We designed and facilitated a dialogue that brought together sustainable business leaders in Massachusetts to engage with government leaders about how government could help their businesses succeed. These business leaders were essentially pioneers who saw the world in a new way and were out in front exploring this new territory. By bringing them together in conversation, all the participants deepened their understanding of what the emerging territory involved, learned from each other, and together identified four priority areas where government and business could take action:

• Promotion of markets for environmentally-preferable products and services;
• Government procurement of environmentally-preferable products and services;
• Energy conservation, efficiency and renewable energy; and
• Government promotion, recognition, and initiatives to support business leaders, and leverage business leadership.

The results of the dialogue were written up and shared with participants and informed future policy. One of the participants from EPA’s headquarters said “Many of the concepts that we talked about at the Business/Government Roundtable have found their way into recent EPA discussions with the Administrator as we define the agency’s vision of stewardship and sustainability.” This dialogue process was replicated in New Hampshire and in the City of Boston with local businesses and the Mayor’s Office. Click here for copies of these reports.