Investing for Triple Bottom Line Returns:
Business practices that support
sustainable agriculture and rural development

John Berdes, ShoreBank Enterprise Pacific, and Dennis West, Northern Initiatives of Marquette, Michigan
June 1-2, 2006
Ames

Sponsored by the Marketing and Food Systems Initiative of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

John Berdes is president and managing director of ShoreBank Enterprise Pacific, the nation's first commercial bank formed to support environmentally sustainable development. The FDIC-insured bank was founded in 1997 as a joint venture of the ShoreBank Corporation of Chicago and the Portland, Oregon environmental nonprofit, Ecotrust. ShoreBank Pacific is based in Ilwaco, Washington, and has invested more than $30 million in businesses and social ventures throughout the temperate rain forest region of the Pacific Northwest.

Dennis West has been president since 1997 of Northern Initiatives based in Marquette, Michigan. He currently serves on the boards of the Upper Peninsula Economic Development Alliance, Community Economic Development Alliance of Michigan, the Governor’s Michigan Food Policy Council, the Michigan Magnet Fund, ShoreBank Capital Corporation, UP Business Capital LLC, and the Upper Great Lakes Education Technologies Inc.

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John Berdes

Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, 209 Curtiss Hall,
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011-1050 PH: (515)294-3711
Fax:(515)294-9696 Email: leocenter@iastate.edu