Joel Makower

Environmentally Responsible Business Practices

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Keynote

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Topics

Sustainability Speakers Environment

Joel Makower

Environmentally Responsible Business Practices

Add To My Favorites Check Fee/Availability

In-Person Fee Range:

$10,001 - $15,000

Fee Details

Traveling from:

California

Why Book

Joel is a talented and engaging communicator who can cut through the myths and misunderstandings to provide clarity and perspective on what it means to be a green leader in business.
He brings to his audiences a clear understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing mainstream companies as they try to address environmental issues in a way that drives bottom-line performance and top-line growth.
The Associated Press has called Joel “The guru of green business practices.”

Biography

For more than 20 years, Joel Makower has been a well-respected voice on business, the environment, and the bottom line. As a writer, speaker, and entrepreneur on corporate sustainability practices, he has helped a wide range of companies align environmental goals with business strategy.

Joel is chairman and executive editor of GreenBiz Group, Inc., creator of GreenBiz.com research and events on sustainable business and clean technology. He hosts GreenBiz.com’s annual GreenBiz Forums as well as the VERGE conferences produced around the world by his company, and is author of the annual “State of Green Business” report.

In 2012, he was awarded the Hutchens Medal by the American Society for Quality, which cited “his ability to tell compelling stories that both inform and inspire business leaders toward profitable action.”

Joel also is co-founder of Clean Edge Inc., a research and consulting firm focusing on clean technologies, and formerly served as a senior strategist at GreenOrder, which consults with leading companies on strategic sustainability issues. From 1991 to 2005 he was editor of “The Green Business Letter,” an award-winning monthly newsletter on corporate environmental strategy and practices.

Joel regularly keynotes corporate events, business associations, and regional business and economic development events, and is frequently quoted in major news media, including Fortune, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Time, and public radio’s “Marketplace.”

A former nationally syndicated columnist, Joel is author of more than a dozen books, including his latest, Strategies for the Green Economy (2008). Previous books include “Beyond the Bottom Line: Putting Social Responsibility to Work for Your Business and the World,” about the profit and potential of socially responsible business practices; “The E-Factor: The Bottom-Line Approach to Environmentally Responsible Business,” on how companies are responding to environmental challenges in positive and profitable ways, and “The Green Consumer,” a best-selling guide to the environmental marketplace

The Associated Press has called him “The guru of green business practices.”

Makower advises several green business and cleantech startups and sits on the board of the nonprofits Climate Counts, the Biomimicry Institute, and United Roots.

Programs

From Here to Sustainability

Nearly every company is assessing itself through the lens of sustainability. For a handful of leadership companies, it involves asking the question: “How do we compete in a world in which energy, water, materials, and toxicity are constraints to growth?” Today, being green is not just about “doing less bad” or “greening the bottom line.” It’s about reducing risk — supply chain, reputation, financial and more. It’s about growing the top line through innovation, new markets, increased productivity, and increased ability to attract and retain talent. I tell how leaders align sustainability with business value.

What’s driving sustainability to the top inside the world’s biggest companies

Strategies companies use to harness sustainability to create business value

“How good is good enough?” when it comes to sustainability performance

The challenges of communicating for environmental leaders

How a new breed of green innovators is transforming markets

When Technology Meets Sustainability

A convergence is taking place among energy, information, building and transportation, food and carbon-removal technologies, representing one of the next great waves of business innovation — and a boon to solving the planet’s biggest challenges. This mash-up of clean technology, sustainable business and smart everything is creating vast opportunities for companies to develop ultra-efficient and innovative products, services and business models for companies, cities and customers. And it’s creating new opportunities for those at every rung of the economic ladder.

Prosperity, Security, Sustainability: America’s Trillion-Dollar Opportunity

In an era of climate change, economic uncertainty and global turmoil, business as usual is giving way to bold, audacious thinking: How can business help build resilience and well-being while addressing social, environmental and economic challenges? It’s a trillion-dollar business opportunity that affects every sector, and the inspiring subject of Joel’s 2016 book, about a new economic opportunity for America, born at the Pentagon, that embeds sustainability as a strategic national imperative — an unprecedented opportunity for business.

Books

Beyond The Bottom Line

Strategies for the Green Economy

Topics

Sustainability Speakers, Environment,

Joel Makower Reviews

“Joel’s presentation could not have been more timely, or more on point. His engaging style, and specific insights, exceeded our expectations. I continue to receive a significant amount of positive feedback from our members. His willingness to adapt to our needs on-site, through moderating a panel discussion of our members, and then an appearance and discussion with our Board of Directors, just further highlights his passion and focus on real-world solutions. We all benefited greatly from Joel’s insights, experiences, and wisdom.”

— President and CEO, National Wooden Pallet & Container Association

“Thank you so much for speaking at our event last week. Our preliminary participant satisfaction survey numbers show 93% satisfaction, which is a tremendous result that exceeds the norm. We had up to 180+ concurrent employees watching, with many more watching the recording afterwards, especially in our EMEA and APJ locations.

I really appreciated your thoughtful engagement while connecting our work at Workday with your content. I know enterprise software isn’t always sexy, but you have a wonderfully nuanced grasp of the work we do here and the material impacts we have in our industry.”

— Sustainability Director, Global Impact Workday

“A huge thank you for your very thoughtful and interesting presentation. I, also, heard many positive comments from attendees at the meeting. Our challenge is one of moving concepts forward within our profession and for each of us, personally. We will continue to think about our common interests to become allied with yours and that of the Verge conferences.”

— American Society for Agricultural and Biological Engineers

“Thank you for an outstanding presentation to the Posti Board. Your presentation made a big difference for the group and the CEO is personally committed to make sustainability a key success factor or the company.”

— Posti, the Finnish postal board