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ASBC White House Summit on Sustainability

On June 12th, the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) convened the first-ever day-long summit on sustainability at the White House. Business leaders met with administration officials to discuss ways to speed the transition toward a sustainable and equitable economy. CAMEO is a partner in the ASBC; David Brodwin represented CAMEO at the meeting.

At the meeting, ASBC announced a “Call for a New Economy” stressing the need for vibrant, equitable, and sustainable economic development. The call is based on principles of true markets, broad prosperity, sustainability, sensible regulations and democratic control,

Business leaders and others exchanged ideas with Cecilia Munoz, Director, Domestic Policy Council at the White House; Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency; and Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor. Representatives of many other departments and agencies also joined the meeting. The discussions covered innovation, taxes, health care, environment, small business, green buildings, green procurement, and community economic development. Outcomes of the day’s discussion will be reflected in ASBC’s advocacy and public engagement over the next 12 months.

CAMEO is pleased to see the great interest in sustainability and local economic developed shown by the administration and key federal agencies. At the same time we are very concerned about the administration’s lack of policy to help the broad spectrum of entrepreneurs. They are doing a great job with innovative initiatives that will help high growth companies. However, an OECD report says that only 1% of small businesses have that rapid growth potential. These efforts need to be accompanied by efforts to encourage more companies to start and help those companies thrive with the business assistance and credit assistance they need.

ASBC is a national network of business associations and individual businesses. The partners in the council are business networks that represent more than 150,000 individual businesses and more than 200,000 entrepreneurs, owners, investors, executives and others involved in business.