The Sweeney Agency

About Joel Makower - Speaker on Clean Technology and Corporate Envrionmental Practices:

For more than 20 years, Joel Makower has been a well-respected voice on business, the environment, and the bottom line. As an entrepreneur, bestselling author and leading voice on the greening of mainstream business, he has helped a wide range of companies align environmental goals with business strategy.

Joel is chairman and executive editor of GreenBiz Group, Inc., and creator of GreenBiz.com. He hosts GreenBiz’s annual State of Green Business Forum, the annual GreenBiz Innovation Forum, and other events, and is author of the annual “State of Green Business” report.

Joel also is co-founder of Clean Edge Inc., a research firm focusing on clean technologies, and is senior strategist at GreenOrder, which consults with leading companies on strategic sustainability issues. From 1991 to 2005 he was editor of The Green Business Letter, an award-winning monthly newsletter on corporate environmental strategy and practices.

A former nationally syndicated columnist, Joel is author of more than a dozen books, including Strategies for the Green Economy. Previous books include Beyond the Bottom Line: Putting Social Responsibility to Work for Your Business and the World , about the profit and potential of socially responsible business practices; The E-Factor: The Bottom-Line Approach to Environmentally Responsible Business, on how companies are responding to environmental challenges in positive and profitable ways, and The Green Consumer , a best-selling guide to the environmental marketplace.

Joel has helped a wide range of companies improve their environmental strategy and communications -- including GE, General Motors, Hewlett Packard, and Nike -- as well as advising more than a dozen early-stage companies focusing on environmentally sustainable products and services.

The Associated Press has called him "The guru of green business practices." Joel regularly keynotes corporate events, business associations, and regional business and economic development events, and is frequently quoted in major news media, including Fortune, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Time, and public radio’s “Marketplace.”

What Joe Makower Talks About:

Joel is a talented communicator who can cut through the hype and haze to provide clarity and perspective on a range of business environmental issues. He brings to his writing, speeches, and clients a clear understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing mainstream companies as they try to address environmental issues in a way that drives bottom-line performance and topline growth.

Using his balanced, realistic, and credible approach to sustainable business and clean technology, Joel has helped senior managers in a variety of companies and sectors create strategic roadmaps, make the business case, articulate a vision internally, form meaningful partnerships, and communicate with a broad range of stakeholders.

From Here to Sustainability: The Profit (and Pitfalls) of Environmentally Responsible Business
Corporate environmental strategy has moved from the margins to the mainstream, as companies of all sizes and sectors have found that being environmentally proactive is no longer about “doing the right thing.” It’s about reducing risk, improving quality, complying with customer requirements, attracting and retaining talent, and creating value. Of course, doing all this is no small feat. Companies are both succeeding and struggling as they move from here to sustainability. Makower offers insight, inspiration, and cautionary tales.

Save the Buyosphere! Selling Green in the Age of More, More, More
Green marketing and communications remains a challenge for most companies. On the one hand, consumers in the U.S., Asia, and Europe profess their environmental concern, as well as their willingness to make good, green shopping choices. On the other hand, they are distrustful of companies making environmental or sustainability claims. And it’s not just consumers. Large companies and institutional buyers are levying green requirements on their supply chain, pushing environmental responsibility upstream. So, how do you sell green in a world with a seemingly insatiable appetite for more, more, more? In a world in which Wal-Mart, GM, and BP are waving the green flag, how can marketers be heard – and believed? Makower offers real-world tales from the trenches, the latest marketing trends, and insight and inspiration to help marketers succeed in the green marketplace.

The Great Convergence: Vehicles, Information, Buildings, and Energy
There’s a technological convergence taking place among vehicle, information, building and energy technologies. The Great Convergence is is about an interconnected world, in which this technological mash-up yields a diverse array of products and services that aren’t just greener -- with potentially dramatic reductions in energy, water and materials use as well as in waste and emissions -- but also better. Dozens of companies — as varied as 3M, Best Buy, Cisco, Eaton, GE, GM, Google, Honda, IBM, and Johnson Controls — are already in all four sectors. Hundreds of startups are joining in, with hundreds more to come. How will this unfold and what are the implications for all businesses? Makower lifts the curtain on this new era of innovation.