I recently sat down with Koann to learn more about what she’s calling “Sustainable Brands Boot Camp.”

DM: What inspired you to start a Sustainable Brands boot camp? Your conferences already offer so many useful tips and strategies – what can the boot camp offer that your conferences can’t?

KVS: You know, we launched SLM in 2004 to help get the word out about the impending opportunities for businesses to build value and brand equity by innovating for sustainability. But so much has changed!

In the beginning, the battle was simply to highlight the inevitable need for companies to get serious about their environmental and social impact in order to stay competitive. In 2007 when we launched our first Sustainable Brands Conference, we brought together a few early innovators like Aveda, GE, Herman-Miller, Wal-mart, Gap and others to talk about what they were learning, and what was driving their pursuit of new, more sustainable value propositions for their customers. There were 270 people at that first conference.

Since then, our community has exploded as more and more business people begin to understand that the future for business must be an environmentally and socially aware one, and that those who develop an expertise in this arena, and learn to innovate faster, will be the leading brands of the future. As a result, there has begun to be an expertise gap. Many in our community of leaders have been at this for a decade or even more in some cases. But for every one of them, there are 100, or even 1000 behind who are just getting started. We launched the Sustainable Brands Boot Camp to serve as an orientation for those people to the principles, current best practices and even terminology of sustainable brand building. That way, we can move the whole community along faster, but keep our annual live events focused on the front edge of innovation without loosing a connection to new people who are coming to the table.

DM: Who are your boot camps for? What will be the most important “take-aways”?

KVS: We believe that thinking about, and managing the environmental and social impact of business will be a new baseline way of doing business for everyone in the coming decades. Eventually, everyone coming out of school will have a grounding in the principles of sustainability. But for now, we have an enormous amount of retraining to do. As you well know, sustainability represents a fundamental paradigm shift — a new way to think about every part of how a business operates — from product design and manufacturing, all the way to things like telecommuting and other forms of more energy-efficient and human-centered resource management. So in short, our belief is that anyone who works can benefit by gaining an understanding of the principles of sustainable business and brands. Thus, the Boot Camp is relevant for anyone in business who isn’t already well on the way to thinking how jobs are impacted by this coming shift in business as usual.We believe completing the Boot Camp will a great resume-builder for anyone, and a great value-add for any company who supports its employees’ orientation to this important topic.

DM: Is branding for sustainable businesses different than branding for everyone else? Or perhaps I should ask, what makes branding for sustainable businesses particularly challenging?

KVS: Both are great questions, Diane. Yes, I think branding for sustainable businesses IS different than branding for everyone else. In short, companies that decide to step up and identify themselves as more environmentally or socially respectful are committing to operate to a higher standard. For better or worse, it’s true that companies that make claims about being green or socially beneficial often come under greater scrutiny than others. That’s what makes sustainable brand building particularly challenging. And so what’s different is again, first mind-set, and then execution: brand becomes not just a slogan or tag line or individual feature promise. We like to say that sustainable brand builders need to see brand as first who you are, what you do and how you do it — THEN how you talk about it.

Once a company starts down the path of sustainability, there is no real going back. It’s like a light going on — if you begin to ask yourself about your impact, it becomes very difficult to ‘put the cat back in the bag.’ Companies that have truly committed the path of self-reflection and learning that sustainability requires report it being mind-shifting and sometimes hard, but always deeply satisfying.

DM: Will your boot camp address the issue of standards, especially in light of Wal-Mart’s efforts to create an industry-wide sustainability index?

KVS : Yes, we will be touching on this during one of our 13 sessions. It is an enormous topic, and one that more experienced sustainable brand builders are grappling with on many levels. We’ve actually launched a second new ‘brand’ this fall along side the Boot Camp called “Sustainable Brands in Focus” which will address a series of more timely and topically focused subjects that our more advanced sustainable innovators are struggling with at the moment. Our first one coming up on December 3 – “SB inFocus: Building Credibility/Avoiding Greenwash – will offer a full-day virtual event focused entirely on this topic. You should join us!

We plan to convene a wide range of conversations going forward about topics of interest to people wherever they are on the path to sustainability. After all, we are inventing a new way of working and making everything –- there are lots of thorny issues to solve! Those of us who are innovation junkies are excited to think that there will be avenues for innovation around sustainability for a good long time to come.

DM: If a company had to focus on only three tactics to brand itself as sustainable, what do you think they should be?

KVS: Well, I’m not sure if this is what you’re asking — appropriate tactics tend to vary by industry and company. But three pieces of advice come to mind that are common to anyone trying to brand themselves for sustainability. 1) Be transparent 2) Be authentic and 3) Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. There are no perfect sustainable businesses that we can point to although there are some tremendous leaders out there we should all be learning as much as we can from. Even for them, though, sustainability is a path one steps on to.  Customers will reward those who are honest, transparent, and committed to doing things a better way with business, loyalty, and word-of-mouth support. Sooner or later, sustainability will be the new ‘business as usual.’  However for the moment, there remains enormous opportunity for companies that choose sustainability as a platform for innovation.

We are excited and grateful to be supporting the community of sustainable brand innovators and we welcome all who’d like to come join us. We’re thrilled you’re a part of our community too, Diane!”

* Sun Chips – This company, owned by PepsiCo, is shrinking its environmental footprint by using solar panels to power manufacturing facilities in Modesto, CA. But the most impressive development has to do with the packaging. The SunChips bag itself will be, safely compostable by Earth Day (April 22), 2010. Regardless of what you think of snack food, this is an innovation worth celebrating.

* Green Works – This cleaning products line generated substantial controversy when it launched over a year ago because it’s made by Clorox – a business not known for its kindness to Mother Nature. But Green Works succeeds because it’s “99%” natural – and can back up the claim with verification from former staunch critic the Sierra Club. Women love it because it’s as effective as conventional Clorox cleansers; because it’s cheap; and because it’s easily available. Other companies should take note.

*Kaiser Permanente – This huge health care provider is taking its “health” mission seriously. It’s a leader in eliminating mercury and other toxic products in hospitals. It’s also gotten rid of that nasty green jello you associate with a hospital menu in favor of whole foods. Kaiser even encourages its complexes to host famers markets in their parking lots; 30 around the country are doing so so far.

Check out the Sustainable Brands website to watch video of all presentations.

Jennifer Woofter, the brains behind Strategic Sustainability Consulting, encouraged the audience to consider “green” in the context of their overall operations and profitability goals. Businesses can meet their needs for economic growth by adopting environmental strategies that save energy and reduce waste, she said. She encouraged entrepreneurs to set their priorities and be flexible in working towards achieving them.

Antonella LoRe, the founder of Capital Green Cleaning, described her experience establishing a new commercial cleaning company in and around Washington, D.C. Most of her clients are offices, banks and private schools whose administrators and employees want to work in a healthier, safer environment. Despite the challenge of launching her business during a recession, she noted that demand for her service is high because protecting the environment is on the top of everyone’s agenda.

I encouraged the audience to develop a “Breakthrough Blueprint” so they can get started and stay on track.

Remember that “what gets measured, gets done,” I noted.

“You can make a greater difference – to yourself, your employees, and your bottome line – if you chart a greener course.”

I believe women are uniquely suited to transform the adversity we face into advantage. 

Women have the resilience needed to move beyond crisis-induced paralysis to “full speed ahead.”

Our ability to collaborate, network, manage, juggle, invent and multi-task are the exact 21st century talents needed to transform the old and out-dated business models that led to this predicament in the first place.

If we are to realize the vision for a new society, a new economy, a new environment, and a new future that has been articulated by our new president and so avidly embraced by the American people, women can — and must — lead the way!

  We now know this is not true. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth.

  Safeguarding our planet is the linchpin for our economic renaissance. As it turns out, protecting the planet for future generations is a top priority for every woman. Creating financial security for ourselves, our families, and our communities  is also key to our health and well-being.

  The new green economy is being valued at trillions of dollars. Women are poised to embrace this vision, own it, and take advantage of the countless opportunities it presents.

I really believe the “old” ways of running companies have come to an end.

Businesses that survive today and thrive in the future will be those that base their prosperity on health and wellness, work-life balance, corporate social responsibility and environmental protection.

Even the most pessimistic economic projections suggest that we’ll be rebounding by the middle of 2010.

That’s only a year away – not very far, in business terms.

Will you be ready?

Take a look at the Declaration. I wrote it so you would be.