FRIENDS WE NEVER IMAGINED, POWER WE’VE NEVER USED

Four Opportunities for Unlikely Allies and Unexpected Victories

Conservative advances in Congress have left many sustainability advocates disillusioned and depressed, fighting rear-guard battles to protect past victories, not secure new ones.

But our movement has friends we have never imagined, and power we have never used.  By moving forward boldly with smart strategies, we can split the opposition, earn support from key conservatives, businesses, and labor, and secure important victories on climate, water, recycling, and human rights.

Bill Shireman will describe behind-the-scenes opportunities he and his Future 500 colleagues have uncovered, as they engage stakeholders from the NGO, business, funder, and political communities, to advance sustainability.

Future 500 President and CEO Bill Shireman places himself between groups that love to hate each other: the world's largest corporations, and it's most impassioned advocacy groups. Called "a master social and environmental entrepreneur," Shireman unites business and NGO leaders behind genuine common ground solutions to global warming, deforestation, resource depletion, political repression, and human rights violations.

He advocates technology to solve labor and human rights problems in the developing world. And he has written some of the world's most effective and economical recycling laws, including California's landmark beverage container recycling law, the nation's most cost-effective "bottle bill." The innovative laws, programs, and policies he has developed have cut pollution and waste and saved more than 0.5 billion for consumers and businesses.

Shireman is the author of many articles and books on business, environment, and the future. His writings have appeared in USA Today, Technology Review, Business Week, the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, and other newspapers, magazines, and journals. He is co-author (with Tachi Kiuchi) of What We Learned in the Rainforest: Business Lessons from Nature (Berrett-Koehler).