Ten Years Hence lectures presents trends in green business

 Sustainability is the primary focus of the 2009 Ten Years Hence Speaker Series offered by the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, with experts discussing topics ranging from balancing society with nature to McDonald’s Corp. response to sustainability issues.

The annual spring series of seven lectures runs Jan. 16 through April 17, with each talk taking place 10:40 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. in the Jordan Auditorium at the Mendoza College. The lectures are free and open to the public.

Josh Dorfman, founder and chief executive officer of eco-friendly furniture retailer Vivavi, will open the series with his talk, “Peering into the Green Future: The Trends and Innovations Forging an Abundant Society in Balance with Nature.” In addition to selling furniture and furnishings, Vivavi also provides other resources to consumers to aid in “green” living, with an emphasis on convenience and attractive designs as well as environmental concerns. Dorfman is known as “the Lazy Environmentalist” and has hosted a radio show and authored a book with that title.

The complete 2009 Ten Years Hence schedule is as follows: 

• Jan. 16: Josh Dorfman, founder and CEO of Vivavi, “Peering into the Green Future: The Trends and Innovations Forging an Abundant Society in Balance with Nature”
• Jan. 23: John Smart, president of the Acceleration Studies Foundation, “Foresight Development in a World of Accelerating Change: Thoughts from an Evo Devo Futurist”
• Feb. 6: Patrick T. Mulva, vice president and controller of Exxon Mobile Corp. “Energy Sustainability: A View to 2030
• Feb. 13: Jean Sweeney, vice president of Environmental, Health and Safety Operations of 3M, “Sustainability: Past, Present and Future from a Corporate View
• Feb. 20: David Walker, president and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, “Keeping America Great”
• March 20: Jack Daly, senior vice president of corporate relations and chief communications officer for McDonald’s Corp., “Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility: The McDonald’s Story”
• April 17: Edie Weiner, president and author, Weiner, Edrich, Brown Inc., “FutureThink: How to Put Change in Perspective and See More Clearly What is Coming”

Ten Years Hence has been offered since 2005 as a signature series of the Mendoza College. The speakers are invited to forecast the major national and global trends in their areas of expertise, with each lecture followed by a question-and-answer period. The intention of the series is to develop a sense of a “knowable future” in a dynamic world, so that trends can be anticipated and positively influenced. The series is sponsored by the O’Brien-Smith Leadership Program.

For more information about the speakers, visit the Ten Years Hence website.

Contact: Carol Elliott, Director of Newswriting, Mendoza College of Business, (574) 631-2627 or Elliott.37@nd.edu.

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