Guest blog by: Marissa Stapley-Ponikowski

They say you learn something new every day. 

And then there are days when you learn so many new things and feel so very inspired that your hand cramps from all the notes you’re taking.

Inspiration for me came in the form of the Women in Leadership Foundation’s Ontario Women in Business Luncheon, held on Thursday, October 29^th, at the Design Exchange in Toronto’s downtown core.

I attended the event alone, and was feeling nervous about the prospect of networking. (I’m a freelance writer and author and spend most of my time working alone at my laptop; I’ve just finished my first novel and am working on my second, so spend much of my time on a fictional plane – when I get out into the real world, sometimes I feel a little lost.)

But I had nothing to fear – I only stood alone for a moment before women began to approach me. Lovely, likeminded women nurturing hopes, dreams, and accomplishments, just like I am. Hopes, dreams, and accomplishments that are business-related, but also life, love, and happiness -related. It was my kind of scene.

The room was full of passion, the kind of passion that – no offence to men; I really do love men and the special brand of passion they bring to their life and work – only women possess. Dare I call it Girl Power?  Okay, no, I won’t. But there was something truly special and empowering in the air.

In my mind, I started calling the event the Passionately Managing Change & Sustainability luncheon.

Here’s why:

The first speaker on the five-woman discussion panel – moderated by CBC’s Dianne Buckner, who is so fabulous and pretty in person I could hardly stand it – was Kelly Drennan, Fashion Takes Action founder. (www.fashiontakesaction.com)

The first thing I learned from the stylish and dynamic Drennan is that I am not alone in this world in terms of my fashionista sensibilities battling it out with the side of me that wants to hug trees and sing Kumbaya. I also learned that green can be sexy, and green really is the new black.

Drennan had me from the moment she stepped out from behind the podium, showcased her snazzy Little Black Dress, and said, “It’s organic cotton and organic wool.” I felt like I’d encountered a kindred spirit when she talked about her “inner hippie”, “a-ha moments”, and admirable desire to make the world a better place for her two daughters to inhabit – which is what led her to found FTA, and put on the Green Gala, an eco-couture fashion show, every year. (I also found I knew exactly what she meant when she shared with a room of people she’d never met the heartbreaking difficulties of trying to do and be it all: wife, mother, businesswoman, world saver. You can’t. And then you have a breakdown. After which point, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back to the tasks at hand; except that now you’ve taken up yoga.)

Drennan’s contribution to the panel was profound – she is, I believe, a quintessential modern woman. She’s fashionable and savvy, but she’s also passionate about the planet, and not just because it’s trendy right now to be eco-minded.

Next up was Judith Lipp, a woman who made my fashionista sensibilities want to hide at the back of the room and pretend to be wearing Birkenstocks. Lipp is so humble and self-deprecating, and yet behind it all is a woman who is so intelligent and thoughtful and deep that saying I admire her is like saying I think handbags are nifty. Lipp is the executive director of the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-Operative (Trec.on.ca) Among other things, the organization is behind the giant wind turbine on Toronto’s waterfront, a project that is community-owned – one of the many new things I learned at the luncheon. (You can also tour the turbine with your family, an outing I plan to make in the near future, my two toddlers in tow. Wish me luck.)

Lipp taught me that being green takes hard work, not just words. At the beginning of the event, when I was standing in a corner pretending to be super-absorbed in the luncheon’s program because I was too nervous to talk to anyone, I read that in addition to what Lipp does for the environment on a daily basis, she –and I quote the program directly here -  “in her free time, initiated, managed, and led the construction of a cooperatively built straw-bale, off-grid cottage in rural Nova Scotia, which is available to its members on a time-share basis.”

Wow. I thought it was a big deal when, a few months ago, I gave up using plastic food storage baggies entirely. I can only imagine the challenges one might face when trying to build and manage a cottage made entirely of straw bales. I felt positively awed by Lipp’s commitment to exploring and finding solutions to sustainable energy issues, a commitment so effortless and second-nature to her that it was obvious we were in the presence of woman who had found her niche in the world – and who was, little by little, saving the world every day. (All the while being really, really modest about it.)

Even though Lipp did say that the environmental challenges this world faces are not ones that we have taken up, thus far, particularly well as a continent, she was also full of hope. “If you believe in what you’re doing, it’s not a sacrifice,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if you have a plan, as long as you’re passionate.”

Kimberly Marshall, the VP of Finance and Administration with the Ontario Power Authority, was the third woman to address the crowd. At this point – the halfway mark –  I was losing focus slightly – it happens when I haven’t had a coffee for a while –  and found myself eyeing the fabulous red patent leather pumps on a woman sitting near me. (That’s one of the benefits of going to a luncheon attended chiefly by women – forget people watching; I like to shoe watch.) But Marshall got my attention immediately. This woman is obviously a force to be reckoned with. She’s attractive and blonde, with a friendly smile; at first glance, you can’t imagine that she is, in her own words, a gal with a fiercely competitive streak, who likes to kick some serious you-know-what.

Marshall taught me with her you-know-what kicking speech, that green is the future. She talked about the Green Energy Act, and the task she and her organization has been given to create 50,000 green jobs within the next three years. As she spoke, it became quite obvious that we are in the midst of a green shift, and that there are people at the helm of this shift who are going to make it happen. As in, her.At the end of her speech, Marshall, too, mentioned passion. “Find your passion. Find what you love and do it.” (You see why I was beginning to believe managing sustainability wasn’t the only theme?)

Karen Clarke-Whistler, the Chief Environmental Officer for the TD Bank Financial Group, spoke next. Another beautiful woman, another inspirational story, and another lesson, one that I have been resisting to a certain extent. But here it is: Being green isn’t just about not exploiting resources. Businesses are going to exploit the many resources this country has, and their main challenge is going to be to do so in a sustainable way. Clarke-Whistler made me believe, or at least fervently hope, that this might be possible, that big business really can have a heart. TD has, after all, hired a Chief Environmental Officer. The entire concept fascinated me.

Clarke-Whistler also talked about the importance of being grateful for what we have – we live in a country, she said, that is so rich in resources it’s staggering. She’s been to places, she explained, where people are fighting and dying for what we have. And traveling, said Clarke-Whistler, is such an important way to truly understand the world, and perhaps the only way to really understand why we are so blessed in North America – and also why and how we can do so much better in terms of sustainability and eco-awareness. “Follow your passions,” were her final words of advice. “Focus on facts, not rhetoric. To be productive, focus on solutions, not problems.”

 Finally, Rose Gage, who is a WIL board member, spoke. She had to pull the microphone down because she, as she proclaimed gleefully, was the shortest speaker of the day. And she is a tiny woman – but what she lacks in stature she more than makes up for in personality and pizzazz. Gage is the VP of Business Development and Marketing for Schneider Electric, and she taught me that being green can be profitable. There’s the triple bottom line to think about, Gage said (agreeing with Drennan, who’d also mentioned the concept of profit, planet, and people being the new markers of corporate success). “Green is good,” Gage enthused. “It’s a good business platform.”

When I left the event, I found I was full of energy, hope, and, of course, passion. The discussion made me think that the future is in fact bright. Bright green, perhaps? I certainly hope so. As I go forward into the world, promoting my first novel and dedicating myself to my family, my work, and my world-saving sensibilities, I know everything I learned at the luncheon is going to stay with me, and I won’t soon forget these passionate women and their incredible accomplishments, or what they taught me about putting my heart into doing what I do.

 Marissa Stapley-Ponikowski is a Toronto-based freelance writer and author. Her first novel, Saving the World (in Sensible Shoes),  will be released in 2010. To learn more about her, visit www.marincommunications.com,  or www.savingtheworldinsensibleshoes.blogspot.com.

Filed under: Events, WIL Events