Even More Breakout Sessions

Lauren Summers is a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communications pursuing a degree in Journalism with an emphasis in Strategic Communications. She is also working towards a degree in Entrepreneurship. During her junior year of high school she attended a semester school called The Conserve School, which educates students on environmental action and stewardship. This experience inspired her interest in sustainability. After college, she wishes to work in public relations in a job that combines her love of writing with her love of the environment.The 10th Annual Wisconsin Sustainable Business Conference will present a variety of breakout sessions in both the morning and afternoon. These breakout sessions give attendees the opportunity to get detailed information from experts in the state. Each session will start with no more than 30 minutes of presentation from a panel, and then the moderator will open the session up to questions from the audience. It is generally during this open part of the session that really timely and valuable information is shared. This year, we are fortunate to be able to offer at least 5 breakout options in both the morning and afternoon, making for difficult choices for the attendees.

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Water as a Sustainability Issue

This session will feature speakers from InPro, Kohler and MSI General talking about why employee engagement matters and how employee engagement relates to sustainability. The speakers will talk about what their companies are doing to engage employees and the benefits they've seen from those efforts. All of the speakers are experienced practitioners of employee engagement and will tell a good story. If you are seeking to understand why employee engagement matters or what you can do to engage employees, this is a great session for you.

Dylan Waldhuetter Dylan works for The Alliance for Water Stewardship-North America in partnership with The Water Council at The Global Water Center in Milwaukee. He is a graduate of the University Wisconsin-Whitewater with a B.B.A. in Water Science/Business and recently completed his M.S. in Water Policy & Management at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences. Dylan is responsible for the implementation of the AWS International Water Stewardship Standard at the Global Water Center. Once Dylan completes the implementation, the Global Water Center will become the first commercial building in the world to effectively implement the AWS Standard. He also provides support to other implementing sites including MillerCoors Brewery in the Menomonee River Valley

Marco Ugarte Marco Ugarte is the Sustainability Manager at MillerCoors. Recipient of the 2015 Young Hispanic Corporate Achiever award, is accountable for environmenal sustainability at MillerCoors. Specifically, his work focuses on delivering against Molson Coors 2025 Global Sustainability Goals including corporate reporting, water stewardship strategy, carbon management, and landfill free operations across the enterprise. Leads strategic partnerships with the US. Departmen of Agriculture, United Nations Global Compact, The Nature Conservancy, and the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable. Dr. Ugarte is a certified supply chain instructor and speaker for The Association of Climate Change Officers and The Logistics & Supply Chain Forum. Formerly, Dr. Ugarte contributed to the international expansion of The Sustainability Consortium. As entrepreneur, has received awards from MIT, ASU, Walmart, and NASDAQ. He holds a Ph.D. in Sustainability from Arizona State University and professional certifications from APICS, The Association for Operations Management and ASQ, formerly, the American Society for Quality. Latest Board of Directors appointments include APICS and Friends of the Chicago River.

Rob Zimmerman

Rob Zimmerman is the current Director of WaSH & Sustainability at Kohler Co. Zimmerman specializes in thought leadership, strategic planning, ideation, communicating effectively from C-level to the front line, leading cross-functional teams, coaching, selling ideas, interacting with customers, public speaking, writing, expertise in LEED, green building, water, chemistry, and sustainability issues.

This session will be moderated by...

Lisa Wojnarowski Downes Lisa Wojnarowski Downes is an Associate Director of Development for The Nature Conservancy in Illinois. Previously, she was the Associate Director of Securing Water for The Nature Conservancy in North America, where she provided expertise towards the development of water funds and public funding for water across the region. Previously, she led stakeholder engagement efforts in North America towards the development of a global standard for water stewardship via the Alliance for Water Stewardship and served on the Alliance’s Global Secretariat. Prior to joining the Conservancy, Lisa worked as a program manager for the Council of Great Lakes Governors. In that role she worked with the Great Lakes States and Provinces in developing and implementing the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement and related Compact. She also managed regional programs on topics including water conservation and efficiency, water use information sharing and aquatic invasive species. She holds a Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law with a Certificate in International and Comparative Law, as well as Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science and Communication from DePaul University.

Increasing Building Efficiency Through Automation

This session will feature speakers from Johnson Controls, Grosh Design Group and Trane discussing how their companies have automated some aspect of building control leading to an increase in efficiency. This can be through energy, material through-put or in labor. Participants will learn ways these speakers were able to sell the recommended change to management and why the change was suggested in the first place. If your business has considered undergoing some sort of building efficiency project, then this session is for you.

Joe Stump

Joe Stump currently serves as Director of Controls Products Sales North America for Johnson Controls. Joe has spent the last 20 years in the construction industry with the last 14 focused within the HVAC space. He has been involved with the design, sales, and implementation of Building Automation Systems projects from new construction to building retrofits. Joe graduated from North Carolina State University in Raleigh NC with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.

Rick Walker

With over 30 years of experience, Rick Walker has expertise in all aspects of traditional performance contracting and non-guaranteed energy services. Rick has been involved in the national design and implementation of HVAC and related energy management programs, along with financial services, remote services offerings and environmental projects. His past work encompasses specific experience in cogeneration projects, energy information, performance contracting, and service contracting for new construction. His current responsibilities at Trane include the design, development and implementation of energy efficiency and operating solutions and services. Rick has spoken internationally on energy, green buildings, sustainability and related topics. He has been a consultant to the Department of Energy, the State of Michigan, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and NYSERDA on various energy programs. He is a past member of the US Green Building Council’s LEED for Existing Buildings Core Committee; past Board Member of the Wisconsin Green building Alliance; and the National Association of Energy Service Companies (NAESCO). Rick holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Jason Tienor

Jason currently serves as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Telkonet, Inc., a leader in commercial intelligent automation supporting the emerging Internet-of-Things industry. Prior to Telkonet, Jason co-founded EthoStream, one of the largest High-Speed Internet Access (HSIA) vendors in the US. Upon selling EthoStream to Telkonet, Jason divested Telkonet of non-core assets, built the EcoSmart automation platform from concept to market, rebranded the organization and created a leader in the commercial automation and Internet-of-Things space. Prior to EthoStream, Jason co-founded and managed a Milwaukee-based IT consulting firm specializing in web-based technologies after holding multiple positions within the software engineering field.

Jason graduated from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh with a BBA in MIS and Marketing and from Marquette University in Milwaukee with an MBA with an emphasis in Computer Science. Jason is active in the entrepreneurial community mentoring, advising and investing in young companies and participating as a Director for numerous organizations. Jason enjoys the outdoors, athletics, traveling and time with his family.

This session will be moderated by...

Lauren Summers

Lauren Summers is a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communications pursuing a degree in Journalism with an emphasis in Strategic Communications. She is also working towards a degree in Entrepreneurship. During her junior year of high school she attended a semester school called The Conserve School, which educates students on environmental action and stewardship. This experience inspired her interest in sustainability. After college, she wishes to work in public relations in a job that combines her love of writing with her love of the environment.

Everyone's Part of the Solution: Employee Engagement This session will feature speakers from InPro, Kohler and MSI General talking about why employee engagement matters and how employee engagement relates to sustainability. The speakers will talk about what their companies are doing to engage employees and the benefits they've seen from those efforts. All of the speakers are experienced practitioners of employee engagement and will tell a good story. If you are seeking to understand why employee engagement matters or what you can do to engage employees, this is a great session for you.

Amanda Goetsch

Amanda Goetsch is the Environmental Sustainability Manger at Inpro Corp. Goetsch brings the academic background and professional experience to help organizations minimize environmental impact, maximize contribution to community and increase prosperity for stakeholders. Goetsch pursued a unique combination of graduate degrees and certificates in Conservation Biology, Sustainable Business and Environmental and Social Responsibility from UW-Madison. With an entrepreneurial, optimistic and pragmatic attitude she brings more than a decade of sustainability experience to the conversation. At her current role as Sustainability Manager at Inpro, a building product manufacturing firm in Muskego, Wisconsin she has helped Inpro achieve multiple Green Master's statuses, Green Tier status through the Wisconsin DNR and two-time Business Friend of the Environment award. She currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council, the Governance Board for Cool Choices, the Market Leadership Advisory Board for the U.S. Green Building Council Wisconsin Chapter and formerly served on the Jefferson County Sustainability Taskforce. She was also one of the WSBC 2017 Sustainable Leadership Award recipients.

Nathan Nissen

Nathan Nissen is the current Principle Engineer of Sustainability at Kohler Co. Nissen is a sustainability leader in footprint reduction, performance reporting, communications/training, systems integration and strategic planning. Nissen worked on a project at Kohler Co. and Kohler Co. was awarded Silver LEED® Status from the U.S. Green Building Council for its work to transform the company’s Environmental, Health and Safety building into a more environmentally efficient structure.

Ken Neitzke

Ken Neitzke is the Senior Designer at MSI General. Neitzke has a solid background in design projects from conception, preliminary design, code review, construction documents, permitting and construction completion. This solid design production background compliments an equally strong CAD Administration background giving me the direct knowledge and experience to support the design staff in a strong effective manner and to positively contribute to the company’s bottom line. He also facilitated and directed LEED certification documentation as a LEED AP O+M to encourage the use of sustainable building materials, Green Building practices, and energy efficiency to preserve our precious resources for future generation.

This session will be moderated by...

Don Smeltzer

Don Smeltzer is the Director of Business Development for Cool Choices, Inc. We help companies engage their employees in sustainability, benefiting their bottom line and the world. We do this by giving them tools to change their company culture to one where all employees are actively engaged in recycling, and reducing waste, energy loss, transportation costs, and water use. As a senior sales executive, he brings 17 years' experience leading sales teams and national efforts. I firmly believe in developing members of my sales team. Background is in human behavior, clinical psychology, account management, psychotherapy, individual transformation, and making people laugh.

Communicating Sustainability with Customers

Communicating Sustainability with Customers is designed to share best practices of companies that specifically target customers with sustainability messages. From using social media, to direct outreach by email to hard copies of sustainability performance information, you'll hear innovative and effective approaches. If you are considering sharing your sustainability accomplishments with customers, you'll want to make sure you add this session to your list of must see sessions.

Lisa Geason-Bauer Lisa Geason-Bauer is the President of Evolution Marketing. Lisa founded Wisconsin’s first triple bottom line managed marketing and sustainability consulting firm (Evolution Marketing) in 2007. Since then she has played an active role in shaping the discussion within the business world regarding adoption of strategic sustainability strategies and inclusion of corporate social responsibility programs/projects into day-to-day business operations. Ms. Geason-Bauer has been working at the intersection of sustainability, marketing/communications and product innovation; she enjoys helping her clients to distinguish themselves from their competition via adoption of triple bottom line strategies and circular economy thinking.

Eric Bashaw Eric Bashaw is the Director of Environmental Compliance at Gundersen Health. Bashaw oversees matters concerning waste water, solid waste, pharmaceutical waste, air emissions and chemical safety for the healthcare provider. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and then went to Madison to receive his graduate degree.

This session will be moderated by...

Richard Udell

Richard Udell, of La Crosse, WI, is a 5th year senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In May 2018 he will graduate with degrees in Environmental Studies and Geoscience and with certificates in Entrepreneurship and Science & Technology Studies. Richard’s passion for sustainability was inspired by the efficiency he observed in nature through coursework he completed in field science. In 2015, he studied tropical ecology in Ecuador and he has completed 10 weeks of field geology coursework in Wisconsin, Ontario, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, and Idaho. In his 5th year at UW, Richard works to integrate his understanding of environmental cycles and sustainability with his belief in the power and responsibility of business. He is eager to help facilitate collaboration and sustainability within Wisconsin’s innovative and inspiring business community. Richard aspires to carry his values through his career and help businesses integrate social entrepreneurship.