Businesses play a huge role in our everyday impact on the environment. The way that businesses conduct themselves – ranging from what services or products they provide, to what means they use to provide them, and what kind of energy consumption habits they have – all effect their carbon footprint. And since we live in a society where businesses are greatly relied upon to do things for us – our carbon footprint is directly related to what businesses we choose to support.
Maala – Business for Social Responsibility, a non-profit organization founded in 1998 to promote socially responsibile corporate behavior, understands the importance of improving our impact on the environment and is integrating this issue into an upcoming conference this Tuesday in Tel Aviv.
Among the many questions that the conference will address, the 600 conference participants will discuss whether sustainability can be a basis for a profitable business model.
The conference’s agenda includes a round table discussion, titled “Who is Responsible for the Environment?” chaired by Dr. Miki Haran, former Director of the Ministry for the Protection of the Environment, and Jerry Greenfield’s speech (that’s right, of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream), “If It’s Not Fun, Why Do It?”
The conference will be attended by keynote speakers Jerry Greenfield, Microsoft Vice President for Global Corporate Affairs Pamela Passman, and Israeli Minister for Welfare and Social Services, Isaac Herzog.
The conference will take place at the Hilton Hotel, Tel Aviv on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 from 8:15 a.m. – 5 p.m.
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Read more about business and the environment:: Green Profits – Cleantech Israel on the Up and Up! and Green Profits: Cleantech from Israel and the Middle East
Author: Karen Chernick
Much to the disappointment of her Moroccan grandmother, Karen became a vegetarian at the age of seven because of a heartfelt respect for other forms of life. She also began her journey to understand her surroundings and her impact on the environment. She even starting an elementary school Ecology Club and an environmental newsletter in the 3rd grade. (The proceeds of the newsletter went to non-profit environmental organizations, of course.) She now studies in New York. Karen can be reached at karen (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
There is visibly a lot to realize about this. I think you made certain nice points in features also.
I can’t vouch for Ben & Jerry’s eco-credentials (assuming most of their milk comes from intensively-reared cows), but hats off to them for snubbing GM ingredients touted by their parent company, Unilever…
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/ben-amp-jerrys-breaks-ranks-with-unilever-over-risky-gm-ice-cream-additive-408164.html