It was no surprise to find members of the paper and paper products industries at Fortune’s Brainstorm Green conference. Issues such as sustainability, the future of energy, supply chains and climate change are all pertinent to the paper (and wood products) industries. In fact, both Rick Willett, President and CEO of NewPage and Guy Gleysteen, Senior Vice President, Production at TIME, Inc. were here to participate in the discussions and learn from the experts.

In their interviews, they both made some interesting comments regarding the amount of energy required in the paper making process. Of course, because healthy forests store carbon, sourcing from responsibly managed forests, like those certified to the SFI Standard, can mitigate the impact of climate change. Both TIME, Inc. and NewPage are SFI participants and are committed to responsible forest management.

Rick also commented on the collaborative nature of the conference – something we advocate ourselves in sustainable forestry practices. We were all pleased to find shared goals and mutual respect. It’s a collaborative attitude I hope continues.

Guy Gleysteen, SVP of Production at TIME, Inc.

Rick Willett, President & COO at NewPage Corporation

It’s been incredible here at Fortune’s Brainstorm Green conference – and educational. Meeting and talking to so many concerned and influential folks interested in climate change, environmental practices and the business of sustainability has been really encouraging. I also appreciated the opportunity to participate in the panel called Traceability: How Well Do You Know Your Supply Chain? This took place on Tuesday and it was a fascinating discussion moderated by one of Fortune’s contributing editors, Marc Gunther. Other panelists included Jill Dumain of Patagonia and Michael Kowalski, CEO of Tiffany & Co. My video post below details the panel discussion a bit more.

Kathy Abusow, President & CEO at SFI

During the traceability panel we also heard from Arlin Wasserman, Vice President of Corporate Citizenship at Sodexo. Sodexo employs 350,000 people worldwide and serves some 50 million people a day in 85 different countries. They provide facilities management, energy management and food service to corporations, hospitals, schools and government buildings. Sodexo is in a unique position to influence environmental practices and they stressed the importance of transparency, traceability and certification. And Arlin has a unique perspective on it – as you can see in our interview with him below.

Arlin Wasserman, Vice President of Corporate Citizenship at Sodexo

We were also able to spend some time with Rich Lechner, Vice President of Energy and Environment at IBM. IBM has had a corporate sustainability agenda since 1971. You’ll find a few similarities between some of IBM’s best practices and the requirement we have for independent third party auditors (it has to do with management, measurement, monitoring and transparency through third party verification). In our conversation, we talked about how sustainability fits into IBM’s corporate and business objectives, how IBM supports sustainable forestry and lessons learned re: sustainability. The highlights of this conversation are in the video below

Rich Lechner, Vice President of Energy and Environment at IBM

SFI participated in Fortune magazine’s Brainstorm Green conference this week in California. I spoke on a panel about traceability and supply chains. The organizers of the event call this “a crucial time of transformation for companies and the sustainability movement” and invited CEOs, thought leaders and environmentalists to discuss the opportunities, risks and impact of environmental issues on business and the economy. President Bill Clinton and Bill Ford of the Ford Motor Company were among the speakers. I was excited to attend and be a part of the discussions. It was a hectic, yet extremely informative conference.

Along with blog entries, we’ll post some video and podcast interviews conducted by SFI with some other attendees and thought leaders so you can hear, first-hand, their perspectives.

The first interview was with Chuck Leavell. He’s the Director of Environmental Affairs for a new website, Mother Nature Network, MNN.com (the environmental website “not designed for scientists or experts,” but for “the rest of us, the regular person who wants information written and created in a way that everyone can understand”). Chuck is also a tree farmer and keyboardist for the Rolling Stones. He’s attended Brainstorm Green in the past, and had some interesting things to say about why he’s back, sustainability in general and his new website. I especially like his comments about forest certification and the need for “mutual recognition” by the various standards.

Click on the play button below to listen to the podcast

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Day 1 began with a panel discussion on the Obama Administration’s climate plan. Panelists included Fred Krupp from the Environmental Defense Fund, David Krone from NRG Energy, Bill Bumpers from Baker Botts in Washington, DC, Michael Splinter from Applied Materials and Jim Rogers from Duke Energy. The discussion ranged from cap and trade to solar & wind vs. fossil fuels to the most recent stimulus package.

One of yesterday’s panels was on Green Buildings. It included Michael Deane from Turner Construction, Clay Nesler from Johnson Controls, Frank O’Brien-Bernini from Owens Corning, Guy Geier from FXFOWLE Architects and Bill Valentine from HOK.

We were fortunate enough to get the chance to talk to Guy and Bill one-on-one in separate interviews, and get their thoughts on industry trends, best practices and the hurdles architects face incorporating sustainability into design (Guy’s answer may surprise you).

FXFOWLE is cutting-edge commercial interior design firm that has recently completed the National Audubon Society headquarters in New York, NY as well as SAP America’s headquarters in Newton Square, Pennsylvania.

HOK is also a commercial design firm and was recently named the greenest design firm in the country, based on total sales.

Guy Geier, Senior Partner at FXFOWLE Architects

Bill Valentine, Chairman & Design Principal at HOK

I recently had the opportunity to work with well-known research and consulting firm Info Trends on a webinar about sustainability and it is now available on their web site. For those that aren’t aware, Info Trends is a leading worldwide market research and strategic consulting firm for the digital imaging and document solutions industry. Like virtually all market research firms, Info Trends has clearly seen that their customers are incorporating sustainability into their business considerations, but see that they are also thirsty for reliable information. Enter SFI…

The firm recently released a study on sustainability that, among other things, revealed that social responsibility and customer demand are two primary motivation factors for printers’ adoption of green policies, though marketing and public relations benefits do factor in as well. Soon after the report was released, SFI was approached with an opportunity to chime in on some of the findings and provide the printing sector with more information about forest certification and the role of SFI. We recorded the webinar before Christmas and I am now thrilled to let you know it is available on Info Trend’s website. The presentation is available in three parts – click below and follow the “Flash Media Video and Animation” link at the bottom of the page to stream the presentation online.

Green Printing and Sustainability, Part 1: Forest Certification and an Overview on SFI

Green Printing and Sustainability, Part 2: SFI for the Paper and Printing Industries

Green Printing and Sustainability, Part 3: Marketplace Trends

We are more than happy to prepare these types of webinars for our members and certificate holders – email Karen[dot]brandt[at]sfiprogram.org for more information.