People Planet Profit Sustainability Conference

Montgomery College Rockville

The People, Planet, Profit Sustainability Conference was held in the Theatre Arts Arena of Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland on Wednesday, March 2, 2011.

Thanks to Dean Patti Bartlett, the conference was sponsored by the following Montgomery College organizations: Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), The Etiquette Club, Phi Theta Kappa, and The Nutrition Club.

Students and faculty were invited to attend this free seminar to hear a panel of six local business leaders discuss how their businesses are working to reduce their own environmental footprints on the community.  People, planet, and profit are the categories identified by the panelists as measurable indicators of sustainability in the discussion.

Panel members included Dr. Rick Ducey, Chief Strategy Officer, BIA/Kelsey, Mr. Dave Feldman, Executive Director, Bethesda Green, CEO, Livability Project L.L.C., Mrs. Pat Wirth, President/CEO, Potomac Falls Express Lube & Car Wash, Mr. Robert Youngentob, President, EYA, Mr. Pete M. Hodgson, CPA, CFA, Principal, Reznik Group, and Mr. Bill Keating, President, Urban Service Systems Corporation.

Student participation was outstanding!  Students lined both sides of the arena to ask the guest panelists questions, ranging from sustainability project marketing advice to identification of peer advocacy initiatives.

Dr. Rick Ducey
Chief Strategy Officer
BIA/Kelsey

The moderator, Mr. Rick Ducey, engaged the audience with a working definition of the conference topic ̶  people, planet, and profit sustainability, which is a campaign designed to recruit organizations to deliberately establish and enforce best practices to save the planet, its resources, and its inhabitants.  The campaign advocates the use of these best practices to increase long-term productivity and profits.  Mr. Ducey referred to people, planet and profit sustainability as "the new triple-bottom line."  He communicated that his organization advocates the people component pertaining to fair beneficial and ethical business practices towards labor. Mr. Ducey provided 14 examples of ways his company  sustains people.  A few examples include training and development, community outreach, military support, and  partnerships with non-profit and government organizations.  Mr. Ducey discussed issues of corporate responsibility as they relate to the global need to adopt and enforce policies and procedures that promote and comply with people, planet, and profit sustainability.Then, Mr. Ducey provided examples of large organizations who are leading the effort before he introduced other local panel members who are following suit. 

Mr. Dave Feldman
Executive Director
Bethesda Green, and
CEO, Livability Project L.L.C.

Mr. Feldman's grassroots efforts represents how the non-profit sector can contribute to the "triple-bottom line" agenda and how his organization, Bethesda Green, has been working with government organizations and Bethesda, Maryland residents to do so for three years now.  Mr. Feldman is an advocate of many best practices, such as electronic recycling, greening condo communities, and converting denim jeans into building insulation for another non-profit organization, Habitat for Humanity, which builds housing for people in need.  Mr. Feldman also applauded another organization's efforts to experiment with providing sustainable vending machines for healthy food, when he invited each of us to think of ways we can take individual responsibility for people, planet, and profit sustainability.  Bethesda Green volunteer inquiries are welcome.

Ms. Pat Wirth
President/CEO
Potomac Falls Express Lube & Car Wash



Ms. Pat Wirth is an endangered species; she's the only female express car wash owner in the state of Virginia.  Her 25 years of leadership in the industry has enabled her to develop and implement creative strategies to exercise daily best practices to yield "triple-bottom line" for her business, her clients, and her community.  Ms. Wirth is a staunch advocate of recycling toxic waste, such as oil, anti-freeze, and oil filters.  She has installed a waste-oil heater in her store to heat the establishment.  "...and it's a lot warmer than gas," Ms. Wirth exclaims.  She asserts that it is more energy efficient to refine used oil than to refine crude oil.  Ms. Wirth also recycles water and encourages each of us to do the same.  Her establishment saves approximately 40,000 gallons of water each year, which yields significant financial savings.  Ms. Wirth is also an advocate of establishing corporate, chemical  guidelines to minimize accidental chemical hazards, such as oil spills.  Further, Ms. Wirth's express lube and car wash business uses an herb-ready product to clean cars.  And, since Ms, Wirth services a large population of female clientele, she retails eco-luxury purses made from tire inner-tubes.  Ms. Wirth is also an advocate of breast cancer awareness.  "My best friend lent me $45,000 to launch my business," she said, "Then she died of cancer."

Mr. Robert Youngentob
President
EYA


Mr. Youngentob specializes in for-profit urban housing development.  His challenge is to build, develop, and maintain sustainable communities.  He is an advocate of "Smart Growth."  Smart growth is an eco-friendly real estate term that identifies conscientious development efforts to save trees by avoiding temptation to urbanize suburbs and farms.  Smart growth utilizes existing infrastructures and networks instead.  So, Mr. Youngentob's business redevelops communities by repairing or rebuilding old, dilapidated buildings.  "To me, Mr. Youngentob insists, it's really evolution...people started it with ethics and trying to do things the right way."  He facilitates green and sustainable building practices and the use of certified products.

Mr. Pete M. Hodgson, CPA, CFA
Principal, Reznik Group


Mr. Pete Hodgson is an accountant for a nationally recognized accounting firm that supports real-estate related businesses and emerging non-profit businesses.  He is an advocate of business responsibility (corporate or non-profit) to identify and exercise practical ways to reduce ecological footprints that destroy the planet.  Mr. Hodgson is especially proud of his organization's efforts to recognize triple-bottom line as a new tool to measure business productivity, via the work-life balance and satisfaction of its employees.  He is not only concerned with how his business profits, but how society profits from his business.  Although not quite paperless, Mr. Hodgson's company conscientiously uses less paper.

Mr. Bill Keating
President
Urban Service Systems Corporation


Mr. Keating leads a 40-year-old waste disposal company that specializes in solid and biosolid waste management, recycling, and transportation for universities, property managers, schools, restaurants, government agencies and other large private and public institutions.  He believes that his childhood hobby- recycling beer cans for change- foreshadowed his career. Mr. Keating advocates a mindset to think of waste as a resource.  His challenge is getting people to change their perspective on waste. He leads a zero landfill program that recycles energy, paper, plastics, metals, and organics.  He mentioned food composting as an example of how his company recycles organics.  Mr. Keating asserts that his company provides these services at no greater expense, and in some instances at less expense, than the old, traditional landfill model.  Mr. Keating explained that food waste is approximately 40% of waste in the U.S.  His organization's zero landfill program provides society a double benefit by reducing green house gases and  the need to use chemical-based fertilizers traditionally used by landfills.  His company uses an organic fertilizer instead.  The concept of organic fertilizer, he explained, has been borrowed from the ancient Egyptians. "Good business practices are copied quickly," Mr. Keating says.  He challenged the audience to think about how we use and dispose of every day household items, such as light bulbs, cooking grease, kitchens, clothing, and  electronics, and he told us we can acquire a sustainability report card online.

All the panel member pitched in to respond to student questions. Advice included, but was not limited to, the following:

• Try to find ways to go green without infringing upon market share.
•  Exercise more sustainable methods to produce more sustainable products. 
•  Find ways to save and create more green space.
• Attempt to ensure long lasting benefit to green efforts, via long-term physical development, long-term efficiency, personal and corporate responsibility, reduction of national resource usage, and reduction of foreign oil dependency.
• Stay connected to and take care of people; crime is a manifestation of people not feeling a part of a community.

The conference adjourned with a reception catered by Cravin Cookies and Sweets and Stella's Bakery.

Special recognition was extended to both caterers and the following for their assistance with coordination and implementation of the event:  Ms. Sara Ducey, Ms. Rose Garvin Aquilino, Ms. Linda Yougentob, Mr. Steven Lang, Ms. Sue Adler, Mr. Brian Baick, Ms. Lisa Hackley, Macklin Business Institute, and Rockville Office of Student Life (OSL).

SIFE is sponsoring a business ethics essay competition. $250 in  prizes will be awarded, via transfer scholarships.  The first place winner will receive a $150 scholarship, and the runner up will win a $100 scholarship.  More information may be acquired by contacting the Macklin Business Institute at MBI@montgomerycollege.edu.