The goal Southeast Michigan Sustainable Business Forum is to "transform the business climate in southeastern Michigan to be more vibrant by using sustainable business principles," explains CEO Bill Stough. The 45-member organization aims to connect the business and environmental communities to "work together on issues of common concern," says Stough, who stresses that SMSBF does not consist solely of businesses in the industrial sector. Member companies range in size from one-person consulting firms to General Motors.
SMSBF started up in 2001 with a seed grant from the EPA. It ran for two years as a program of the East Michigan Environmental Action Council before spinning off as its own non-profit entity. Anyone doing business in Southeast Michigan is eligible for membership once they commit to the organization's vision and mission statement.
Stough says that SMSBF spent the past two years educating member organizations about sustainability initiatives and the concept of the triple bottom line. SMSBF is now poised to spread this knowledge and to this end, will be hosting a statewide conference entitled "Michigan Business: Survive or Thrive?" in Lansing on April 25.
The conference will include a dialogue amongst the business community on what the state needs to further success as well as the disadvantages and advantages to being located in Michigan. The afternoon will be dedicated to preparing a set of recommendations that SMSBF will develop into a white paper to be distributed to decision-makers around the state.
Other organizational goals are to provide more community-based seminars that would help businesses. "They would be a way for companies that want to find that competitive advantage to use sustainability as a way of doing that," says Stough.
Finally, the group is working to identify a community project that would be beneficial to the region's business climate, such as a green business development center. Stough cites the Chicago Center for Green Technology as an example of the type of education and demonstration center they are exploring developing, but SMSBF would also like their center to help create green business start-ups.
Source: Bill Stough, SMSBF
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
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