Calling All Texas Business Environmental Innovators

(AUSTIN, TEXAS) Businesses across the country are gaining insights and sharing ideas on innovative environmental strategies through regional meetings this year, culminating in one planned for Austin Sept. 16 at the 3M Austin Innovation Center.

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Ashoka are hosting a series of “unconferences” bringing together professionals committed to making their companies and industries more efficient and sustainable and on the cutting-edge of innovation. Unlike traditional conferences, these meetings do not include formal panels or speeches.

Also known as “learning labs,” unconferences are organized in a participatory format in which all participants have an opportunity to share, problem-solve, network, collaborate and learn, focused on the topics of greatest interest to them—from packaging and product innovation to supply chain sustainability to advances in operational efficiency and beyond.

“Wal-Mart’s sustainability index announced this past summer is just one example of how one innovative idea can change the entire retail industry,” said David Witzel, director of the EDF Innovation Exchange. “Innovation comes in all shapes and sizes, from employees at all levels within companies. These unconferences aim to capture the powerful energy and innovation that we’re seeing at the intersection of business and the environment, helping to drive industry-wide change.”

Participants will share new ideas for saving and making money while helping the environment; learn practical lessons about what does and doesn’t work in trying to make a company more sustainable; and develop new relationships with partners and colleagues in other businesses as well as non-profits, academics and government.

Sign up for the Austin Green Innovation in Business Unconference is available at: http://greeninnovators-aus.eventbrite.com. Cost for the all-day conference is $75. Included in registration is a complimentary post-conference reception at Austin’s The Oasis.