Charleston|Orwig joins Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI)

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI), the global leader in developing insights, networking and creating collaborative sustainability solutions for business, today announced the membership of Charleston|Orwig, a strategic communications consultancy serving leading and emerging brands with a focus on sustainability, agriculture and the food system.

"We are pleased to add Charleston|Orwig to our group, because they bring a unique communications mindset to our membership of environment, health and safety professionals," said Roland Mostovy, Sustainability Program manager, Ashland Inc., and GEMI's membership chair. "While GEMI focuses on best practices for sustainability programs, Charleston|Orwig can help to better position and communicate these efforts externally."

Lyle E. Orwig, founding partner, Charleston|Orwig, will be the senior representative to GEMI.

"Our clients are facing a much more socially conscious world, and we work with them daily on sustainability and corporate social responsibility strategies that help strengthen and protect their businesses, attract talent and investors and protect their social license to operate," said Orwig. "We joined GEMI to better comprehend the processes and challenges EHS professionals navigate internally to build and continually improve their sustainability programs – ultimately, helping us be even better partners and advisors."

"GEMI's purpose is to work together on sustainability solutions and developing tools and resources to solve sustainability challenges, but all companies still need to know how best to communicate their sustainability efforts to stakeholders, shareholders, the public and even critics," said Bill Gill, assistant vice president, Environmental Affairs, Smithfield Foods, and chair, GEMI. "Having Charleston|Orwig on board will infuse issues management and marketing expertise to our membership meetings and the materials we develop."

For more information about GEMI, visit www.gemi.org.

About Charleston|Orwig
Charleston|Orwig, based in Hartland, Wisconsin, with a satellite office in Austin, Texas, is a full-service communications firm, providing integrated marketing and reputation management to food system clients—from agriculture through processing and distribution to the point of retail. For more information, visit www.charlestonorwig.com.

About GEMI
GEMI is the global leader in developing insights, networking, and creating collaborative sustainability solutions for business. For 25 years, GEMI has captured the vision and experience of global corporate environmental, health and safety (EHS) and sustainability leaders from diverse business sectors through the development of a wide range of publicly-available, solutions-based tools designed to help companies improve the environment, their operations and add business value.

More Information Contact:
Monica MacKay: 262-563-5665

SOURCE Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI)