Economic Development
Sustainable Business

Like the Chamber, the SBA sponsors three sorts of opportunities for its members.  It allows its members to network for the sake of building business, cultivating new clients, and developing partnerships.  

Sustainable Business Alliance has 100+ East Bay businesses, all of whom are focused in one way or another, on operating in a way that is environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable.

Through its monthly lecture series, SBA offers educational opportunities for its members and for the community at large.  Recent speakers have included:

Leila Khatapoush:  Leila, a staff member of the Alameda County Green Business Program, is doing an August 11 presentation, “Choosing and Using Green Cleaners in Your Home and Office.”

Raines Cohen and Betsy Morris:  Raines and Betsy did a dynamic presentation on co-housing – a new kind of residential community that is rapidly gaining popularity around the country because of its “triple bottom line” potential for building community, protecting the environment, and providing good housing at a modest priced.

Susan Sakaki:  Susan Sakaki did a very informative presentation on the green and sustainable accredidation.  Gaining accredidation as green and sustainable helps businesses in many ways.  It provides them with public recognition.  It gives them educational tools.  It builds up professional credentials. It allows them to behave responsibly in their community.  It gives them a chance to build a loyal and value-driven clientele.  Susan offered insight as to which of the accredidation programs are appropriate to particular kinds of businesses.

Sustainable Business Alliance (SBA) has been a steady partner of the Chamber since Mark McLeod, Chair of the Chamber’s Committee on Government Affairs, became Executive Director of SBA in 2007.

The SBA and the Chamber have frequently joined hands in supporting sustainability-oriented public policy such as “smart growth along public transit corridors,” the Climate Action Plans of Berkeley and Oakland, and the local living economies movement, as exemplified by Buy Local Berkeley and the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). 

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