WILLIAM STOUGH:
 
WILLIAM STOUGH




 
 
 
 
 
Executive Director of the Southeast Michigan Sustainable Business Forum in Detroit. The Sustainable Business Forum is collaborating with individuals working for environmental justice to plan and design the Detroit Center for Sustainability, a community project to help Detroit and Southeast Michigan transition to an environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable society. Stough also is CEO of the Sustainable Research Group, a consultancy that provides environmentally sustainable solutions to business, governmental, and institutional clients. He has more than 28 years experience in sustainable business initiatives, industrial ecology, pollution prevention, and ISO 14001 environmental management systems. Stough was the founder and past president of the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum in 1994, and organized sustainable business networks in three other regions in Michigan and consulted with efforts in Chicago, Cleveland, and Dallas. He is serving as a sustainability consultant and project manager for the Business and Institutional Office Furniture Manufacturers Association’s development of a Sustainable Product Standard, is a Lean and Clean Assessor for the Michigan Manufacturers Technology Council, and a national trainer for the NIST/EPA Green Supplier Network. Stough is also a member of the NSF 336 Joint Committee. He received his bachelor’s degree in urban and environmental planning from William James College at Grand Valley State University and his master’s degree in management from Aquinas College.


WHERE BORN: "Montgomery, Alabama, but I grew up in Ypsilanti."

MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSONS: "Jeffrey Dauphin, the executive director of one of the first organizations I worked for, the Waste Systems Institute. It’s a nonprofit that develops environmental dispute resolution programs and pollution prevention and environmental management programs. He was a great role model in the sense that he opened my eyes to where commonalities were among conflicting interests and getting to common goals."

LAST BOOK READ: "I just reread The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken."

WORDS THAT DESCRIBE ME: "A business environmentalist with a streak of practicality who tries to find common goals among common interests to move business and its agenda toward a more sustainable future."

WHERE MY FIELD/INDUSTRY IS HEADED: "I was an early adopter in sustainable development and it appears that the industry is exploding right now. There’s a lot of interest in how environmental sustainability can address and solve problems facing society. Every business quarter, I see enormous growth in how to use principles in sustainability to solve energy, containment, and health issues to improve the welfare of communities. Mainstreaming is coming – it’s not a niche anymore – it’s more of a mainstream effort."

FAVORITE TECHNOLOGICAL GADGET: "I don’t have many. As mundane as it might seem, my laptop and some of the online tools like social networking."

FAVORITE PLACE: "Chicago. It’s one of the premier urban environments in the United States and possibly in the world. It’s an enormously interesting and progressive city."

FAVORITE HOBBIES: "Kayaking, bicycling, and nature observation."

FAVORITE FOOD: "Ethiopian, specifically the Blue Nile restaurant."

MY HIDDEN TALENT: "I’m a short story writer and essayist."

HOW I WANT TO BE REMEMBERED: "As someone who made a positive contribution to the betterment of humankind."

Grant Thornton Website At the annual awards reception in April 2014, one Leader & Innovator from the previous 12 months will be selected as the Grant Thornton Leader & Innovator of the Year.