Michael Merc Martinelli's blog

This week I attended an all day forum entitled Value-Based Sustainability: The Business Case for Green, Clean & Lean produced by The Executive Council, a global cross-industry innovation network. The opening keynote was given by Adam Werbach, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S and well known as an advisor to Walmart in their sustainability efforts.

I served on a K-8 school board for many years. As a result of that experience, I would note that most schools have the phrase "life long learners" tucked in their mission statement somewhere. For people in the world of sustainability, I think that is definitely true, we are indeed life long learners. Two examples for you to consider:

Small is Beautiful: Economics As if People Mattered by E. F. Schumacher was first published in 1973, and brought to light many of the issues we are all now addressing some 40 years later in implementing sustainable business development. For the moment much of the publicity around the greening of the world economy focuses on the environmental and social impact of large corporations.

As I look back on 2009, I am humbled by the many leading lights in business, politics, and academia who have made themselves available to the public at large at conferences, webinars and the like to share their lessons learned about sustainable business development and provide a vision for the future of green. Here are some of the "giants" I was lucky enough to hear speak in 2009:

Happy New Year and welcome to my blog! I thank you for visiting and I hope you will find some insights from my musings and look forward to learning from your comments.