Calling all Business, Community, and Economic Development leaders! The Pennsylvanian Sustainable Business Network will be hosting the first Clean Energy Manufacturing Summit on April 16th from 1-5pm at the Energy Innovation Center in Pittsburgh. We want to hear your voice about what opportunities and challenges manufacturers are facing in building the new Clean Energy Economy. We have limited space so make sure to sign up!
Pennsylvania Clean Energy DEIJ Day
ASBN is proud to sponsor the Pennslyvania Clean Energy DEIJ Day-a state-specific full-day business and community development event series that brings together local, national, and international experts in clean energy with the sole purpose to ensure diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) across the industry. Our clean energy DEIJ areas of focus are:
- Exceeding local content goals with international partners
- Advancing supply chain/supplier diversity
- Ensuring traditional and nontraditional workforce development pathways
- Creating meaningful and measurable community investment outcomes
Join us as we are Engineering Equity For All â„¢ to ensure a just and equitable clean energy transition. We look forward to you joining us!Registration is free to attend and there are opportunities to highlight local businesses aligned with the sustainable energy sector at this event.
Tribal Energy Equity Summit
[] The 2023 Annual Tribal Energy Equity Summit will assemble, for the first time, Native American tribal leaders and officials from the Federal Government, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of the Interior for the purposes of establishing relationships and catalyzing more meaningful and effective dialogue about critical energy considerations such as siting, transmission, interconnection and the many resources available to tribes to support a just transition to clean energy.
Why Hydrogen and Why Now?
The American Sustainable Business Network, Ohio University and the Ohio Sustainable Business Council co-present ‘[] Why Hydrogen and Why Now?‘. Learn about hydrogen projects moving Ohio and the U.S. toward a more sustainable energy and manufacturing economy.
Featured Speakers:
Nick Connell, Interim Executive Director, Green Hydrogen Coalition
Wiley Rhodes, CEO, Newpoint Gas
Frank Calzonetti, Vice President of Research, The University of Toledo
Michael Zimmer, Moderator, Professional Fellow, Ohio University
Clean Energy & Infrastructure: Impact & Opportunities
Join the American Sustainable Business Network and experts to learn about how funding opportunities in theBipartisan Infrastructure Billand theInflation Reduction Actwill dramatically change the energy landscape. The nearly $369 billion in climate and clean energy provisions in the new law include grants and tax credits that will bring down emissions and provide businesses with the certainty they need to make long-term investments in clean energy.
Speakers:
– Joshua Peck, Senior Policy Advisor, White House Office of Clean Energy Innovation & Implementation
– Mayda Sanchez Shingler, Executive Director, Ohio Sustainable Business Council
– David Levine, President, the American Sustainable Business Network
– Michael Green, Director of Climate & Energy, the American Sustainable Business Network
– Stephanie Howe, Director, Energy Programs and Director of Human Capital, Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service, Ohio University
– Katie Harris, Legislative Director, BlueGreen Alliance
– More speakers to be announced
Member Event Climate and Energy
The objective of ASBN’s Climate & Energy working group is to discuss and identify key problems, solutions and strategies to address the climate and energy crisis our planet is facing. ASBN is committed to continue educating and engaging business leaders to advocate on behalf of market shifts and public policy change to advance renewable energy, support a carbon tax, the Green New Deal, sustainable infrastructure, the climate strikes and other efforts.
Contact[] mgreen@asbnetwork.orgto join
Exploring Employee Ownership: Why Business Owners Choose it and what it Could Offer Your Company
In honor of Employee Ownership month, theASBN Transforming Business Ownershipworking groupis pleased to present this special panel. Speakers will include leaders of employee-owned businesses who can share different perspectives on the value of employee ownership and how it contributes to their company’s success, whether through employee engagement and retention, succession planning and ownership transitions, or just another way to express the company’s commitment to sustainability. Panelists will address different scenarios through which businesses can transition to employee ownership.
Moderator:Derek Peebles| ASBN Director of Inclusive Economy
Panelists:
- Tommy Smith | [] Kaiser Permanente | Impact Spending | Manager-Economic Impact
Tommy Smith leads the economic impact strategy for Kaiser Permanente’s procurement spend. Tommy helps KP leverage its buying power to support economic development as a means of improving community health. Tommy serves as the main contact point with business units in developing strategies and programs to promote local impact purchasing and capacity building for businesses in KP’s supply chain and in KP’s communities. Tommy holds a BA in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is a veteran of the United States Navy’s Submarine Service. Prior to his role with Impact Spending, Tommy conducted policy analysis and program evaluation in civic engagement, economic development, education, supplier diversity and workforce training. He is a husband and father of two who in his scant free time enjoys reading, hiking, and camping.
- Kevin Koch |Technicians For Sustainability| Co-Founder
​Kevin is the co-founder of Technicians For Sustainability, a solar design build firm, since 2003. He guided the company to a worker cooperative transition in 2017, and has continued to serve as CEO.Kevin has been advocating for adoption of renewable energy in Southern Arizona for over two decades. Through his engagement with sustainability, he has worked to increase access to and trust in solar energy while structuring the company at the intersection of idealism and practicality.
- Rachel Battles |Happy Earth Cleaning Co-op| General Manager
Rachel Battles is the General Manager and a Founding Member ofHappy Earth Cleaning Co-op, Minneapolis’s first worker-owned cleaning company! She played an active role in Happy Earth’s transition from an LLC to a worker cooperative. Through the process, she leveled up from being just a cleaning employee to being a business owner, and successfully managed the co-op through the turbulence of a global pandemic. She is super pumped to share her experiences and knowledge of the co-op realm with other folks who are curious about employee ownership! Her passion for helping people and making the world a more loving, equitable, and peaceful place is what drives her to make Happy Earth the best workplace it can be.
There will be an opportunity to join each of the panelists in break out rooms with Employee Ownership experts:
- Ellen Vera | Co-op Cincy
- Hilary Abell | Project Equity
- Kristen Barker | Co-op Cincy
And Transforming Business Ownership Project Members
- Babbie Jacobs | Dave O’Leary | Derek Peebles | Eric Leenson
[] REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT HERE
FeaturingCorey Rosen(NCEO),Hilary Abell(Project Equity),Jack Moriarity([] Ownership America),Karen Kahn(The Democracy Collaborative),Kristen Barker(Co-op Cincy),Matt Kruetz(Firebrand Artisan Breads), Ra Criscitiello([] SEIU-UHW West )
These events are co-sponsored by EO Equals, a campaign that aims to expand the employee ownership movement. Employee ownership helps more small businesses thrive, empowers workers with higher quality jobs, and builds more equitable communities. Visitemployeeownershipequals.org/for more information.
Member Event Climate & Energy
ASBN is committed to continue educating and engaging business leaders to advocate on behalf of market shifts and public policy change to advance renewable energy, support a carbon tax, the Green New Deal, sustainable infrastructure, the climate strikes and other efforts. Carbon Business Council (Ben Rubin) is joining this working group call, and we will discuss Solutions for Pollution Campaign Sign On, COP 27 Sign Up, and the Cost of Inaction comms.
Contact [] Michael Green to participate
ASBN Live Reimagining Recycling: How Tech Innovation is Increasing Landfill Diversion and Driving Circularity
Technology is playing a key role in supporting the advancement of recycling in North America and beyond. AI-powered computer vision systems are creating a more holistic view of where material is moving, and most importantly, what’s in it. AI and better data capture are helping consumer packaged goods companies, retailers, and manufacturers understand the flow and recovery of their specific containers and packaging; such innovations are reducing contamination and supporting producer initiatives to increase recycling rates, including for problematic materials like film and flexibles, and create new value streams for recyclables. Data collection, measurement, and material characterization for recycling also create a mechanism to support Extended Producer Responsibility schemes and other government initiatives focused on landfill diversion goals and recycled content standards, helping to advance a more circular economy for valuable commodities.
[] Register for ReimaginingRecycling
Speaker
Chris Wirth is vice president of marketing and industry and government relations for AMP Robotics. Wirth brings more than 25 years of business-to-business (B2B) experience at companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies in the technology, sustainability, government, finance, and industrial sectors. Prior to AMP, he held roles in marketing at Flex Ltd (NASDAQ: FLEX) incubating an internal international energy start-up and was vice president of marketing for Spruce Finance (formerly Clean Power Finance), a solar energy financier backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Google Ventures.
Partner Event Texas Sustainable Business Network Kick-Off
As Winter Storm Uri and other recent disasters have shown us, we can’t rely on a small, disconnected group of people to solve a problem as big as our energy and environment. With so much at stake in Texas— the second largest and second most diverse state in the U.S., home to “The Energy Capital of the World†and numerous Fortune 500 corporate headquarters — we are at a critical point with a massive opportunity to transition the region to a more sustainable and resilient economy.
To achieve this transition inclusively, equitably, and effectively, we invite key stakeholders from all sectors to join us in the Texas Sustainable Business Network (TXSBN). In partnership with the American Sustainable Business Network (ASBN), TXSBN is building the infrastructure and coordination needed to educate, advocate, influence and impact policy and market shifts, while providing Texan representation at community, state, and national levels. We invite you to co-create a Texas-specific path that reinforces the reality that our businesses—the job creators in our society—can be powerful advocates for sustainability. Together, we can reimagine and advance a regenerative and resilient economy that counterbalances extractive and destructive practices from the past.
3:30-3:35:Welcome & Introductions
3:35-3:50:What the American Sustainable Business Network is and the goals of TXSBN
3:50-4:10:Texas Leaders share diverse perspective on why Texas needs a Sustainable Business Network
4:10-4:15:How you and your company/organization can engage and participate in TXSBN
4:15-end:Breakout Rooms and Networking: We want to hear from YOU!
What activities and resources should TXSBN offer?
As a business leader, how would you like to see Texas make progress in sustainability?
What questions do you have before joining?
THE MISSION (Learn more at[] https://txsbnetwork.org)
The mission of the Texas Sustainable Business Network (TXSBN) is to advance market solutions and public policies that ensure an equitable and sustainable economy benefiting all Texas communities. TXSBN believes that a sustainable economy creates shared prosperity, market driven environmental protection, and social justice through future-focused commitments. It is essential, morally and pragmatically, for business to play a critical, positive role in achieving this.
The time is now to support and spotlight business leaders who can champion a bold Texas future — leaders who understand we must pivot from extractive industry to regenerative innovation, and from short-term exploitation to long-term sustainable prosperity, or risk being left behind. TXSBN invites you to join values-based business leaders to form a powerhouse that builds lasting infrastructure, generates new policies, advances systemic change for a resilient and sustainable economy, and demonstrates it is possible for business to do well by doing good!
