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"   Last week I had the opportunity to attend the GreenBiz Forum 2013 in New York City, a gathering of prominent environmental strategists-each grounded in the reality of practical business economics. What are industry leaders like Jeff Rice, Senior Director of Sustainability for Walmart, Mary Capozzi, Senior Director of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability for Best Buy, and Meyer Frucher, Vice Chairman of NASDAQ OMX focused on? For starters, the positive energy at the conference was boundless. From the speakers themselves, and their budding Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability departments, it&amp;#039;s clear that working to decrease negative environmental impact is a goal that&amp;#039;s not going away. But, as Meyer Frucher put it frankly, the challenge is not reinforcing the importance of being environmentally conscious to the &amp;quot;conclaves of the convinced&amp;quot; (he was referring to the green-business enthusiasts in the room) but rather, the challenge is crafting a message that resonates with the majority of the population. Amidst abounding ideas from all sides, the two strategies below were themes which resurfaced throughout the conference. Do they resonate with you? * Sustainable Stories Need to be Positive-All the tales of doom and gloom about the future, warnings of global warming, and statistics about billions of pounds of waste polluting our planet are less compelling than stories of how specific individuals are improving their communities, how it helps all of us, and how it&amp;#039;s the right thing to do. By making an emotional connection, people are moved to change. * Staying Social is Key-Facebook, Pinterest, and other forms of social media offer more possibilities than ever before for spreading the environmental message on a grassroots level, and in a way that&amp;#039;s fun. Using online gaming as a vehicle to broadcast the sustainability message provides the opportunity to promote messages relating to reducing consumption and energy use to a vast social network. Do you agree that these are the approaches environmentally-minded businesses should take? What has influenced your behavior in going greener? Please let us know. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/institute/a20736/green-business-overview-2013/>