Norwalk's Thinking Green Fri Feb 27 NCC

Think Green is coming to Norwalk, thanks to a program of the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber's Leadership Institute held its graduation breakfast on Wednesday morning at the Dolce Norwalk Center, and it was announced that the 17 participants have put together Think Green, an event that will feature several exhibitors that will highlight conservation and environmental measures.

Think Green will take place from 3 to 7 p.m. on Friday Feb. 27 at Norwalk Community College.

The Leadership Institute, which began in 1981, is a Chamber program designed for Norwalk's new and up-and-coming business and community leaders. The nine-week program focuses on a variety of topics -- such as local government, economic development, media and education -- to help prepare the individuals for leaderships roles. Local prominent business people lead the weekly sessions.

The cornerstone of the institute is a project that the participants work on together. Historically, the end results of the projects have been reports given during the graduation event. Last year the Chamber changed the criteria of the projects to have tangible results at the end of the program.

This year all 17 participants worked on a single project, Think Green.

"We wanted them to focus on an activity that would be beneficial to businesses and the people of the city. We wanted an all-encompassing project," said Tony Izzo, site director at Northrop Grumman Norden Systems and chairman of the Leadership Institute. "All of the members played an active role and they did an outstanding job. It's a good project that will help everybody out. We gave them very little direction at the beginning."

Think Green will be free of charge and open to the public. The exhibitors, most of whom are already lined up, will be charged a small fee, which will be donated to a local school. The list of exhibitors include South Norwalk Electric and Water Co., Green Demolitions, Aitoro, iPark, and General Electric.

Brian Griffin, vice president of the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce, was impressed with this year's Leadership Institute participants.

"We gave them a vague description of what we wanted and they took it upon themselves to develop it and put it together," he said. "Even though they've graduated, they'll stay in touch and keep working on it until the expo. This (Think Green) is something we hope to continue doing every year or every other year."

This story is from The Hour, a Norwalk, CT, newspaper... Click
http://www.thehour.com/story/461248 to read the complete article on their website.