News and Events

Jeremy Faludi, principal of Faludi Design, is a sustainable design strategist and researcher. He works with companies in sustainable product design. He has designed and taught courses in sustainable product innovation and design at Stanford University, California College of the Arts, and Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He has also worked with the Biomimicry Institute and the Rocky Mountain Institute.

A Conversation with Jeremy Faludi on Biomimicry
(main conference area)
Biomimicry is an exciting new field that studies nature in order to imitate its designs and processes to try to solve human problems. Learn how this emergent field may help focus innovation for industrial product design and development.

SmartDart (Parker Hannifin Room)
Many small and mid-size companies don't have the resources, knowledge, or time to pursue sustainability. Recognizing this, the Sustainable Design, Materials, and Manufacturing (SDM2) working group from the Cleveland SC2019 Summit set off to develop a helpful tool. The SMART DART (Sustainable Manufacturing Applied Research Teams, Diagram for Accelerating Regional Transformation) was born to identify sustainability opportunities, measure improvement, and find information and resources to help them become a more sustainable enterprise.

Join the SDM2 team for an overview of SMART DART, how it works, and how it might help your business become a more sustainable entity.

Moderator: Lynn Schulte, director, Sustainability Plan Clinic, B-W

Corporations across the northeast Ohio region are moving rapidly to embrace sustainability within their operations and product lines. These efforts result in measurable benefits to companies, customers, stakeholders, and the planet. For companies, these innovations generate cost reductions and opportunities for revenue growth. But how does a company take the next step and move from “credible player” to “leader” in sustainability? How does sustainability become a central factor in the organization’s strategic decisions, and in its long-term strategic directions? How can sustainability become a comprehensive lens through which to evaluate all of its practices and stakeholder relations? Learn from the experiences and approaches of two global companies that seek to be established leaders in sustainability within their vastly different industries.

“Green” or “sustainable” products seem all the rage. Many customers want them. Companies want to provide them. But what are they? How can companies design, manufacture, market, and sell products and services that have credible sustainability attributes? Who defines them? How does the firm weigh possible “trade-offs” in performance, ecological impacts, and marketability? What are the roles of government regulations, industry and third-party standards, changing technologies, and corporate innovation? How will future expectations and standards make today’s innovations obsolete and how does the successful corporation position itself in this process? Learn from the experiences and approaches of successful companies in our region across an array of industry sectors how they are navigating the challenges and opportunities inherent to this process.

Informal Conversation with Jeremy Faludi (Parker Hannifin Room)
(for BW sustainability students and CIA students)

Reputation and Sustainability Matter: Monetizing the Case
Using tenets of behavioral economics, this session focuses on causal models to understand the impact of sustainability efforts on organizational financial and behavioral outcomes. At first blush, investing in sustainability may seem an obvious organizational choice, with returns on investment including goodwill, environmental soundness, enhanced reputation, and potential increased stakeholder loyalty leading to greater financial performance. However, corporate c-suite executives need to know that returns on investments will have net positive gains. To show this, several variables must be considered, including some that traditionally elude quantification. Examples and outcomes will be shown.

Pam Cohen, behavioral economist, Dix & Eaton, Cleveland and Chicago

Creating Sustainable Cities for the Future -- Leading Innovations from the "City with Broad Shoulders"

Richard E. Daley, former mayor, City of Chicago
(main conference area)

Mayor Daley's leadership has put Chicago on the map as the leading large municipal innovator in sustainability. Learn how their exciting and bold initiatives are preparing the city and their region to prosper in a future that will be radically different from the past and present.

Respondent: Hunter Morrison, program director, Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium, Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) 

Wednesday, November 9

Within a short period of time, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has become THE standard by which large publicly-traded firms report their sustainability practices and performance to the world. What is the GRI? Why has it become so widely used? Is it an innovation my company should adopt, either formally or in spirit? Or should my firm move forward without it? Learn about the GRI from the country’s leading consulting firm that trains companies in the GRI reporting process.

Barb Brown, partner, Brown/Flynn

Moderator: Lynn Schulte, director, Sustainability Plan Clinic, B-W

Manufacturing For Sustainability: Innovative Tools for Success
(Parker Hannifin Room)

Learn about valuable tools and processes available to manufacturers large and small as they attempt to navigate the process toward sustainable operational performance and product design and manufacture. The session will address an array of tools and processes available from government, university sources that MAGNET can make available for manufacturers in our region.

Mike Kaminski, senior consultant, EcoSmart specialist, MAGNET

Moderator: Dr. Ven Ochaya, program director, MBA in Sustainability, B-W

Unless starting from scratch, every successful company in sustainability needs to embrace transformations in its corporate culture if it is to capture the attention, commitment, and creativity of its employees to support these initiatives. And there is no “one size fits all” culture or approach that works across companies. High corporate sustainability performance will eventually languish if not embraced by senior management and by numerous functions across the firm, including operations, product development, marketing and sales, HR, and strategic planning. Learn how successful companies across diverse industry sectors have leveraged sustainability as a key driver within the cultures of their organizations.