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Ceres Conference 2012

In April 2012 more than 500 business leaders, investors, environmentalists and policy-makers gathered at Ceres' annual conference in Boston, MA to accelerate the transition to a sustainable economy.

Igniting Innovation. Scaling Sustainability.

In April 2012 more than 500 business leaders, investors, environmentalists and policy-makers gathered at Ceres' annual conference in Boston, MA to accelerate the transition to a sustainable economy.

Conference Highlights

During the two day conference, we interviewed sustainability leaders from companies, investment firms and non-profit organizations about the sustainability issues they are facing and how they are responding. View the videos in the playlist below.

Program Highlights

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson and author and thought leader Jeremy Rifkin addressed the crowd with two inspiring keynote addresses, reminding us that, while we have made great progress, there is still much work ahead of us to achieve a sustainable global economy.

Wells Fargo: Announced substantial commitments to accelerate the transition to a ‘green’ economy, including $30 billion in loans and investments by 2020 to support green technologies such as energy efficiency, renewable energy and other environmental innovations.

SAP: Delivering on commitments made at last year’s Ceres conference, SAP announced the positive impact of new and enhanced energy-saving software solutions for its clients around the world. For manufacturers alone, these solutions led to 5.7 million tons of carbon pollution reductions and $500 million in energy savings in 2011.

Evaluating 600 Companies on Sustainability: Ceres and research firm Sustainalytics announced a new report assessing 600 U.S. companies on their progress on sustainability. The report findings – based on an analysis of how companies are responding to environmental and social challenges such as climate change, water scarcity and supply chain conditions – shows individual examples of strong leadership, but significant need for overall improvement.

Levi Strauss & Co: At last year's Ceres conference, Levi Strauss & Co. announced a bold commitment to improve factory and worker conditions in its global supply chain. The company's efforts to date on the project, done in close collaboration with Ceres, are outlined in a new white paper. The company is piloting the project at five factories in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Egypt, Haiti and Pakistan.

Awards

Joan Bavaria Award
Tessa Tennant, president and co-founder of The Ice Organisation, was awarded the fourth-annual Joan Bavaria Award for Building Sustainability into the Capital Markets. The Bavaria Award is presented annually by Ceres and Trillium Asset Management to an inspiring leader working to move capital markets toward a system that balances economic prosperity with social and environmental concerns. The award’s name honors Joan Bavaria, a pioneer of social investing who founded Ceres and Trillium Asset Management. Bavaria passed away in 2008.