All-""green"" business summit and expo features straw to cars
Janel Shoun |
The Green Expo, continuing through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Lipscomb's Allen Arena, is Nashville’s first trade show where all 66 exhibitors on the floor are offering green products, services or information, from environmentally sound home improvement options to herbal skin care. The Tennessee Green Business Summit is a two-day, comprehensive opportunity for businesspeople to learn the ins and outs of “going green.”
Click here for Tennessean coverage (with video) of Expo
Click herefor Davidson A.M. coverage of Expo
Green business isn't just for Starbucks anymore, said keynote speaker Brian Nattrass, of Sustainability Partners, a national consulting firm that helps companies, including Starbucks, improve their green operations. Companies as large as Wal Mart and Toyota are going out of their way to offer customers "eco-options," because customers are demanding it, Nattrass said.
Even the United States military is going green, creating an environmental policy institute in 2002, he said.
"Scientists have now said that it has gone beyond a reasonable doubt. It's at the criminal trail standard of evidence -- the earth is warming due to human activities," Nattrass told a crowd of hundreds at the Arena on Thursday evening.
At the Green Expo, 66 local vendors ranging from native plants nurseries to hybrid cars dealers, from eco-fashion retailers to recycling collection services, are on hand to greet the public and provide plenty of one-on-one information. The expo is free to attend and is coordinated by Advent, an experiential marketing firm in Nashville.
Exhibitors participating include: Positively Green magazine, a new women’s magazine focused on green living; ecology, eco-fashion retailer; Gardens of Babylon nursery; Ecoville Architechs, who build homes out of straw bales; Earth Savers, recycling pick-up service; E3 Innovative, offering home energy assessments and energy-saving alternatives for home improvement; Telbari, herbal skin care products; Bridgestone Firestone; McQuiddy Printing; Lee Company; and many more.
Complete hours for the Tennessee Green Expo are: Friday, April 4, noon to 6 p.m.; and Saturday, April 5, 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m.Click here to see a full list of exhibitors
The Tennessee Green Business Summit held two days of seminars on the Lipscomb campus to explore the primary green business trends within the state.
Highly targeted small group workshops addressed specific business functions, such as printing, food service, housekeeping, biofuels, green roofs, hybrid cars and construction.
Tennessee Green Business Summit & Expo Sponsors
Gresham Smith Partners
Barge Waggoner Sumner and Cannon
Lee Company
Trane
Hastings Architecture
Advent
Positively Green Magazine
SSRCx
McQuiddy Printing
Gardens of Babylon
E3 Innovative LLC
NewsChannel 5
Kone Inc.