Green Valley Network offers environmental opportunities for students
Larry Burge
Issue date: 8/27/08 Section: News
Two other Walton College centers support Green Valley's network - the Center for Business and Economic Research headed by Kathy Deck and the Center for Retailing Excellence under the direction of Claudia Mobley.
The Green Valley Network evolved after Fayetteville's business and the region's green-minded leaders collectively looked at the city's future, Deck said. When Benton County's growth drew consumers north, away from Fayetteville, the city's leaders knew they needed to find creative ways to expand the city's revenue resources and to enlarge its tax base. Their homework led them to develop a plan.
"I think the leaders of Fayetteville looked at what was going on at Wal-Mart," Deck said. "They then looked at their available resources in the region's business, economic and education communities. They said they needed the next big thing, the next big economic development."
They recognized the next big economic issue as sustainability, Deck said. And to capitalize on it, they knew the region's economic community needed to join hands, to find a way to communicate between government officials, economic leaders and the university business and technology centers to have a central point of contact for companies or individuals with sustainable ideas, products or services. That single contact point is Steven Rust, chief executive officer and president of the Fayetteville Economic Development Council.
"There is a perfect storm of opportunity here," Rust said, "and we need to take advantage of it. We have an economic eco system that is unparalleled to anywhere in the world. We have the largest consumer package company in Wal-Mart, plus 1,300 of its suppliers all within a 20- to 30-mile circle of Fayetteville, and Tyson and J.B. Hunt within a 10-mile radius. That makes this a unique location for companies from across the globe to locate here. We can become the world's business and technology cluster for sustainability," Rust said. "It's a new way of thinking and a new way of doing business."
The Green Valley Network evolved after Fayetteville's business and the region's green-minded leaders collectively looked at the city's future, Deck said. When Benton County's growth drew consumers north, away from Fayetteville, the city's leaders knew they needed to find creative ways to expand the city's revenue resources and to enlarge its tax base. Their homework led them to develop a plan.
"I think the leaders of Fayetteville looked at what was going on at Wal-Mart," Deck said. "They then looked at their available resources in the region's business, economic and education communities. They said they needed the next big thing, the next big economic development."
They recognized the next big economic issue as sustainability, Deck said. And to capitalize on it, they knew the region's economic community needed to join hands, to find a way to communicate between government officials, economic leaders and the university business and technology centers to have a central point of contact for companies or individuals with sustainable ideas, products or services. That single contact point is Steven Rust, chief executive officer and president of the Fayetteville Economic Development Council.
"There is a perfect storm of opportunity here," Rust said, "and we need to take advantage of it. We have an economic eco system that is unparalleled to anywhere in the world. We have the largest consumer package company in Wal-Mart, plus 1,300 of its suppliers all within a 20- to 30-mile circle of Fayetteville, and Tyson and J.B. Hunt within a 10-mile radius. That makes this a unique location for companies from across the globe to locate here. We can become the world's business and technology cluster for sustainability," Rust said. "It's a new way of thinking and a new way of doing business."
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