UT at Austin Plans Sustainable Business Conference

The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business will host a national conference Nov. 6-9 that draws over 1,000 MBAs, business leaders and alumni from around the world to discuss corporate social responsibility, business ethics and environment-friendly business practices.

The Net Impact 2003 Conference, "From Corporation to Community, Building a Network for Change," will offer panel discussions, professional development workshops and a career expo where present and future business leaders can discuss the challenge of building socially and environmentally sensitive companies.

A glance over the conference agenda and the crowd of attendees will re-educate anyone who still thinks that soy-lovers and tree-huggers are the only face of green business.

The conference includes a keynote address by Reginald Van Lee, senior vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton and leader of the Harlem Small Business Initiative, as well as panels moderated by representatives from major multinationals such as Hewlett Packard, Intel, Reliant Energy and Procter and & Gamble.

"The business world has changed a lot over the past few years," says Richard Amato, director of UT's Clean Energy Incubator and moderator for one of the conference panels. "Knowing about green business, alternative energy, sustainable resources and global economies is so much more important than it was before, and training in that is becoming a necessity rather than a luxury. Consumers and the general public are savvy and are demanding more of business, expecting corporations to be more socially responsible."

Panel topics at this year's conference include:

- Green Building and the Corporate Bottom Line
- Trends in Socially Responsible Investing
- Making a Life, Making a Living
- Proctor & Gamble Case Study: Developing Sustainable Products

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