ICSC’s RetailGreen is the premier annual conference that gathers leaders in sustainability to focus on the retail development industry. Those of us on the programming committee have seen the conference grow, largely due to the interest shown by the developers and retailers in attending, and also because the program content is so strong. Along with highly technical workshops and “big-picture” roundtable discussions, we’ve had amazing keynote speakers. Last year, Jane Poynter spoke to the conference about living in Biosphere 2 for two years. This year, Woodrow Clark, a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2007, is speaking on climate change.
This year, I will be moderating the opening “State of the Industry” session, with panelists from Starbucks, Estee Lauder, and Simon Malls. I’ll be pushing the panelists and the audience to leverage the energy level that we’ll all have at the beginning of the conference to have an open and frank discussion of where sustainability, LEED, population growth, water shortages, and energy issues are with respect to retail development. After that, all attendees are on to the more detailed workshops and roundtables.
The program is available online. If you’re interested in design and development of retail centers or stores, or building sustainably, it’s a scheduling must. And who can say no to Arizona in late November?