Retail innovator Blake Mycoskie, chief executive officer at TOMS Shoes, will discuss building a global business with an altruistic core. Blake Mycoskie redefines the idea of walking in someone else's shoes. Since he founded TOMS Shoes for Tomorrow in 2006, he has donated more than 10,000 pairs of Argentine-style alpargatas to impoverished children in developing nations, from Argentina to South Africa. Former President Bill Clinton personally tapped Mycoskie to be a partner of the Clinton Global Initiative, which unites world and business leaders from a variety of backgrounds to channel the capacities of individuals and organizations to end poverty and unify the global community. Not a bad start for a young entrepreneur who visited Buenos Aires as a volunteer and returned to the United States as an entrepreneur whose business grew from three interns and a loft office in Venice Beach, CA to more than 40 employees and 600 stores around the world. Discover how Burt's Bees broke the mold, and maintained profits and productivity, by incorporating sustainability into the company mission.

Since 1989, the Burt's Bees maintained a priority of earth friendly, natural personal care. This organizational philosophy extended to protecting and providing for nature, not simply extracting resources. By embracing sustainable best practices, you can be at the forefront of this hot trend in operations management. At the same time, you can help your organization maintain its bottom-line productivity.

Your employer doesn't need to have an expressed commitment to the environment for you to begin thinking green. With the help of the APICS 2008 Sustainability/Green Learning Path and keynote speaker John Replogle, you will gain added insights into green manufacturing, sustainability, and one of the coolest companies out there—Burt's Bees. As a senior advisor for the Nike Foundation and a long-standing Nike executive, Darcy Winslow is focused on building a strong relationship with the female athlete/consumer through innovation, product, communication, and retail. Having worked at Nike for 14 years, Winslow has held many positions within the company, including biomechanical research assistant, director of footwear and apparel product testing, and product development manager. Most recently she was the general manager of sustainable business opportunities, a role focused on developing and implementing more environmentally and socially sustainable business strategies across the organization, from long-range research and development, through product creation and the supply chain.