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Join us for the 2025 GBENN Virtual Summit!

Join us for the Green Business Engagement National Network Summit November 12-14, 2025, each day from 11:00 am to 3:30pm CT (9am – 1:30pm PT).

The goals of the 2025 GBENN Virtual Summit are to:

  • Explore how members are identifying and serving businesses in environmental justice communities,
  • Strengthen the dialogue and advance collaborative opportunities that continue from previous GBENN summits and events,
  • Share best practice information across programs and foster collaboration that advances the unique objectives of green business programs
  • Engage the membership in discussion to fostering networking and relationship-building between green business programs.

 

Register for the 2025 GBENN Virtual Summit Here!

Summit registration includes plenary and networking sessions. Zoom links provided a week before Summit.

2025 GBENN Virtual Summit Agenda

 

Day 1: November 12, 2025

11am – 11:15am CT: Welcome to the 2025 GBENN Virtual Summit!

11:15am CT – 12:00pm CT: The State of Sustainable Business – American Sustainable Business Network (ASBN)

Uncover the opportunities to shape and support green business. This session, led by the American Sustainable Business Network (ASBN), offers a look at the current landscape of sustainability in business in the United States. ASBN will provide a review of current and key policy priorities, as well as legislative trends, that impact business sustainability today. Learn how ASBN is mobilizing businesses to advocate for a just and regenerative economy and discover actionable opportunities for your organization to engage with national efforts to drive policy change and ensure sustainable business is here to stay

Speaker: Camilla Taylor, Executive Director, American Sustainable Business Network (ASBN) 

12:00pm CT – 1:20pm CT (10am PT – 11:20am PT) – Building Bridges: Strategic Business Recruitment and Engagement for Program Growth

Highlighting three green business programs, this session will showcase best practices on how to jumpstart and maintain business engagement over time through successful recruitment strategies and communications that build relationships and leverage partnerships. Green America will start this session by sharing how they have leveraged the longstanding credibility of their organization to launch a new era of business engagement and recruitment through authentic interactions. Then, the Cook County IL Businesses Reducing Impact on the Environment (BRITE) program will share their strategies for successful engagement, while sharing how post-engagement feedback can guide program growth. Finally, the Hawaii Green Business Program will share how their launch of a new program expansion was built with key partnerships and internships, while recognizing businesses in new ways. Speakers include:

Moderator: Max Ciarlone, Community Outreach Coordinator, Cook County Illinois Businesses Reducing Impact on the Environment (BRITE) Program

Speakers: Steve Fletcher, Director, Green Business Network (GBN) at Green America

Andrew Nowak, Environmental Engineer, Cook County Illinois Businesses Reducing Impact on the Environment (BRITE) Program

Gail Suzuki-Jones, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Manager, Hawaii Green Business Program, Hawaii State Energy Office

1:20pm – 1:40pm CT: BREAK

1:40pm – 3:00pm CT: Concurrent Sector Training Sessions: Auto Body and Repair Shops & Breweries

Learn about the best sustainability practices and approaches from national experts for Breweries and Automotive Repair and Body Shops. These sessions will take a deep sector dive, highlighting key opportunities for green business programs to reduce resource use, cut costs, and generate significant environmental outcomes within the brewery and automotive repair and body shop sectors. New England’s BetterBev Program will share the best strategies for environmental reductions, while outlining key approaches and engagement strategies for the sector. The Pollution Prevention Resources Center (PPRC) will review how to conduct a site assessment at an automotive repair and/or body shop, key best management practices for the sector, and how to address barriers to participation. These sessions will occur concurrently. Sessions will include time for discussion and questions, getting your important questions answered and building your program’s capacity to serve these business sectors.

Speakers: Frances Gilliland, Technical Program Manager, Pollution Prevention Resources Center

Luke Truman, Project Manager, BetterBev Program, New England Environmental Finance Center

John Fay, Project Manager, Northeast Waste Management Officials Association (NEWMOA)

3:00pm – 3:20pm CT: Reflections & Preview of GBENN Virtual Summit Day 2

Day 2: November 13, 2025

11am – 11:15am CT: Welcome to Day 2 of the 2025 GBENN Virtual Summit!

11:15am CT – 12:30pm CT: Equitable Outreach for Green Business Programs: Tailored Strategies for Diverse Industries

This session will provide actionable, industry-specific strategies for green business programs to both recruit diverse talent and engage communities in sustainability efforts, emphasizing the critical link between equity and environmental action. The Monarca Group will launch this session by exploring how green business programs can utilize tailored, low-cost, high-impact strategies across distinct industries to build stronger, more resilient, and equitably green workforces and customer bases. They will explore “equitable outreach” as a human skill, meeting people where they are to dismantle systemic barriers (language, technology, transportation) and simultaneously positioning green jobs and sustainable practices as opportunities for everyone. Then, the Michigan Sustainable Business Forum (MSBF) and the Illinois Green Business Program (IGBP) will share examples from their work with PFAS-free foodware and food businesses, highlighting effective business outreach to diverse-owned businesses and overall program insights. This session will also host an activity, working in small breakout sessions, around how to integrate these strategies and best practices into your own business engagement programs.

Moderator: Berenice El Gharamti, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Monarca Group

Speakers: Jose Luis Ramos, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Monarca Group

Hanna De la Vega Sanchez, Michigan Sustainable Business Forum

Cassie Carroll, Co-Director, Illinois Green Business Program, EnergySense Resilience Center at the University of Illinois System

12:30pm – 12:50pm CT: BREAK

12:50pm – 1:50pm CT: Designing Effective Business Grant Programs: Lessons from the Intuit Green Business Grant Program

This practical session dives into the best practices and strategies of leveraging rebate and grant programs to drive business engagement and the environmental performance of businesses in your programs. Using the GBENN x Intuit Green Business Grant Program as a case study, we will highlight the operational aspects of implementing and managing effective business grant programs, as well as pilot program results. Attendees will also hear from four state green business programs about best practices for business engagement, leveraging utility rebates and programs, and how grant programs can be a powerful recruitment tool to enroll new businesses into your green business program. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies to help you launch, scale, or improve your own green business grant program.

Moderator: Donna Walden, Executive Director, greenUP! And the Nevada Green Business Network

Speakers: Sonya Carlson, Executive Director, BRING Recycling and the Oregon ReThink Business Network

Nick Shivka, Senior Manager of Sustainability Initiatives, Local First Arizona

Erica Gallegos, Green Business Program Coordinator, Western Nevada College and the Nevada Green Business Network

Cassie Carroll, Co-Director, Illinois Green Business Program, EnergySense Resilience Center at the University of Illinois System

1:50pm – 2:00pm CT: Break

2:00pm – 3:20pm CT: Fundraising & Capacity-Building to Sustain Green Business Programs

Faced with the loss of federal funding sources for sustainability, pollution prevention, and green business initiatives, securing new funding is critical. This practical workshop will explore new opportunities to diversity funding support and strengthen your organizational infrastructure with local, regional, and state partnerships. This session will also explore opportunities to develop relationships with foundations and seek corporate funding to sustain green business program operations over time. A fundraising expert will share best practices on how to diversify funding sources for operational support, while green business programs will share their approaches to diversifying funding. Finally, attendees will break into small virtual groups to brainstorm and develop actionable funding strategies based on the session’s insights, leaving with concrete ideas and renewed hope for their program’s future.

Cassie Carroll, Co-Director, Illinois Green Business Program, EnergySense Resilience Center at the University of Illinois System

Lacey Raak, Executive Director, California Green Business Network

3:20pm – 3:30pm CT: Reflections & Preview of GBENN Virtual Summit Day 3

Day 3: November 14, 2025

11am – 11:15am CT: Welcome to Day 3 of the 2025 GBENN

11:15am CT – 12:15pm CT: Cleaner Communities, Brighter Future: How Green Business Programs Drive Community Pollution and Energy Reduction

This session will highlight two initiatives that engage communities and community-based organizations in efforts to reduce business pollution and create cleaner, healthier communities. First, Dayton Regional Green will share how regional competitions can help both businesses and residents create measurable impacts to energy and emissions reduction. They will highlight the value of tracking and setting goals to limit energy and resource use, while showcasing their web-based platform that helps to increase sustainability actions. Then, Cascadia Consulting will share how they partnered with Seattle Public Utilities’ Grease Interceptor Program to recruit participants interested in starting businesses to clean grease traps in the region, creating more sustainable jobs and serving non-compliant businesses in underserved neighborhoods. Both programs both drive community environmental impact reductions, while creating opportunities for local economic development and growth of sustainability initiatives.

Speakers: Lamees Mubaslat, Director, Dayton Regional Green

Mary Xie, Cascadia Consulting

12:15pm CT – 12:30pm CT: BREAK

12:30pm CT – 3:15pm CT: GBENN Development Sessions

This portion of the GBENN Virtual Summit is dedicated to growing and shaping the Green Business Engagement National Network. Sessions will be focused on furthering the Network’s rebranding effort and developing strategic initiatives that benefit the growth of the green business movement nationally and GBENN members. This portion of the agenda is open to all that wish to join, but it will be focused on the growth of GBENN initiatives. The GBENN Development Sessions are as follows:

GBENN Rebrand – New Logo Presentation and Voting

This session will focus on sharing the top three GBENN logo options, as developed by the Strategic Advisory Committee and advised by the Marketing & Engagement Working Group. Members will vote on the new GBENN logo!

GBENN Strategic Sessions

This session will begin with an overview of all of GBENN’s strategic initiatives, as well as review of strategic discussions at the 2024 GBENN Summit in Hawaii. Then, we will work on developing four key GBENN initiatives, as voted on by the GBENN membership:

  • Building sector-based technical capacity and resources for GBENN members
  • Collective outcome tracking and metrics for member programs
  • Leveraging our national green business network and reach for equipment discounts and/or low-cost business purchasing pathways
  • Equity-based engagement and support resources

Virtual breakout rooms will be provided to discuss each initiative within a small group of GBENN members. After all sessions have been completed, breakout groups will share their discussions, outcomes, and next steps.

3:15pm – 3:30pm CT: Wrap up and Thank you!

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Summit Sponsors