EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Michigan Business School’s Sustainable Business Conference Feb. 27

DATE: 8:40 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Feb. 27, 2004

EVENT: The University of Michigan Business School’s 9th annual Sustainable Business Conference & Expo will explore how efforts to create strong local business communities that can control their own economic destiny will provide a financially viable and ecologically sustainable alternative to the global industrial growth system. This year’s theme is "Everything you need to know about growing your business sustainably." The keynote speaker is H. Thomas Johnson, professor of business administration at Portland State University.

PLACE: Hale Auditorium, located in the Business School’s Assembly Hall on the corner of Hill and Tappan streets

BACKGROUND: Johnson was recently named one of 200 leading management thinkers by Harvard Business School Press and is author of the award-winning book, "Profit Beyond Measure: Extraordinary Results through Attention to Work and People." Based on years of studying Toyota’s methods, he will show how enterprises that work to a smaller scale and slower pace prove that small is "not only beautiful, but efficient, practical and earth-friendly."

The conference also will feature multiple breakout sessions with 30 additional speakers, corporate executives, government officials and NGO leaders. Topics include: product design, packaging, bio-based materials, energy and co-generation, buildings, social responsibility, third-party certifications, marketing, fuels and transportation, land use, ISO and EMS. Exhibitors also will be on hand to showcase products and services with an environmental and economic focus.

SPONSOR: University of Michigan Business School and Southeast Michigan Sustainable Business Forum (SMSBF)

WEBSITE: www.sbam.org/sustain

Sharon Paterson at (734) 429-8900