Sustainable Life Media Launches Sustainable Brands Seminars, Providing Executive Level Learning in Sustainability Aimed at Accelerating Implementation Within Corporations

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Sustainable Life Media announced its five-part SB Seminar Series, designed to provide attendees grounding in some of the complex principles and practices involved in building business and brand value through sustainable innovation. Hosted by top sustainably-focused corporations like Williams-Sonoma, 3M, Johnson & Johnson and AMD, SB Seminars are scheduled for San Francisco, CA in October, Minneapolis, MN in November, New York, NY in December and Austin, TX in January.

Limited to 30 attendees per classroom, and 150 students in each location, participants receive level-the-playing-field business knowledge in key areas of sustainable brand building, marketing, communications, strategy and assessment, product design, supply chain management and impending impact measurement strategies and tools. Students come from brand and corporate sustainability suites, including product, brand and supply chain managers and directors; designers; marketing, communications and PR teams.  Study either Brand Strategy, Communications, Product Design, Supply Chain or Data & Metrics, or join for all 5 back-to-back courses for an end-to-end look at the business of brand sustainability.

"We believe that accelerating the return on sustainability is the greatest challenge facing corporations.  A consistent and shared knowledge base is critical to widespread adoption and are key to success and innovation," said KoAnn Skrzyniarz, Founder and CEO of Sustainable Life Media. "One of our core values is fostering the continued sharing of best practices and building a community of innovators and advocates.  SB Seminars does just that."

SB Seminars Curriculum 

Monday: Building the Credible Sustainable Brand

Learn to build a strong, credible brand, starting with the foundation: how customers experience your brand, and what they believe to be true about you. In this course, Jennifer Rice, from Fruitful Strategy, will walk students step-by-step through building a sustainable brand for B2B, B2C and retailers.

Tuesday: Designing Communications that Resonate

In this course, author and communications expert John Marshall Roberts will walk attendees step-by-step through the essentials of an empathy-based communication framework, first popularized in his bestselling book "Igniting Inspiration: A Persuasion Manual for Visionaries."

Wednesday: Sustainable Product Design: an LCA Approach

Jeremy Faludi, Associate Professor of Design at Stanford University, illuminates Life Cycle Assessment, a popular yet complex subject, while providing participants with the key facts, processes, and LCA tools needed to intelligently design new products while taking life cycle measurement into account and ultimately applying the best solutions for a company's needs.

Thursday: Making Supply Chains More Sustainable

Phil Berry of Sustainable Product Works explains best practices for building sustainable supply chains, lifecycle thinking, covering 13 areas to address, 11 ways sustainability creates value, case studies, addressing climate change, waste, lean manufacturing, and relationship tips.

Friday: Managing Your Sustainable Brand Plan: Management Systems & Metrics for Driving Ideas to Reality

This course will help companies establish metrics, and collect and manage data to meet the needs of all stakeholders, including management, customers, international regulators, and NGOs who scrutinize offerings.  This session provides methods for keeping a cross functional team focused, aligned and incented around interdependent activities and priorities.  

SB Seminars Faculty

Top tier faculty was selected for the inaugural SB Seminar series, experts who have been audience tested, best rated instructors from SLM's extensive network. Students will learn from,

• Jennifer Rice: a strategist who's passionate about the role businesses can play in creating a better world. With over 20 years in brand and customer experience roles, she founded Fruitful Strategy to help companies successfully align sustainability with revenue and reputation.
• John Marshall Roberts is a dynamic and popular keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, and consultant within the sustainability movement, and CEO of next-generation communication research and education consultancy, Worldview Learning.
• Jeremy Faludi (LEED AP) is a sustainable design strategist and researcher. He teaches green design at Stanford University, designs modular green building systems at Project FROG and has worked for Rocky Mountain Institute and The Biomimicry Institute, among others.
• Rainer Ochsenkuehn has over 15 years of international experience in sustainability consulting with a strong background in business strategy, management systems and finance. His expertise is focused on integration of management strategies to expedite resolution of complex natural resource issues.

About Sustainable Life Media

Sustainable Life Media (SLM) is the leading producer of sustainable business conferences and educational events, with additional products and services designed to inspire and equip businesses to profitably innovate for sustainability.  These include targeted e-newsletters, online learning programs, various community membership levels, the flagship Sustainable Brands conference, SB Seminars and research through SLM Insights.  SLM delivers information on the who, what and how of environmental and social innovation, and helps community members connect with thought leaders, peers, partners and solutions providers who can help them quickly reach their goals. For more information, please visit: http://www.sustainablelifemedia.com/about. To subscribe to SLM Newsletters for free, please visit http://www.sustainablelifemedia.com/newsletters.

SOURCE Sustainable Life Media