 |
About Us
Our Story
Our Audience
Our Awards
Our Core Values
Our Team
In the News
Our Story
The concept for Sustainable Industries was hatched in Portland in the summer of 2002 by business journalist Brian Back and Nik Blosser, president of Celilo Group Media. It was a few years before words such as “green” and “eco” would become ubiquitous and embraced by mainstream opportunism, but both Brian and Nik believed sustainable business practices held vast profit potential for business and industry in the region, and that in fact sustainability would be a necessary evolution for business in the years ahead.
The first two years of monthly issues, which carried the masthead Sustainable Industries Journal Northwest (that’s 11 syllables, mind you), were produced in a newsletter style, 16 pages long, with both color and black-and-white pages. The intros to three feature stories and a list of sector-by-sector news headlines were jammed on to the front cover. At one point, Sustainable Industries spotlighted at least nine different industries, in our perhaps naïve attempt to be everything to everyone. As the business grew and fine-tuned its focus over the past several years, our stakeholders have regarded the publication as offering a working definition of sustainable industries in the region and a forum for business leaders and economic trends to challenge and shape that definition.
In a deal that closed at the end of 2007, Brian purchased full ownership of Sustainable Industries, including its flagship magazine, Web site, email newsletters and annual Sustainable Industries Economic Forums. As Sustainable Industries rolls out a suite of new media products, our print and digital magazine still serves as our flagship publication. In early 2008, Sustainable Industries opened a new headquarters office on California Street in the heart of San Francisco’s Financial District. Simultaneously, we increased editorial resources and coverage in both Portland and Puget Sound to provide more high-quality Northwest content than ever before.
When Brian and Nik launched Sustainable Industries several years ago, the gameplan was to focus strictly on the environmental and economic aspects of sustainable industries. At the time, few others were doing it. Today, while the entire spectrum of media scramble to seize the “green” opportunity, Sustainable Industries is in a unique position to take the conversation further and to connect the dots between the environmental and social components of the region’s economy, just as we connect the dots between various West Coast industries, in a way that no other business-to-business media company can. As always, we are working closely with our community of West Coast business leaders to raise the stakes in a working definition of sustainable industries.
Our Audience
Sustainable Industries caters to sustainable business leaders on the West Coast, the most dynamic region of the world for sustainable business innovation, and beyond. Our growing community of thought leaders has been fostering the innovations chronicled in Sustainable Industries for many years, and as such we are able to offer a more sophisticated dialogue and higher level of analysis than can be found in other media outlets covering similar topics. It is not the goal of Sustainable Industries to trawl the media ocean for eyeballs, nor to pander to lurid curiosity. We serve a very focused audience that includes “top of the pyramid” business executives, entrepreneurs, MBA students and thought leaders with truly independent analysis, indispensable tools, and a refreshingly authentic voice. These are the senior-level business leaders making decisions that are changing the course of history. Some facts and figures:
- More than 2/3 are President/Owner, Senior Management or Entrepreneur.
- 85% report a strong level of influence in their business or organization.
- Most rate Sustainable Industries as their No. 1 source for green business news and analysis.
- A large number say they read Sustainable Industries “cover to cover.”
- Top categories for audience purchasing include marketing and PR services, clean energy, green building products and services, office supplies, real estate, financial services and legal services.
Our Awards
Our Core Values
Independence
Authenticity
Innovation
Perseverance
Community
Our Team
Brian Back, Founding Editor & Publisher
As one of the first business journalists in the United States to pioneer a beat in “sustainability,” Brian has been a leading expert in topics such as clean energy, green building, environmental technology and other green business sectors. He has researched, written and spoken extensively on economic impacts and trends -- including the role of media -- in these intersecting and rapidly evolving industries. Brian began his career as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he covered growth and sprawl trends in one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States. While working as a reporter and columnist for The Business Journal in Portland, Brian pushed his editors to develop a new beat in sustainable industries, which was then an emerging concept among a handful of innovators on the West Coast. His work has appeared in leading magazines, web sites, newspapers and trade journals. Today Brian serves as President and Owner of Sustainable Industries, and he is a member of the Social Venture Network. Outside of work, Brian enjoys running, traveling and mountaineering. He lives in San Francisco with his dog Mick and travels frequently to Portland and Puget Sound.
Editorial Team
Becky Brun, Editor
After two years as Sustainable Industries' green building and energy reporter, Becky moved into the Editor role in August 2008. Based in Portland, Becky is the former managing editor of nwcurrent, a regional online clean energy news magazine. She helped launch both nwcurrent's and Sustainable Industries' Webinar series, which allows audiences to gain insight and knowledge about specific topics from their own desks. The interactive online Web conferences have been met with enthusiasm by a national audience. With a B.S. in Environmental Studies and a B.A. in Writing, Becky's role as Editor of Sustainable Industries is a perfect match. Prior to joining Sustainable Industries, she served as the editor of Outdoors NW magazine, a Seattle-based outdoor sports magazine. Becky has written for many regional publications, including yes! magazine, the Portland Tribune and
Willamette
Week.
Charles Redell, Associate Editor, Puget Sound Correspondent
Since February 2008, Charles has served as the Puget Sound Correspondent for Sustainable Industries. Charles currently cover the green building and food and farms beats for Sustainable Industries. Although he graduated from Adelphi University with a BFA in Design/Tech Theater, during his 10 years of journalism, he's pounded a number of beats including local music, arts and news for Seattle alternative newspapers Seattle Weekly, The Stranger and TABLET; and public housing for a community newspaper called The Voice. He fell into the sustainable business world after covering electric transmission and alternative energy efforts in the western United States and Canada for the trade journals Clearing Up, California Energy Markets and Energy Prospects West. While his expertise is clean energy, Charles is interested in all things sustainable. He lives in Seattle with his wonderful wife Alexis and his also wonderful but too fat cat Jake.
Sara Stroud, Bay Area Correspondent
Sara joined Sustainable Industries in October 2008 to cover Bay Area sustainable businesses, as well as the ever-growing clean energy and technology industries. Her interest in sustainability, which was piqued during her five-year stint as a carpenter, really took hold while working as a newspaper reporter, where she watched municipal governments struggle to meet the challenges of climate change. An ardent fan of her adopted hometown, Oakland, Calif., she covers a lot of ground in the Bay Area, from San Francisco to San Jose, where she is working on a master's degree in mass communications. When she's not working or studying, Sara can usually be found playing outside, wrasslin her cat, enjoying twangy music, or at the boxing gym, learning the rudiments of the sweet science.
Ben Stoddard, Production Manager
Ben joined Sustainable Industries in August 2008 after moving to Portland from the great Southwest. As a dedicated environmentalist among the dusty urban sprawl, he was more than happy to trek up north and start contributing to a conscious and informative publication. After hours he spends his time helping to run shows at various music venues around town, campaigning for local nonprofit theater companies and screen printing monsters onto every available surface.
Regular Contributors
Bryan Potter Design, Jennifer Brinkman, Celeste LeCompte, Tyson Mangelsdorf, Justin Moresco, Johanna Peace, T.S. Walen, Francis Zera
Business Team
Amy Hillman, Business Team Director
Amy began her sustainability path in 1990 while attending college in Maryland. Before finishing school with a B.A. in Environmental Science and Policy in 1995, she "took time off" to work for Greenpeace, where she held a variety of positions from 1990-1995. In 1996 she moved to Portland and applied her fundraising skills to sales positions for small- to medium-sized businesses, including working as an account executive for a trade show company. Amy is an MBA candidate at Bainbridge Graduate Institute, graduating in June 2008. Thrilled to be combining her business development skills and passion for sustainability, Amy found herself instantly at home with Sustainable Industries. For fun Amy enjoys time in the outdoors, travelling to the "warm ocean," hikes, yoga, dancing and most of all spending time with her son Owen in her Southeast Portland neighborhood.
Christina Weber, Senior Account Executive, Bay Area
Christina was thrilled to hear that her favorite magazine, Sustainable Industries, was relocating its headquarters to San Francisco in 2007, and she welcomed the chance to represent the sustainable B2B marketplace in California. Christina’s enthusiasm for sustainable business began with her volunteer involvement with both Net Impact and Social Venture Network, where she connected with a network of socially responsible CEOs, angel investors and nonprofit professionals. In 2007, Christina joined SustainLane, a San Francisco-based interactive media company, where she worked to grow the largest online advertising network covering the LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) consumer space. She was responsible for securing partnerships with leading green publishers and educating clients on best practices for reaching the green consumer. Before joining the green business sector, Christina spent four years with an international nonprofit focused on economic development in Russia and three years working in international education. Christina holds a master’s degree in International Affairs from The Australian National University, and she is an avid globe trotter and a pretend wine connoisseur. As a proud Midwesterner, she enjoys any opportunity to talk about her home state of Iowa, her three nieces and nephew, Big 12 sports and her fascination with pumpkins.
Brandon Madsen, Account Executive, Puget Sound
A native Washingtonian, Brandon has a pretty serious crush on nature and an abiding fascination with business. He holds a BA in psychology from Pacific Lutheran University and is currently pursuing an MBA in sustainable business at Bainbridge Graduate Institute. He has experience in marketing, event coordination and outreach in the non-profit sector, and he has worked extensively in contemporary furniture retail. He lives in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood with his charming wife, Charlotte.
Laura Christiansen, Event Manager
Laura spearheads all aspects of the company's Sustainable Industries Economic Forums in each market. She has well over 10 years of project management experience that includes event logistics management, account management, sales and business administration. Laura is known to her colleagues, peers and clients for her organized, nuts-and-bolts approach. She also happens to be the sister (and "Irish twin") of company President Brian Back. Outside of business, Laura is an adoring mother of twin girls and a fly fishing fanatic who loves the outdoors, travel and a good book.
Jessica Brown, Accounting Manager
Jessica Brown, originally from Seattle, is currently a Green MBA candidate at Dominican University of CA, and will be graduating April 2010. Jessica has 3 years of accounting experience at both a San Francisco co-op as well as a larger corporation. With a BA in Psychology from UC Santa Cruz and experience doing social work and advocacy for under-served populations in Santa Cruz, she has a very well-rounded professional background. Her love for Sustainable Industries, the environment, social justice and numbers make her great fit as Sustainable Industries' Accounting Manager.
In the News
Feb. 24, 2010—The Green Chamber of Commerce interviews Sustainable Industries Founding Editor and Publisher Brian Back and Account Executive Christina Weber.
Sustainable Industries press releases
|
