity,” she says.

In addition to the acclaimed international key note speakers, five leading New Zealand CEOs will present their case studies. Further details will be released shortly.

The summit will be held at Auckland’s Hilton Hotel on Monday 1st September 2008. Last year’s CEO Summit was a sell out success and this year’s event is expected to reach capacity in record time. For further information or to register for the CEO Summit please visit: www.betterbydesign.org.nz 

Background on International Key Note Speakers:

Ray Anderson,
Founder and Chairman, Interface Inc, (USA)

The largest commercial modular carpet manufacturer in the world, Interface Inc has reinvented its business model with the intent of attaining “closed loop recycling.” Mr Anderson has led Interface to embrace whole systems design, and provides an inspiring example of a re-imagined business that also makes pragmatic business sense. Mr Anderson will present the practical steps Interface has taken to move towards a more sustainable basis.

Ray Anderson, an industrial engineer by training, is the founder and chairman, of Interface Inc., the world’s largest commercial modular carpet manufacturer. Since 1994, he has led a vast change programme within Interface to make it sustainable corporation. In 1997, Mr Anderson was named co-chair of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development. His book ‘Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise – The Interface Model’, explains both his motivations and the pragmatic steps Interface is taking to achieve its goals.

www.interfaceinc.com

Michael Braungart
Principal, McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry. Professor, Process Engineering at Universität Lüneburg, (Germany)

As co-author of ‘Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things’, Prof Dr Michael Braungart has established a framework for the next Industrial Revolution. Prof Braungart makes the case that businesses can be transformed through intelligent design for “triple top line” results; a profitable synthesis of economic, ecological and social value. Instead of trying to be less bad, Cradle to Cradle asks how to do the most good.

They term this approach Eco-effectiveness. Eco-effectiveness means doing the right thing instead of optimizing the bad. It means eliminating the concept of waste and moves beyond goals such as zero impact or carbon neutral. It means celebrating human genius, and remaking the way we make things to benefit nature, people and business. Prof Braungart will provide examples of his work with companies, corporates, governments and global agencies.

Dr Michael Braungart is founder of EPEA International Umweltforschung GmbH (Hamburg, Germany), and co-founder of MBDC; McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry. He has initiated worldwide scholarly and scientific inquiry into the adverse environmental and physiological impacts of industrially-produced consumer goods. Dr Braungart has been a professor of Process Engineering at Universität Lüneburg (Germany) since 1994. His work has been published in numerous journals on science, public affairs, design and environment in Europe and the US.

www.mbdc.com
www.braungart.com

Janine Benyus,
Writer, Innovation consultant and founder of the Biomimicry Guild, (USA)

Biomimicry studies nature’s best ideas, models and processes and then imitates them to solve human problems. The idea is that nature is imaginative by necessity, and has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with. Ms Benyus presents case studies that demonstrate the practical and inspiring results of her work with companies using Biomimicry.

Janine Benyus is a natural sciences writer, innovation consultant, and author of six books, including ‘Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature’. In 1998, Ms Benyus co-founded an education and innovation practice called Biomimicry Guild. Through workshops, research reports, biological consulting, and field excursions, the Guild helps innovators learn from and emulate natural models. The goal is to create products, processes, and policies that create conditions conducive to life. Clients include: General Electric, General Mills, HOK Architects, Boeing, Herman Miller, Kraft Foods, Kohler and Interface.

www.biomimicryguild.com
www.biomimicryinstitute.org

Alex Steffen,
Founder and Executive Editor, WorldChanging.com, (USA)

WorldChanging is based on the premise that a bright green future is not a distant possibility, but a growing reality. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present.

WorldChanging is a news service for a Bright Green Future. It has become the most widely-read sustainability-related publication on the Internet, with an archive of over 7,000 articles by leading thinkers around the world. As a collector of ideas about how to change the world for the better, Mr Steffen will present possible and tangible futures based on today’s discoveries and applications.

Alex Steffen co-founded WorldChanging in 2003. Prior to founding WorldChanging, Mr Steffen worked as an environmental journalist on four continents. That work led him to provide strategic consultation to over 50 environmental groups and foresight projects. Mr Steffen was also the editor of WorldChanging’s first book, ‘WorldChanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century’ (Abrams, 2006), a 600-page compendium of writings from over sixty noted leaders around the world.

www.worldchanging.com

Lee Weinstein
Principal, LWA PR; Former Director of Nike’s US and global public relations, (USA)

Nike is perhaps the most prominent example of a global company that has successfully re-oriented itself to meet changing market demand. Consumers hold the power, it’s not just what you make, it’s how you make it. Lee Weinstein was one of senior executives to make Nike’s corporate responsibility platform a reality. The platform is a requirement; the market demands that Nike communicate its commitment to building social, economic and environmental sustainability. And it’s future focused, a vision for delivering on social and market expectations beyond any sense of compliance. Sustainable design is one of four strands of Nike’s corporate responsibility platform. Nike’s ‘considered design process’ helps bring to life new ideas that fit within its corporate responsibility principles.

Lee Weinstein is the principal of LWA PR, an Oregon-based strategic communications consultancy set up in 2006. For fifteen years Mr Weinstein was a director of Nike’s public relations activities in the US and globally. From 2002 to 2005, he directed Nike’s corporate responsibility communications, working to communicate the company’s community, environmental sustainability, manufacturing and diversity programmes.

www.leeweinstein.biz

About Better by Design

Better by Design's sole purpose is to help New Zealand businesses succeed. Its programmes are built on the principle that design strategies and processes can be applied to businesses to improve the bottom line.

Better by Design is part of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, New Zealand's national economic development agency.

www.betterbydesign.org.nz

Prepared on behalf of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise by Cathy Campbell Communications

For further information please contact:
Elaine Koller
Senior Account Director
Cathy Campbell Communications
+64 9 368 5100 or +64 21 744 988
elaine@ccc.net.nz