Wisconsin Environmental Initiative speakers talk business opportunity in sustainability

To find solutions to today`s constrained economy, one speaker suggests learning from the Great Depression

Businesses have a lot to gain in going green, panelists said Tuesday at the Wisconsin Union Theater in Memorial Union.

To celebrate its 20th year as a nonprofit, the Wisconsin Environmental Initiative hosted two speakers and a panel of individuals working locally in everything from academics to government, business and nonprofits to illustrate how sustainable practices and partnerships can be profitable.

The headlining speakers, co-authors Joel Makower and retired Marine Col. Mark “Puck” Mykleby, drew from their recently-published book “The New Grand Strategy: Restoring America’s Prosperity, Security and Sustainability in the 21st Century” for the event titled “Doing Well by Being Good.”...

...One of the local panel members, Dave Cieslewicz, executive director of WI Bike Fed, mentioned how millennials and baby boomers are starting to look for their communities. They want walkable cities and to not be trapped in isolating suburban homes, he said.

Cieslewicz said there’s an opportunity to address this, to redevelop around the kind of cities people want to live in. Currently, a third of U.S. cities are allocated to parking, but because of the “sharing economy” trend — in which people are more likely to use apps like Über instead of owning a car, for example — those spaces could be redeveloped....

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Ken Notes: I especially like what Dave had to say... I would love to see a Madison area community embrace environmental issues as a guideline for planning and development.