ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Joel Makower is the CEO and Chairman of the Trellis Group, formerly Green Bizz. A nationally syndicated journalist and author of more than a dozen books, he has been a strong voice and champion of sustainability for 35 years, aggregating content and convening major conferences to spur action. Green Bizz is "the" annual conference for 2,000+ sustainability professionals, a time for them to connect, swap notes, learn, and inspire.
Joel is hardly slowing down. He jokes that if he retired all he would do is write, speak, advocate green solutions, and mentor... just what he is doing now! He remains excited about Trellis's three activities: convening conferences, managing its business network, and producing media. He is excited about his podcast, "Two Steps Forward: Where Sustainability Meet Business Reality." He and Ted discuss the upcoming Green Bizz '27 conference that will be in San Diego in February of 2027.
Joel describes the Trellis Network that is made up of a cohort of more than 1,000 sustainability professionals in 160+ big businesses with a combined market cap of $19 trillion. These billion dollar plus companies value the Network and its sub-networks of "sustainability communities:" Decarbonization, Circularity, Finance and ESG, Nature, Strategy - Americas, Strategy - Europe, Supply Chain, Sustainability Communicators, and Social Impact. Members share their expertise and learn from each other, helping to propel effective action. Members pay an annual fee of $20,000 to be part of the Network.
"Yes," says Joel, there is lots to be optimistic about, but he cautions, "Let's not sugar-coat" today's realities. There has been a roll-back of aggressive decarbonization goals given the current U.S. political arena. While there is lots to celebrate... the unstoppable rise of renewable technologies and the adoption of EVs worldwide... Joel is clear that there is not enough progress at the "scale, scope, and speed needed." As such, he is a self-described pragmatic optimist. he asks, what is it going to take? And how bad do climate-related catastrophes have to get, before there is sufficient collective action?
Toward the end of the conversation, Ted asks Joel if he is a musician. "Yes, I am," he noted... a piano player and singer, playing rock and roll and jazz. They discuss his oral history book on the Woodstock Festival in 1969, that Rolling Stone called the definitive history of the mega-concert that defined a generation. In addition to Trellis, Joel is the Strategic Director for Musicians Sustainability Alliance, a big-tent association whose mission is to increase the positive impacts of live music, while driving down the negative impacts. For major venues, he reports, the key sustainability issues to be addressed are fans' travel to and from the events, and food. FSA has an annual conference in Los Angeles, a webinar series, and working groups to share challenges, experiences, and successes.
