Sustainable Brands 2013 – From Revolution to Renaissance

By Silvia Schmid

William McDonough at the Sustainable Brands Conference “From Revolution to Renaissance” in San Diego (Courtesy of Sustainable Brands)

Sustainable Brands’ 2013 Conference “From Revolution to Renaissance” took place this past week in San Diego, bringing together hundreds of professionals and thought leaders in sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Sustainable Brands is a supporting member of the Wharton Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (Wharton IGEL).

Though many topics were addressed, three of the most salient themes from the conference were:

• Transitioning towards transparency and full disclosure
• Maintaining initial values while navigating through big data
• Changing perspectives on sustainability

Supply Chains: Recycling is Great But Could It Be Time to Go Back to the Drawing Board?

Following his presentation on the subject at the 2012 IGEL conference, Dr. Dan Guide of Penn State University sat down with oikos Penn student reporter Yaowen Ma to delve deeper into closed loop supply chains. Distinguishing between primary and secondary closed loop supply chains, Dr Guide walks his listeners through what it really means to save a product from a landfill, especially if we consider that we don’t buy the product for its physical aspects, but rather for the service it delivers. Dr. Guide also speculates on the notion floated at the conference that our current business model is broken, and what is needed to change it in the future.

The Future of Supply Chain Management: An Interview with Gil Friend

When before data management was bulky, complex and prone to errors, the Open Data Registry team has worked to develop the next generation of information infrastructure that makes the process of gathering, synthesizing and analysing infinitely more efficient while protecting business confidentiality. Gil Friend, CEO of Natural Logic and Chairman at Open Data Registry, took some time out to talk with oikos Penn student reporter Sharon Muli about this new tool, where it’s going in the future and what it could mean for businesses.