Iowa Sustainable Business Forum

direct marketing to companies that have been recognized for their programs, and other companies find us through word of mouth. My main priority as Executive Director is to ensure that our member businesses can solve sustainability challenges as fast as possible. And I do a lot of events management – we have a set calendar of events (webinars, roundtables, tours, etc.) and the themes change each quarter. It might be environmental topics like energy, water, waste, or a social topic like safety, health and wellness. Our most popular topic is communication – how companies can best communicate about sustainability principles and practices with employees and with customers. Most of my time is spent on event planning and meeting new companies who are interested in membership – I do a lot of presentations around the state and manage the website. “We’re dabbling now in workforce development, adding that as a fourth event for high value sustainability training for professionals and bringing it to Iowa, where we don’t have it now. We’re leveraging our size and bringing in for example two Certified Energy Manager trainers and certifying 50 new Certified Energy Managers this year. It’s going well, and we’re interested in adding Workforce Development training events to the roster we offer.” BVM: Why would a company become a member of ISBF? Hammes: “No companies join our association unless they have a values match and are interested in doing the right thing in their company. They’re looking for how to do it responsibly. There are compliance issues that are always changing for businesses and that value is risk avoidance. If you’re not paying attention to compliance you’re running a huge risk. On top of that, if compliance is doing good you can avoid costs and save money with efficiencies. So we have companies developing really good management programs and metrics so they can do continuous improvement in all these