Joel Makower
Trellis Group
For more than 30 years, through his writing, speaking and leadership, Joel has helped companies align pressing environmental and social issues with business success.
A former nationally syndicated columnist, Joel is author or co-author of more than a dozen books, including The New Grand Strategy, about a business plan for America, born at the Pentagon, that embeds sustainability as a national strategic imperative. Previous books include Strategies for the Green Economy, Beyond the Bottom Line: Putting Social Responsibility to Work for Your Business and the World, The E-Factor: The Bottom-Line Approach to Environmentally Responsible Business, and The Green Consumer.
In 2012, he was awarded the Hutchens Medal by the American Society for Quality, which cited “his ability to tell compelling stories that both inform and inspire business leaders toward profitable action.” In 2014, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals.
Joel has spoken at hundreds of events and is a frequent keynote speaker at industry and company events around the world. His audiences and venues vary widely — including senior executives, corporate supply chains, customer groups, trade associations, marketing professionals, award ceremonies, and regional economic development bodies — from small roundtable discussions to large and diverse gatherings.
He is also a skilled moderator, called upon by companies and conferences around the world to conduct on-stage or on-camera one-on-one interviews, or to host lively and intelligent panel discussions with executives and thought leaders, for in-person, video, and online events, and has served as the emcee of dozens of events, including multi-day conferences, harnessing his talents as an engaging host, a nimble thinker, and a quick wit to ensure events rise above “conference as usual.”
The Associated Press has called him “The guru of green business practices.”
More about Joel here.
Lifting the Lid on Stonyfield's New Plant-Based Packaging
Today, Stonyfield Farm, the organic yogurt company, is unveiling a new packaging solution: A yogurt cup made from corn. It's not the first revolution in yogurt cups, or the first packaging innovation made from corn. But Stonyfield's journey to today is a case study in sustainability, innovation, persistence, and systems thinking that I think is worth sharing. Read More
Behind Procter & Gamble's Sustainability Vision
Procter & Gamble's announcement today of a new "sustainability vision" is a noteworthy moment — not just for the world's largest consumer packaged goods company, but for the world of sustainable business. It represents another yardstick of how major corporate players view their place on the sustainability landscape. Read More
Introducing ULE 880 – Sustainability for Manufacturing Organizations
Today, a new sustainability standard for companies is being released for public comment: ULE 880 - Sustainability for Manufacturing Organization. Read More
Walmart and the Sustainability Index: One Year Later
The retail giant’s sustainability dreams don’t appear to have diminished, though it's clear the company has been humbled by the fiendish complexity of all it has set out to do. Read More
The 'Living Principles' for Designing Our World
A new framework, "The Living Principles," aims to help bring sustainability to design in all its many forms, from products to companies to systems of commerce. Read More
GreenBiz.com: 10 Years After
The site, which launched 10 years ago today, has come a long way since June 21, 2000, though for all of our success, we've only just begun to fulfill our promise. Read More
Who's the biggest greenwasher of them all?
For all the sound and fury over deceptive, disingenuous corporations seeking to falsely create a green image, the biggest offenders of greenwash aren't companies, politicians, the mainstream media or environmental groups. Read More
The Green Consumer, 1990-2010
The author of the 1990 book "The Green Consumer" (and the founder of GreenBiz.com) looks back at 20 years of green consumerism and ponders whether the whole exercise is a distraction. Read More
Toyota and the Future of Green Marketing
What does Toyota's travails mean to green marketing? That's a question that seems ripe these days, as the leading Japanese auto maker gets a comeuppance for its allegedly serious safety defects. Here are four possible scenarios. Read More
The Green Business Decade in Review
As we view the whatever-it's-called decade in the rearview mirror, it's tempting to assess what's transpired since the good old days of Y2K to see how far we've come — and how far we haven't. Read More