What are businesses doing to be more sustainable?

Customers queue for coffee at Starbucks
Customers queue for coffee at Starbucks Coffee inside the Dulles International Airport complex on August 30, 2011 in Dulles, Va. Starbucks is aiming to draw 100 percent of its energy from renewables by 2015.
PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images

With one eye on rising gasoline prices and the other on Election Day, President Barack Obama is urging greater government investment in alternative energy.

But energy policy is a slow-moving, highly polarized issue in Washington, so some companies aren't waiting.

Starbucks is aiming to draw 100 percent of its energy from renewables by 2015. IBM, Office Depot and Intel Corporation are among the greenest companies in America.

We were wondering: What are those companies doing that others should be?

Kerri Miller will be talking with Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres. The non-profit organization helps companies address sustainability. Lubber is an international leader in efforts by investors to pressure companies to adopt sustainable business practices.

Lubber speaks Thursday at 7 p.m. in the theater of the University of Minnesota St. Paul Student Center. The lecture, "Investing in Sustainability: Building Water Stewardship into the Bottom Line" is sponsored by the Freshwater Society and the University of Minnesota College of Biological Science.