National environment, business expert tapped for Lipscomb's first sustainability summit

Janel Shoun | 

Paul Hawken, entrepreneur, author and leading proponent of “green” corporations, will be the keynote speaker on April 3 for Lipscomb University’s Tennessee Green Business Summit, introducing the state’s business owners to the ins and outs of eco-friendly, sustainable operations.

Hawken has founded several ecologically friendly companies, has appeared on “Today,” “Larry King Live,” “The Charlie Rose Show” and other television shows, and his last book, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution has been referred to by several heads of state including President Bill Clinton, who has called it one of the five most important books in the world today.

Lipscomb’s Institute for Sustainable Practice, founded this past summer, will host Hawken at the Tennessee Green Business Summit, April 3-4, on the Lipscomb campus. The summit is designed to provide entrepreneurs and businesspeople opportunities to learn about the rapidly growing field of green business.

Hawken’s address at 7 p.m., April 3, on the Lipscomb campus, will be free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required to ensure adequate seating. A book-signing will follow the speech. Cost to attend the summit is $150. To purchase booth space in the accompanying Tennessee Green Business Expo, April 1-5, costs $250.

To register to attend Hawken’s speech click here.
To register for the Tennessee Green Business Summit & Expo, click here.
Or call 615.966.1771.

There are few experts better prepared to bring practical advice and environmental perspective to Nashville’s business community than Hawken, said G. Dodd Galbreath, executive director of Lipscomb’s Institute for Sustainable Practice and coordinator of the summit and trade show.
“Paul Hawken is a new phenomenon in terms of leaders in the environmental movement: He is a hybrid of an environmentalist and a businessperson, who also happens to be an articulate author,” said Galbreath. “Tennessee is on the cusp of transitioning from an observer to a participant in this sustainability revolution, and we’ve invited Hawken to help the state’s business community assess this opportunity and where we should go next.”

Current plans for the two-day summit include:

Luncheon speaker Matthew Kisber, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, who oversees developing the infrastructure and resources of the state’s communities and attract new industries;
Interactive workshops focused on how to operate a business in a renewable manner, save money, benefit the environment and profit from consumer interest in green products.
Sustainability management executives for Bridgestone/Firestone North America and Mars Corporation's North American operations will join local green business entrepreneurs, the state's most notable architects and commercial real estate developers to lead key workshops and seminars;
Mini-seminars featuring one-on-one time with green business experts in specific fields such as printing, retail clothing, housekeeping, vehicle sales, etc.;
Nashville’s first comprehensive, completely-green expo, April 1-6, will feature products for consumers and business-to-business all under one roof.

Hawken has spoken at conferences across the nation, including the U.S. Green Building Council’s 2007 Greenbuild International Expo in Chicago, where 23,000 also heard former President Clinton speak as keynote speaker this past November.

In his business career, Hawken has founded several of the first natural food companies in the U.S, including Erewhon Trading Company, that relied solely on sustainable agricultural methods. He is presently the head of PaxIT, PaxTurbine, and PaxFan, three companies associated with Pax Scientific, a California-based research and development corporation focused on fluid dynamics, convection, flow form geometry, propulsion, and thermodynamics.

He is author and co-author of dozens of articles, op-eds, papers, as well as six books including The Next Economy, Growing a Business, and The Ecology of Commerce, which was voted in 1998 as the #1 college text on business and the environment by professors in 67 business schools.