Co-op America Green Business Conference Day 1

That is the lovely Ms Sara Snow above - she is actually speaking tomorrow - but you can’t get too much of Sara, right?  Delicioso.  She is not only the host of her own show on Discovery Health, but she’s the Natural Health cover girl.  Anyway - I digress - on to the show…

It almost felt like I was going to work.  I took my normal train into the city and then picked up the local 121 bus to Navy Pier.  I should have been prepared for the long, long walk from the bus to the meetings - which were pretty much at the very end of Navy Pier (the #1 tourist site in Illinois).  My timing was perfect.  I arrived, registered, grabbed some granola with yogurt, and sat down at a front table for the first presenter.

I guess I could have been late - I just saw Sadhu Johnston (Chief Environmental Officer for the City of Chicago) speak less than a month ago at Green Drinks.  Along with Sadhu, Arnold Randall and Suzanne Malec-McKenna spoke.  Suzanne is the Commissioner for the Environment for the City of Chicago.  Coincidentally, I worked with her step-son and daughter-in-law for years at my past job. 

I should tell you that EVERY speaker was fantastic.  Each and every one of them were very intriguing.  I think I could write a long post on each and every speaker.  They’re all so interesting.   

Next up to the docket was Raphael Bemporad from BBMG and David Lubensky of Bagatto, Inc.  These guys were great.  Raphael was once a speech writer for Ann Richards.  He was well spoken and convincing.  I have always been interested in user experience and it kinda goes hand-in-hand with the industry I work in.  If you want to see some great stats on the green conscious consumer, read their whitepaper.  They didn’t do some hokey focus group - their research consisted of actually spending time in people’s lives - on average 8-16hrs each.

The ever-sexy Bianca Alexander, Executive Producer/Host on Conscious Living TV moderated a panel (her husband, Michael, was also there with her) that consisted of Jeff Harvey, CEO of Burgerville and Erin Ford, of Organic Valley.  Each business rocked. 

The main problem I see with Burgerville is that I’m just pissed and jealous that they aren’t around here.  For those of you who aren’t aware, Burgerville is a fast-food joint - 39 of them - in Oregon and Washington state.  They know exactly where each food item came from.  The tagline is “Fresh.  Local.  Sustainable.”  The mission is “Serve with Love.”  It seems that the employees love working there.  They have amazing benefits for part-time and full-time employees.  The company is dedicated to investing in their people.  They teach life lessons - not just how to flip a burger.  All of the facilities are run on wind power.  By investing in wind power, they are helping the local economy.  Some of the turbines have even been installed on farms they use for beef and veggies.  They’re also working on a waste vegetable oil (WVO) project.  WVO is a byproduct of fast-food.  They can take 4,400 gallons of WVO and turn it into 3,300 gallons of biodiesel.   Damn - that’s dope, yo (I’m so not urban).

Organic Valley Farms.  Wow.  Just wow.  They started this co-op in 1988 with something like $1,000 and seven farms.  Today, they are worth something like $440million and have 1,200 farms in their co-op. They recently built a brand-new headquarters in rural Wisconsin.  The new HQ is LEED Silver and twice as many square feet as the previous building - yet it uses 1/4th the energy.  Awesome.  Organic Valley now has a few different businesses.  I found it interesting that they have their own logistics company called Organic Valley Logistics.  They were sending their products out on trucks before and found out they were half-full.  Now that they are in control of their pipeline, they make sure each truck going out is full - if not their own products, they’ll call other organic producers to help them ship product.  They are also working on a domestic fair trade program.  Erin sits on the board of the Domestic Fair Trade Association.  I will happily give Organic Valley my money over others  - they’re good people and help local farmers stay alive.  The average farm only has 40 head of cattle - it’s not some huge environmental impact of an inhumane feedlot .

The last speaker of the day that I was able to see was Melissa Bradley-Burns - a venture capitalist.  The original speaker was Chris Van Dyke of Nau clothing.  If you haven’t heard, Nau is going out of business.  Melissa graciously stepped in.  Her speech consisted of why Nau failed.  I won’t go into all of the details, but it was fascinating.  She emphasized that you can’t change the world if you’re not in business.  It’s a business first.  Just like anyone who volunteers knows - you have to take care of yourself first.  I respect Nau a lot - but I can see why they failed.  I’m not sure if it was delusions of grandeur or not, but they may have bit off more than they could chew at this point in time. 

Unfortunately, I had to miss the end of the day because I coach my daughter’s first-grade soccer team.  It’s unfortunate that I missed the last two speakers, but I was really happy to be out on the field with the kids - that’s what it’s all about. 

I want to give mad props to my lady friends at Organic Marketing Works - Megan and Katie.  Thanks so much for this opportunity!