Emily Backus joined GBENN in 2014 to share her passion for green business, and grow a community of green business programs. Emily is a Sustainability Advisor with Denver Environmental Health’s Certifiably Green Denver program. She assists businesses in a variety of sectors across Denver that seek to reduce their environmental impact, improve operational efficiency and save money. In addition to assisting typical businesses like restaurants, retail stores and offices, Emily works to develop green standards and certifications for local emerging industries including breweries and cannabis cultivation facilities. Emily has a background in hospitality management, environmental consulting and financial analysis and is an alumna of Cornell University.

Cassie Carroll serves as the coordinator of the GBENN Leadership Team. She joined the GBENN Leadership Committee after the 1st National Summit for Green Business Programs in May of 2013. She brings a passion for growing sustainable business and uncovering opportunities and promoting the value green business programs bring to communities across the nation.

In her full time work, Cassie joined The Land Connection in March 2016, bringing experience in sustainable business program development, accreditation, non-profit management and grant writing. She oversees The Land Connection’s programming and supports the development of program funding for strategic organizational initiatives.

Prior to joining the Land Connection, Cassie served in the role of Associate Sustainability Specialist at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, managing the Illinois Governor’s Sustainability Award program, and supporting the development of combined and affiliate programs under the Technical Assistance Program. Cassie also previously served as the Executive Director of the Illinois Green Business Association (IGBA) where she oversaw strategic planning, fundraising, outreach, partnership development and staff oversight. She was an original founder of the IGBA in 2008.

Cassie enjoys growing local, organic foods in her own garden in Champaign, IL, as well as hiking, camping, cooking, and making a difference in her local community through volunteering and serving on various committees.

Josephine Fleming, Environmental Scientist and Owner of Environmental Innovations

Environmental Innovations provides environmental consulting services to businesses, non-profits and local governments in the areas of Green Business, environmental awareness public outreach, Environmental Compliance/Wastewater Pretreatment, and Sustainability Management.

Bio:

Jo has 20 years experience in the environmental industry in a wide breadth of scientific research, environmental remediation, commercial/industrial pollution prevention, and community-based programs.  She has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and a Minor in Spanish Literature.  She has worked to establish numerous Green Business Programs and is currently the Executive Director of the California Green Business Network.

Additional Background:

Ms. Fleming began her career in research on constructed wetlands, compost, and field application of biosolids, and then moved into environmental site assessment and environmental remediation.  From there, she began assisting individual companies with environmental compliance and policy, such as Seagate Technologies and other large biotechnology and microelectronic companies. She soon wanted to help more than one company at a time and therefore took a public position with the County of Santa Cruz.  There she started the Monterey Bay Area Green Business Program as well as a substantive pollution prevention outreach program.  Soon, several Cities were requesting her services to coordinate the Green Business Programs in their jurisdiction.  As a result, she started Environmental Innovations to be able to serve more of the community.  As of 2015, Ms. Fleming and her team have assisted over 300 businesses to become certified Green Businesses and held over 20 industry-specific pollution prevention workshops, and have sparked over 10 new Green Business Programs across the state.  She currently is the Executive Director of the California Green Business Network, coordinating a web-based database that tracks businesses through the program and measures outcomes throughout the State of California.  Other ground-breaking programs that have been coordinated by Environmental Innovations and Ms. Fleming include the Fryer to Fuel Program and the Sharp Solutions for Home Medicines Program.  Ms. Fleming has won several awards including the Western Regional Pollution Prevention Network Pollution Prevention Champion 2003 and 2012, the County of Santa Cruz “Gold” Employee of the Year Award 2004, California Water Environment Association Pretreatment, Pollution Prevention and Stormwater Person of the Year 2003, Department of Toxic Substances Control Office of Pollution Prevention Recognition for exemplary work in promoting Pollution Prevention 2003 and 2006.

Walden is part of the Green Business Engagement National Network (GBENN) to facilitate sharing and relationship-building among green and/or sustainable business programs across the US. She consults with Environmental organizations; helping them to enhance their community stature and organizing special events.

Walden worked for the University of Nevada Reno where she managed the Western Sustainability & Pollution Prevention Network (WSPPN) a four state network funded by the Environmental Protection Agency to provide technical resources to state and local source reduction programs. She worked with the California Green Business Network (CAGBN) and identified states interested in participating in a pilot to expand the California GBP certification model database nationwide.

Walden received national recognition in 2013 as the Pollution Prevention Volunteer of the Year 2013 by the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable as part of the annual MVP2 awards designed to recognize outstanding and innovative P2 projects and programs. In 2009 and 2008, she was the Executive Director for the Sierra Green Building Association (SiGBA) in Truckee, CA whose mission is to educate and promote environmental design, building and living practices in the Sierra Nevada.