BY JON SHADEL
Business leaders descend on Portland in December for the region’s largest environmental conference and trade show.
BY JON SHADEL
“Innovation that aligns sustainability with traditional business accounting goals will be a key to future success,” says Greer Tidwell, director of environmental management at Bridgestone Americas Tires Operations. Tidwell is a nationally recognized expert on environmental compliance. And he is among a distinguished group of presenters at the Northwest Environmental Conference (NWEC), the region’s largest conference addressing the challenging issues facing environmental, operations and sustainability professionals.
Portland will once again host the 26th annual NWEC on December 9 and 10, bringing together managers from a wide range of industries for insightful keynotes and educational sessions. Topics range from best practices for environmental compliance to advanced discussions on emerging policy issues such as groundwater allocation and pricing carbon. This year’s conference again includes a strong component on sustainable business management.
“Embracing sustainable business practices helps create healthy relationships with our neighbors and broader communities,” says Tidwell, explaining how these practices not only improve operational efficiencies, but also how a company is perceived in its community. “These practices create a positive feedback loop that shows up in employee satisfaction and customer loyalty.”
“Environmental responsibility is a key element of business performance,” says Robert Grott, executive director of the Northwest Environmental Business Council. “We’re trying to strengthen the competitiveness of Northwest businesses with the conference.” Grott emphasizes that NWEC aims to help business leaders learn from others’ experiences through industry case studies. “The conference provides engaging, professional-level training,” he says. “It’s a top-quality educational experience, and a very cost-effective one at that.”
“The conference provides cutting-edge, technical content from leading national and regional experts,” says Craig Riley, a sustainability business line leader at URS Corporation. “The conference will explore the return on investment sustainability provides to Northwest businesses,” he adds. Riley, who will be presenting at the conference, says that speakers like Tidwell and Kevin Butt, chief environmental officer at Toyota, bring a national perspective to the issues we are facing on a regional level.
“The goal is to keep the business community at the forefront of knowledge,” Grott adds. Over 500 industry representatives and service providers from across the region attend the conference each year, which includes the region’s largest environmental trade show. “We see this as a service to the business community,” Grott concludes. “We’re helping them be good corporate citizens, while informing them of best practices that not only reduce costs and improve profitability, but also meet customer expectations in today’s marketplace.”
Who is the conference presented by?
Associated Oregon Industries
Northwest Environmental Business Council
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
Washington Department of Ecology
Visit www.nwec.org for more information and to register.
