How Do You Forecast Sustainable Business Opportunity? You Backcast!

Backcasting is a powerful tool for visualizing sustainability possibilities and realizing solutions. It lets you understand how sustainability’s future is unfolding, and what steps you can take to anticipate, and actually participate in shaping that future.

Intertek Sustainability Solutions’ Ethical Sourcing Forum (New York City, March 18 and 19, 2010) will feature backcasting as an integral component of effective sustainability management in times of turbulent change. We are pleased to announce that StartingBloc Members will receive a special discount when registering for the Ethical Sourcing Forum!

REGISTER NOW under “member organization” and use the code Memb010 for the discounted rate of $920 (full rate is $1250). Register more than 1 guest and receive an additional 20% off the second pass. We look forward to seeing you at what promises to be a very exciting edition of Intertek Sustainability Solutions’ Ethical Sourcing Forum!

At the Ethical Sourcing Forum you will encounter the following topics and speakers, among many others:
* Matt Kistler, SVP of Sustainability at Walmart, discusses the “Sustainability Index”
* The U.S. Dept. of Labor, Walmart and others engage in a panel on the “Arc of Sustainability Progress 2005-2015"
* Scott Sharland, Executive Director of the Automotive Industry Action Group and Monique Oxender, Global Manager of Supply Chain Sustainability at Ford Motor Company examine collaboration's potential and its pitfalls
* Gildan Activewear's VP of Global Marketing, Garry Bell and Emil Efthimides, Environmental, Social and Governance data Manager at Bloomberg, assess investment as a driver of sustainable progress
* Eco-Fashion Activist Summer Rayne Oakes demystifies sustainable design and introduces S4 – high fashion’s hot new platform for sustainable sourcing
* Specialists in ‘Natural Step’ methodology lead a workshop on "Backcasting: Developing Your Sustainability Roadmap"

NOTE :: Intertek is proud to partner with StartingBloc for this event. 15% of every ticket sold will go to StartingBloc in supporting the next generation of SB Fellows.

Enjoy an interactive panel discussion featuring Lehman Brothers, Acumen Fund, Scojo Foundation, and the NYU Reynolds Social Entrepreneurship Program. The panel will address how you can be engaged in social entrepreneurship whether you are in banking, the nonprofit world, or an academic institution. In addition, representatives from the above organizations will discuss the strong partnerships among different sectors.

Provocative, witty, stylish and sweepingly informative, The Corporation explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Part film and part movement, The Corporation is transforming audiences and dazzling critics with its insightful and compelling analysis. Taking its status as a legal "person" to the logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist's couch to ask "What kind of person is it?" The Corporation includes interviews with 40 corporate insiders and critics - including Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Milton Friedman, Howard Zinn, Vandana Shiva and Michael Moore - plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change.

On May 7th, John Perkins spoke to a standing room only crowd of 130 students and young professionals about his life and the role that he played as a highly paid professional of the World Bank to help the United States control the economies of developing countries around the world. John discussed how young people today can address this problem and work towards a more economically just, peaceful, sustainable world. Thank you to everyone who attended this wonderful event, and a special thanks to NYU Wagner Student Association for being wonderful partners for this event.

In partnership with Goldman Sachs, StartingBloc offered free business consulting to its network. During this clinic, Goldman Sachs employees assisted the participants with their business plan and business writing, troubleshot technical problems, and answered financing questions.