UK Hosts Second Green Marketing Conference

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 18, 2010) - Following the rousing success of its first edition last year, the Von Allmen Center for Green Marketing in the University of Kentucky's Gatton College of Business and Economics is hosting the second annual Sustainability in Marketing Colloquium.  The conference will be held in Center Theater of the UK Student Center Friday, Dec. 3.
 

Robert Dahlstrom, Bloomfield Endowed Professor of Marketing and director of the School of Management in the Gatton College, is the founding director of the Von Allmen Center for Green Marketing.
 

"Many of our faculty members in the Gatton College are conducting research examining several areas of marketing such as consumer behavior, channels of distribution, and new product development," said Dahlstrom. "The success of our first colloquium has provided strong momentum for our center and we expect this year's conference to be even bigger and better."
 

The Center for Green Marketing enables the Gatton College to work in conjunction with sustainable industry efforts conducted in other parts of the university. The center's interdisciplinary efforts involve the colleges of Agriculture, Arts and Sciences, Communications, Design, Engineering, Medicine, and others.

"The goal of this conference is to support research and education of green marketing and sustainability in the academic and business communities," said Dahlstrom. "Sustainability refers to development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
 

According to Dahlstrom, author of the recently-published textbook, "Green Marketing Management," the pursuit of sustainability addresses a 'triple bottom line' with respect to performance.  This triple bottom line includes the pursuit of economic, social, and environmental returns.

The research presented at the upcoming conference will offer new insight into efforts to enhance performance on all three of these fronts.
 

The keynote speaker is Dr. Matthew Sleeth, a former emergency room physician.   In the words of Sleeth, "I felt like I was straightening deck chairs on the Titanic saving one patient at a time while the whole ship (Earth) was going down."

Sleeth said that, together with his wife and two teenage children, he began to bring his lifestyle in line with his values. The family dramatically cut back on their fossil fuel and electricity usage, and, following his new calling, Sleeth resigned from his position as chief of the medical staff and director of the ER to teach, preach, and write about faith and the environment throughout the country.

Sleeth is a graduate of George Washington University School of Medicine and has two post doctoral fellowships. He is the author of "Serve God and Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action" (Zondervan, April 2007), "The Introduction to the Green Bible" (HarperOne, 2008), and a third book, "The Gospel According to the Earth: Why the Good Book is a Green Book" (HarperOne, 2010).

In addition to the keynote speaker, Naresh Malhotra will provide an intriguing talk examining sustainability-sensitive market segments and social media.  Malhotra has published more than 100 papers in major refereed journals, including the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Science, Management Science, Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Health Care Marketing, and leading journals in statistics, management science, information systems, and psychology.  His book, "Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation," Fifth Edition, has been translated into Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Hungarian, French, Bahasa Indonesia, and Japanese. In addition to the eight translations, this book also has several English editions including North America, International, Europe, India, and Australia & New Zealand. The book has received widespread adoption at both the graduate and undergraduate levels with more than 144 schools using it in the USA.
 

The conference is open to the public.  University faculty and marketing managers interested in green marketing research will find the conference sessions to be highly informative.  Fees for the conference have been waived for UK employees and students who register by Nov. 2, 2010.

For more information, please go to visit the Center for Green Marketing home page at http://gattongreen.uky.edu/.