Last week I attended the Sustainable Brands ‘11 Conference in Monterey, CA, which brought together more than 700 global sustainability strategists, product designers and top brand executives working toward a more sustainable future. The conference provided a great venue to hear what other companies are doing and to exchange and discuss new ideas with other likeminded individuals.

I had the honor of introducing a group of world class experts during the “Supply Chain, Sourcing, and Community Partnerships” track. This theme resonates so strongly with the SFI program, the work we do and with our recently released 2011 Progress Report themes: conservation, community and integrity and our focus on the Conservation and Community Partnerships Grant Program. By addressing the avoidance of controversial sources; improving wildlife habitat management and conservation of biodiversity; and supporting community projects, we work together to ensure our forests continue to offer the many values we treasure now and in the future.

The speakers I introduced repeatedly stressed the need to collaborate and provide consumers with traceability and innovation. Alice Quan, Senior Director at Walmart.com for Trend + Product Development, Sustainability, agrees: “Simple ideas can make a huge impact and transparency is now the expectation among consumers. But it is essential for all of us to work together to inspire societal progress and move us all toward a sustainable future.”

I also had the pleasure to listen and talk to many great speakers. One of them was Erin Schrode from Teens Turning Green. The 20-year-old enthralled the audience as she was telling us about teens’ consumption, their demand for responsible products and the importance of engaging with Millenials. Other inspiring speakers included Bonnie Nixon from the Sustainability Consortium and Eric Ostern from Unilever. Like SFI, they both stressed the need to be completely transparent and collaborate with one another instead of work on our own.

I hope that in speaking to attendees at our exhibitor booth, I stimulated a critical commitment to source responsibly. Our goal for the conference was to look at the bigger picture and to inspire major brands to show they care about responsible forestry by including fiber from SFI-certified forests and other responsible sources in their supply chain. We look forward to working with Sustainable Brands in the future to promote responsible forestry and encourage creative innovation and behavior change.

The first GreenGov Symposium, sponsored by the White House Council on Economic Quality came to a close last week.  The event focused on President Obama’s Executive Order 13514, which set sustainability goals for Federal agencies specifically in their environmental, energy and economic performance.  The Executive Order, signed just over a year ago, requires Federal agencies to increase energy efficiency, reduce fleet petroleum consumption, conserve water, reduce waste, support sustainable communities, and leverage Federal purchasing power to promote environmentally-responsible products and technologies.

SFI took part in the event as a sponsor to demonstrate to government officials how the SFI program and forest certification in general can help Federal agencies support responsible forestry and purchasing.  It was great to see so many government officials coming together to find solutions to meet their sustainability requirements.  On the first day of the symposium, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack both spoke about the importance of this new Executive Order for Federal agencies and as an example for the private sector. Breakout session topics throughout the symposium included clean energy, water efficiency, achieving zero waste, greening the supply chain, and sustainable communities.  You can watch videos of the keynote speeches and panel discussions here.

Many government officials stopped by the SFI booth and were eager to learn more about forest certification and its connections to responsible procurement and green building.  Additionally, SFI sponsored the “Greening the Supply Chain” track, helping to draw attention to the many steps that can be taken to help make more efficient procurement decisions.

Cups used throughout the event were SFI-labeled ecotainers – check out the picture below. These cups provided an excellent example of consumer products sourced from responsibly managed forests and demonstrated how simple purchasing decisions can make a difference.

Overall, it was an exciting event and we at SFI hope to take part in it again in the future.

If you take a look at our conference agenda you will see we have lined up local and international speakers who will talk about partnerships yielding benefits for the forest products marketplace, communities, First Nations, and government agencies throughout North America and globally. Keynote speaker Linda Coady, Distinguished Fellow, University of British Columbia and Vice-President of Sustainability, Vancouver Olympics Organizing Committee will talk about Certification, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability – The Next Generation.  We’ll also be making some exciting announcements.

We will be posting video from conference speakers as well as pictures from the event on our Annual Conference webpage – so check it out if you are not able to join us in Vancouver and take part virtually.

Click on the play button below to listen to our discussion.

Listen