Hear about how three small-to-mid-sized businesses are making their businesses greener and more sustainable. Learn about the financial, market and health benefits they are achieving. Our speakers will tell us how they started and organized their initiatives, what resources they found, and what factors were key to their success. Find out how you can make your business greener and what it can do for your “triple bottom line” (people, planet and profits).

Anselm Doering of EcoLogic Solutions will be the moderator for the event.

The speakers of the event will be:

Maury Rubin of The City Bakery and Birdbath

David Kistner of the Green Apple Cleaners

Jennifer McDonnell of the Environmental Strategy Innovations, formerly with Whole Foods

Maury Rubin Maury Rubin is the creator, baker, designer and hands-on manager of The City Bakery and Birdbath Neighborhood Green Bakery. His baking career began as an apprentice in a Paris patiserrie in 1986. City Bakery opened in 1990 at Union Square with a staff of twelve, and today, there are City Bakery locations in New York and Los Angeles with a staff of 115. Birdbath Neighborhood Green Bakery was developed in 2005 with a mandate to demonstrate how a small food business in a big city can operate in an environmentally sustainable way. Prior to his baking career, Maury was a two-time Emmy Award winning sports television Producer and Director at ABC Sports.

David Kistner Back in 2002, David Kistner and his wife were expecting twin boys. As first time parents, they read many books and articles about pregnancy and caring for newborns. Several guides warned that pregnant women should avoid dry cleaning because of the harmful chemicals used.

Somewhat alarmed by this, David did some further research, which led him to a Consumer Reports article about dry cleaning. The article mentioned a newer technology—liquid CO2—which was benign to humans and the environment, and actually cleaned clothes better than perc.

But CO2 dry cleaning technology was still unavailable in many areas, including New York. So David became determined to bring this technology to New Yorkers—and Green Apple Cleaners was born.

FAST FORWARD to today, Green Apple Cleaners has grow from an idea into a “Green Consumer Products Company”, serving over 10,000 people living in over 600 buildings through a combination route valet service and 8 storefronts located in New York and New Jersey.

Jennifer McDonnell Founder and President,

Environmental Strategy Innovations Environmental Strategy Innovations provides sustainability consulting for an international roster of companies including leaders in the fields of transportation, food production and distribution, bio-energy, polymer recycling, composting, and education. ESI also acts as a consultant to municipalities in the State of New Jersey.

Ms. McDonnell’s focus is the combination of a strong communications program with aggressive cost effective environmental solutions. ESI experience includes creating strategic recycling programs, research and copy writing for eco-friendly product and eco -packaging selection criteria, the management of clean energy installations and energy efficiency upgrades, seminars, motivational workshops, public speaking engagements, and custom designed education programs.

As the Environmental Coordinator for Whole Foods Market’s Northeast and North Atlantic Regions, Ms. McDonnell directed the environmental programs of thirty-four retail natural and organic food stores, designing and implementing state-of-the-art environmental programs.

Anselm Doering After working several years in hotels & restaurants, in 1992 Anselm co-founded his first eco-venture: a nationally acclaimed environmental retail store named Earth General. His responsibilities included researching and purchasing products spanning across 12 categories, performing sales, managing and training staff, public relations speaking, marketing, store design and developing social & environmental awareness programs. In six years, he led the store concept to growing over $1M/year in sales and two stores, while purchasing from over 100 different vendors throughout the United States & Europe. The stores & his efforts were highly recognized in the NY Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN and many others.

In 1998 Anselm started environmental business consulting and worked with community based operations, entrepreneurs, restauranteurs, housing development projects, retailers and other industries.

In 2001, Anselm founded EcoLogic Solutions which introduces environmentally preferable products & programs to industries and institutions around the United States. In the past several years, the business has grown to being nearly $1M in sales and projects have begun to expand into Australia, Canada, Columbia & the United Arab Emirates. Current customers include Vail Resorts, Columbia University, Mandarin Oriental, Durst Organization, Sundance, US Foodservice, Grand Teton National Park and some of the leading restaurant groups in the country, including Mario Batali, BRGuest Restaurant Group, Chef Jean Georges Vongrichten, Le Pain Quotidien and the French Culinary Institute.

Mr. Doering is currently co-chair of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce’s Green Committee & has testified on behalf of New York City and New York State regarding environmental bills and initiatives.

Event being taped and sponsored by Green Apple Cleaners