CSE 2nd Sustainability Roundtable in Chicago: Moving Sustainability Forward at a Time of Economic Slowdown

The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) in North America proudly hosted its second Sustainability Roundtable on September 1st in Chicago. The event titled, “Moving Sustainability Forward at a Time of Economic Slowdown”, focused on the materiality of an organization’s Sustainability Strategy and discussed the challenges in keeping your Sustainability actions close to the organization’s core activities.

The successful discussion featured contributions from a large members of different organizations representing five continents, organizations such as ArcelorMittal, Boeing Corp, Qatar Airways, Sara Lee Corp, Grainger, Potash Corp, as well as the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), and DePaul University. Dr. George Nassos, of the Illinois Institute of Technology, as well as by Nikos Avlonas, CSE President, facilitated discussion. City Council member, Alderman Manny Flores of Chicago’s First Ward, made a special appearance referring to the City of Chicago green initiatives

The concluding remarks of the roundtable can be summed up by saying that, the movement behind Sustainability in business is picking up momentum and becoming more mainstream, as the business case (focusing on the bottom line) for Sustainability is now a prerequisite for investing into any initiative.

The Roundtable Event piggybacked onto CSE’s main event, its Certified CSR Practitioner Workshop. The CSE workshop is certified by the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), and is designed for all professionals responsible for the management of CSR, Marketing, and Public Relation activities. General Managers, Public Relations Managers and Sustainability and Environmental Professionals will advance their Sustainability understanding, acquire the skill and knowledge that will bring added value and authenticity to their company, and also earn an official business qualification.

CSE will host its next Certified CSR workshop and next Roundtable discussion on February 9-10, 2010.