The Blue and White Present “From Green to Gold”
Environmental stewardship as strategic competitive advantage
Wal-Mart pressures its 60,000 suppliers to reduce packaging waste. GE’s ecomagination campaign commits the company to solving the world’s environmental problems—and creating $10 billion in new revenue while doing it. What’s going on?
Eco-consultant Andrew Winston has the answer: Business is talking about the environment because it has to. The limits of the natural world, from global warming to water scarcity, are obvious. Companies also face growing internal and external pressure. “There are two reasons you could choose to ride what I call the Green Wave,” Winston says. “One is that you feel it is the right thing to do. The second is that your customers, employees and stakeholders believe it’s the right thing to do. And the reality is that you don’t need number one.”
Winston, founder of the consulting firm Winston Eco-Strategies and co-author of Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage, will discuss how environmental thinking can drive growth (and profit) at the next Speaker Series event at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College.
Winston will speak at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 7, in the McGarvey Commons of the college’s Reed Union Building. Admission is free and open to the public.
Going green may be unavoidable, but it is not punitive. Both in his book and consulting work, Winston helps companies discover that environmental thinking helps win market share, drive new revenue, and attract the very best high-end workers. Winston’s clients have included Timberland, Staples, Coca-Cola, Reuters and IKEA, as well as small start-ups and dot-coms; as a recognized expert on green business he has appeared on or written for Time, Newsweek, Business Week, Forbes, The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC News, CNBC’s Power Lunch and National Public Radio.
Prior to founding his eco-consultancy, Winston was associated with Boston Consulting Group. He later served as marketing and development director for Time Magazine, director of business development for MTV and VH1, and vice president of marketing and business development for the online arm of a national retailer.
Winston received his B.A. in economics from Princeton, an M.B.A. from Columbia, and a Masters of Environmental Management from Yale. He is a Fellow at the Center for Business and Environment at Yale, and sits on the Antron Sustainability Advisory Council for the $6 billion industrial manufacturer Invista.
Andrew Winston’s Speaker Series appearance is sponsored by the Sam and Irene Black School of Business, the Penn State Behrend Student Activity Fee, the Division of Student Affairs, and the Harriet Behrend Ninow Memorial Lecture Series Fund. For more information about his lecture, please phone the Office of Student Activities at 814-898-6171.