From left to right: Joe Baratelli (Rubin Postaer and Associates), Debbie Levin (Environmental Media Association), Magali Delmas (UCLA), Steve Boyd (Tern Bicycles), Mark Gold (UCLA).
EMA President Debbie Levin recently participated in a discussion hosted by the UCLA Center for Corporate Environmental Performance to talk about corporate sustainability and the growth of the ‘green consumer’.
Joining the discussion were Magali Delmas, Professor of Management at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the Anderson School of Management, Joe Baratelli, Executive Creative Director at Rubin Postaer and Associates, and Steve Boyd, General Manager of North America at Tern Bicycles, a leading manufacturer of folding bicycles.
The speakers discussed several topics such as who are green consumers, what are they buying, and why? According to Magali Delmas in just 20 years, U.S. sales of organic food and beverages have surged from $1 billion (in 1990) to nearly $27 billion (in 2010).
Debbie Levin explained how EMA harnesses the entertainment industry to motivate sustainable lifestyles by sharing the story of how EMA worked with Toyota and the Hollywood community to get celebrities to show up to awards shows in a Prius and how that set the stage for the vehicle became synonymous with “cool,” thereby helping motivate the trend of purchasing the Prius.
Levin added that celebrities want to be smart and passionate about causes, so they love supporting and being affiliated with the environmental movement.
The Corporate Partners Workshop was sponsored by the Institute’s Corporate Partners Program, the UCLA Center for Corporate Environmental Performance, and Net Impact. To read more about the event, click here.