Business Partners for Resilient Communities Workshop To Be Offered On-Line Will Feature Rich Line-Up of Presentations
Four-week Webinar workshop offered by International Society of Sustainability Professionals will highlight business leaders' roles in The New Economy.
(3BL Media / theCSRfeed) January 13, 2011 - Few communities have been spared the consequences of the world's recent economic uncertainties. As awareness of economic inequities increases, many businesses have been surprised to find Occupy Wall Street picketers outside their doors. Meanwhile, natural resources are dwindling and climate chaos is causing further disruptions. Faced with such challenges, resilient communities have the capacity to anticipate risk, limit impact and bounce back rapidly, and businesses can (and should!) play a key role in their community's ability to be resilient.
A four-week on-line workshop offered by ISSP and featuring a series of guest speakers is designed to explore initiatives that make an impact in this regard. Workshop participants will have an opportunity to share their thoughts with others on the business case for stakeholder engagement. Everyone will leave the workshop with practical tools and a plan for how businesses and organizations can engage with their various stakeholders in solving community problems related to triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability. Workshop instructor Susanne Croft is an ISSP member and certified Sustainability Professional, having completed her ISSP Sustainability Professional Certification in 2010. She is the Executive Director of Sustainable Resources INW (INW refers to the Inland Northwest), an educational non-profit corporation dedicated to increasing the community’s awareness and utilization of sustainable practices in Spokane, Washington and the Inland Northwest. Susanne has a Masters degree in Urban Planning and 20 years of experience with policy planning and public engagement. She worked for the City of Spokane for 12 years in long range planning, local economic development, development incentives, and finally as the Mayor's Sustainability Coordinator. Susanne will facilitate the workshop's three-prong approach -- local self-reliance, stakeholder engagement, and The New Economy -- that also addresses community planning, local investing, economic leakage, transparency and reporting. This fast paced on-line workshop will feature several guest presenters:-
Michael Shuman, an expert in community-based economic development, who currently serves as Director of Research and Public Policy at the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). Shuman is author of Going Local, Small Mart Revolution, and new in February 2012: Local Dollars, Local Sense.
-
Stephanie Nieman, who heads up the Standards Development efforts and leads the Verification Team at B Lab/GIIRS. B Lab is a non-profit organization that certifies B Corporations. B Corps are businesses that adhere to comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards, meet higher legal accountability standards, and build business constituency for public policies that support sustainable business.
-
Cynthia Figge, co-founder and COO of CSRHUB, a website providing corporate social responsibility ratings and data on more than 5,000 publicly traded companies worldwide.
-
David Korten, co-founder and board chair of YES! Magazine, co-chair of the New Economy Working Group, president of the People-Centered Development Forum (PCDForum), and a founding board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). Korten is an accomplished author whose books include Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, and the international best seller When Corporations Rule the World.
