Sustainable Brands announces conference program highlights

Sustainable Brands has published highlights of the program at its upcoming SB’12 conference, taking place on June 4-7 at Paradise Point in San Diego, California, USA.

With over 150 speakers and 80 program sessions, nearly 1,000 attendees will explore the market drivers and innovation now underway in response to growing environmental and social pressures, including activism by consumers turned citizens worldwide. Based on the theme of ‘The revolution will be branded’, the conference will explore three areas: supporting the business case for sustainable brands; shifting consumer demand and behavior, and driving radical innovation for greater differentiation and impact.

Some of the sessions include:

• Umair Haque, author of Betterness: Economics for Humans, will share insights on why this is the year for a sustainable brand revolution and how brands will be called to create higher-order wealth than before.
• Christiaan Maats, founder of OAT Shoes, will share his breakthrough effort to design and bring to market compostable shoes that grow flowers.
• Abigail Rodgers, VP of sustainability strategy and communication at The Coca-Cola Company will share inside details on this past season’s arctic home campaign and why it’s a milestone on the march toward purpose-driven brand marketing.

Breakout sessions consisting of skills training sessions, best-practice case studies and discussion groups will cover a variety of topics. Among the speakers are:

• David Griswold, president of Sustainable Harvest Specialty Coffee Importers, will discuss the importance of creating shared value in the supply chain.
• Mathieu Turpault, managing partner, design at Bressler Group, will cover how to reduce impacts and eliminate waste in the design phase of product development.
• Shama Alexander, director of sustainability at Lush Cosmetics, will talk about revolutionizing brand through positioning, product design, employee engagement and more.
• James Gregory, CEO of CoreBrand, will analyze the value of brand alignment in the age of transparency.

‘Each year since our launch we’ve been pleased to have major sustainable brand innovation and communications initiatives debut at SB. This year, we are proud to showcase more of the leaders who are helping shape the future of sustainable commerce,’ said KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz, founder of Sustainable Brands.