Adam Werbach, global CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S, will visit the Syracuse University campus on Thursday, Nov. 12, as a guest of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Sustainable Enterprise Partnership, led by the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems. He will speak on “Strategy for Sustainability” at 6 p.m. in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse 3. His talk is free and open to the public. Parking is available in SU pay lots. His talk will be covered live at http://newhousebeta.syr.edu.  

Werbach is widely known as one of the foremost experts in sustainability strategy. In 1996, at age 23, he was elected the youngest-ever president of the Sierra Club, the oldest and largest environmental organization in the United States. Since then, Werbach has declared environmentalism dead, built and sold three companies, and merged with global ideas company Saatchi & Saatchi to create the world’s largest sustainability agency, Saatchi & Saatchi S. As its global CEO, Werbach guides sustainability work from China to South Africa to Brazil, advising companies with nearly $1 trillion in combined annual sales, including Walmart, Procter & Gamble, General Mills and WellPoint. Werbach worked with Walmart to engage the company’s 1.9 million associates in its sustainability effort, creating the Personal Sustainability Project (PSP).

Twice elected to the International Board of Greenpeace, Werbach is a frequent commentator on sustainable business, appearing on networks including BBC, NPR and CNN, and shows ranging from the “The O’Reilly Factor” to “The Charlie Rose Show.” He is the author of “Strategy for Sustainability” (Harvard Business Press, 2009).

In his talk, Werbach will discuss how leading businesses are setting “North Star Goals”—which aspire to solve global human challenges while connecting an enterprise and its people to the forces of change—instead of traditional “BHAGs” (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) to guide their progress; how upstarts like Method Home are joining giants like Walmart in engaging their employees to innovate and reinvent from the bottom up; and how transparency is helping companies from Nike to Clorox radically improve their products and engage stakeholders to build their brand.

For more information about his talk, contact Brian Sheehan at (315) 443-9247 or bjsheeha@syr.edu.