“Going Green and Supply Chain Sustainability” Discussion will Include Insights on Corporate Sustainability Trends, Issues and Opportunities
New York, NY and San Francisco, CA, May 20, 2008 – Tim Albinson, Founder and CEO of Aravo Solutions, Inc., a leading-edge firm in the Supplier Information Management (SIM) software and services industry, will participate in an expert panel at the Forbes / Ethisphere Ethical Leadership Forum in New York City on Tuesday, June 3, 2008. Organized by Forbes Magazine and The Ethisphere Institute, the conference will focus on “Driving Profit through Ethical Leadership” and will be held at the Rainbow Room at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan.
Mr. Albinson, formerly an investment banker with Goldman Sachs in New York, is an expert in the corporate sustainability and environmental conservation fields. Last year his company launched Aravo Sustain™, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology platform that helps global organizations plan, implement and manage a variety of corporate sustainability programs.
For more than two decades, Mr. Albinson has been an advocate for conservation and sustainability. He has worked in a variety of leadership roles with global conservation organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, American Forests and Fundacion Natura, Ecuador’s leading conservation group. He also helped formulate early sustainability strategies for companies including Eddie Bauer and Timberland, and served as president of the Adelante Consulting Group, a professional services firm that advised Global 2000 corporations and conservation groups on issues of sustainability, conservation and cause-related marketing
According to Forbes and Ethisphere, recent studies show that consumers are paying increasing attention to issues of sustainability and ethical sourcing, and are paying higher prices for sustainable goods and services. Mr. Albinson’s comments at the conference will help corporate leaders better understand how these trends impact their businesses from multiple perspectives including sales/marketing, governance, compliance and branding. He will focus on key issues including the costs and benefits related to the use of technology to improve practices relating to ethical sourcing, going green and supply chain sustainability.
“Many leading global firms are planning and implementing a range of sustainability programs including toxic substances management, green sourcing and procurement, supplier and factory audits, waste management, carbon footprinting and GHG management.” Albinson explained. “These initiatives are being promoted by senior management and board members who have concluded that sustainability is good for business and the bottom line rather than just a regulatory burden to be dealt with.”
The all-day Forbes conference also features an address by Steve Forbes, Chairman and CEO of Forbes and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine. After Forbes’ presentation, Ethisphere Magazine will honor recipients on its second annual list of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. Throughout the day, leaders from last year’s World’s Most Ethical Companies, including Google and PepsiCo, will present their insights and the ethical best practices used by their businesses. Some of the world’s leading scientists, engineers, technology executives, entrepreneurs and public police decision makers are expected to attend the conference.
“Time and again it has been proven that companies with strong and exceptional ethical leaders typically outperform their competitors,” said Alex Brigham, Executive Director of the Ethisphere Institute. “Companies are creating cultures that encourage ethical behavior from the tone at the top, in addition to looking for opportunities to instill ethical values and practices at every level of the business, including suppliers, customers and partners.”
About Aravo
The world’s best-run businesses utilize Aravo’s Cloud-based Supplier Lifecycle Management solutions and Supplier Risk Services to find and manage trading partner relationships, reduce supply chain risk, ensure global regulatory compliance and lower the cost of managing suppliers by up to 72%. Aravo launched the market’s first SIM/SLM solution in 2004 and has been the leading innovator in the space ever since. Customers such as General Electric, Accenture, and Boston University rely on Aravo to manage information and processes for over 2 million global suppliers. Aravo is based in San Francisco, with offices in Chicago, Dallas, New York, Portland, Monterrey, Mexico and Ahmedabad, India, and is backed by over $50 million in investment from Cisco Systems, Big Sky Partners, and others.
