SUSTAINABILITY ISSUE

Looking back to move forward

BY MICHAEL BOURGUIGNON | What lessons can be gleaned from past practices to assure a more sustainable—yet profitable—future for the business leaders of tomorrow? Organizers from the Management Undergraduate Society aim to find out during the fourth annual McGill Business Conference on Sustainability, Jan. 31 to Feb. 4.

To help create a sense of corporate-social responsibility among the students whose actions and attitudes today will determine the sustainability of tomorrow’s business world, the MUS has enlisted renowned environmentalist and activist Dr. David Suzuki to deliver the keynote address. Dr. Suzuki will explore how evolution has given human beings the memory, curiosity and creativity to conceive and create our own future based on what we do in the present, a topic very much in keeping with the theme of the conference, “Looking Back to Move Forward.”

The keynote address is slated for Thursday, Jan. 31, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., in the Leacock auditorium, 855 Sherbrooke St. West.

Also on the agenda are seminars touching on green marketing, building green infrastructures, using waste to make products, as well as workshops on labour policy and arbitration, the connection between happiness and consumption, the production of toxin-free cosmetics, ethical clothing production and a project to create socially conscious T-shirts promoting peace and equality.

About 150 student delegates are expected to attend the conference, which will be held at several venues in downtown Montreal, including McGill University and the Delta Hotel Montreal, 475 President Kennedy Ave.

2008 McGill Business Conference on Sustainability: “Looking Back to Move Forward”; Jan. 31-Feb. 4; seminars and workshops to be held at various locations; keynote address by Dr. David Suzuki, Jan. 31, 6:30-8:00 p.m.; Leacock Auditorium, 855 Sherbrooke St. West. Admission: $15, available in the Desautels Faculty of Management first-floor lobby, Bronfman Building, 1001 Sherbrooke St. W. Delegate registration for the conference: $80 for McGill delegates, $100 for Montreal delegates. For information, contact register.mbcs@gmail.com or consult the website: www.mbcs.mcgill.ca.