Gil Friend

CEO
Natural Logic

Lifelong social entrepreneur, considered one of the founders of the sustainable business movement.

Inaugural member of Sustainability Hall of Fame (with Amory Lovins, Karl-Henrik Robert, Bob Willard and the late Ray Anderson) by the International Society of Sustainability Professionals, and "one of the 10 most influential sustainability voices in America" by The Guardian.

As founder & CEO of Natural Logic Inc, helps leading companies in a wide range of industries design, implement and measure profitable sustainability strategies. A business strategist with more than 45 years experience in business & policy innovation, combines broad experience in strategy, systems ecology, economic development, management cybernetics, and public policy.

Recently completed a five year secondment as the first Chief Sustainability Officer, City of Palo Alto. Charged to "develop a world class sustainability strategy…and lead Palo Alto be being the greenest city in America." Led development of Palo Alto's Sustainability and Climate Action Plan, including "80x30" greenhouse gas reduction goals, and plans to achieve them.

"Natures' ecosystems have nearly 4 billion years of experience in the development of efficient, adaptive, resilient, and sustainable systems. Why should companies reinvent the wheel, when the R&D has already been done?" (Gil Friend, 1991)

Board: Inquiring Systems Inc. Advisor: BFlow, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. Lectures widely on business strategy and sustainability issues. Author, The Truth About Green Business (FT Press),The New Bottom Line; coauthor, Biofuels Development and Soil Productivity. Contributor, Worldchanging: A User’s Guide to the 21st Century, Sustainable Enterprise Report, Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook, Sustainable Food Systems, Stepping Stones.

Specialties: Strategy, innovation, leadership, systems design, management cybernetics, industrial ecology, sustainable development, measuring what matters, training, coaching, speaking.

Gil Friend is tagged in 6 stories.

The COVID Covenant: Don’t Go Back — Go Big and Go Now!

Surfacing Submerged Value / We know that we can buy less, use less, work from home, drive less, collaborate more; and have business, society and government move faster — because we just did all of that. How can we respond as powerfully and courageously to other super-critical threats? - 4 years ago

What the CEO ‘Purpose of Business’ Declaration Is — and What It Isn’t

Organizational Governance / 181 CEOs have signed on to broader purpose — skepticism is warranted, but this is potentially a BFD. Now, let’s see if these companies deliver, and help them when they do — and challenge them when they don’t. - 5 years ago

Righting Wrong Metrics: Lessons on Future-Fitness and Fixing Materiality

New Metrics / This week at Sustainable Brands’ New Metrics ’18 conference in Philadelphia, PA, over 300 delegates from brands, NGOs, strategists and practitioners across sectors gathered to share their latest tools and findings regarding measuring the risks and impacts of previously unmeasured forms of value, the newest credible tools and solutions for assessing the ROI of Sustainable Business. - 5 years ago

Breakthrough Impact Measurement Tools Revealing at New Metrics ‘18

Press Release / EcoAct, Novo Nordisk, B Lab and others sharing new research and performance metrics, Oct 29-31 in Philadelphia SAN FRANCISCO, October 24, 2018 – Members of the Sustainable Brands® community will gather next week for the 8th annual New Metrics conference, taking place October 29-31 at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel in Philadelphia, PA. More than 300 executives and global thought-leaders will reveal new methodologies, toolkits and case studies for demonstrating the ROI of Sustainable Business. Compelling new initiatives presented at New Metrics ‘18 will include: - 5 years ago

`Materiality Is Broken. But It Doesn’t Have to Be.

Surfacing Submerged Value / In formulating strategy, shaping communications and improving their impact in the world, companies, and their sustainability teams, must answer two big questions: "What is important to our business?” and "What is important to our stakeholders?” (Sometimes as a proxy for the larger question: “What is important to the world?") - 6 years ago

Counting What Counts: The Evolution of New Metrics

New Metrics / We've come a long way since the first New Metrics conference seven years ago. - 6 years ago