Sustainability one focus of National Manufacturing Week conference

Green Manufacturing: Business Strategies for Sustainability highlights the conference sessions of National Manufacturing Week and will emphasize concepts such as Lean and green, corporate social responsibility, waste to profit, design for environment, zero waste and environmental sustainability.

By Plant Engineering Staff August 20, 2008

National Manufacturing Week arrives at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL, Sept. 23-25 as part of the latest Canon Communications blitzkrieg of trade shows. Co-located with Green Manufacturing Expo and four other manufacturing-focused shows, NMW will again be comprised of the Design Engineering, Plant Engineering, Industrial Automation and Enterprise IT pavilions.
Highlighting the conference sessions that begin Monday, Sept. 22, is Green Manufacturing: Business Strategies for Sustainability, which will emphasize concepts such as Lean and green, corporate social responsibility, waste to profit, design for environment, zero waste and environmental sustainability. Attendees will engage in discussions and workshops to become familiar with new approaches to reducing costs and increasing profits, all while conserving energy and resources. Pamela J. Gordon, founder of Technology Forecasters Inc. and lead consultant for TFI Environment chairs the first two days of the conference.
“The measure of success of any green manufacturing conference is the extent to which the participants successfully reduce their products’ and companies’ environmental footprints upon their return to their workplaces,” Gordon said. “The Green Manufacturing: Business Strategies for Sustainability conference makes participants change agents by giving them those tools to substantively reduce impact in financially and competitively advantageous ways.”
Two keynote events are scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 23. At 9:00 a.m., a panel discussion titled So the grass IS greener on the other side: How industry leaders are practicing sustainability and improving tomorrow’s profitability, features panelists Greg Sebasky, senior vice president and CEO of global customer services for Philips Healthcare ; Leslie Collins of Hewlett Packard ; and Rick Rommel, vice president of transformational technology for Best Buy . At 1:00 p.m., Daniel S. Sullivan, assistant secretary for economic, energy and business affairs, U.S. Department of State , presents Free Trade: Strengthening America and its Partners. Both keynote presentations are free for conference attendees.
Other conference topics include rapid prototyping, Lean maintenance and quality management, among others. Attendees of the conference can use their badge for admission to any of the exhibits.