Dan Vermeer

Dan Vermeer, Executive Director, Corporate Sustainability Initiative, Duke University

"Daniel Vermeer (Ph.D., Northwestern University, 2002) is the Executive Director of the Corporate Sustainability Initiative (CSI). Dan comes to Duke from The Coca-Cola Company, where he was Director of Sustainable Value Chain, an enterprise-wide initiative to integrate sustainability into Coca-Cola's core business practices, including business planning, procurement, employee engagement, customer relationships, communications, and brand positioning.

"Prior to that, Dan founded and led Coca-Cola's Community Water Partnerships program, resulting in 125 public-private water sustainability projects in fifty countries. Dan also designed an industry "gold standard" Environmental Assessment Methodology, identifying risks and priorities across over 800 manufacturing facilities in 200 countries. He is the founder and chief architect of the Global Water Challenge, a multi-partner organization for innovative water and sanitation initiatives, co-author of the CEO Water Mandate (signed by several Fortune 500 companies), and lead contributor to several policy documents issued through the World Economic Forum, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and the United Nations Foundation. Dan's recent work at Coca-Cola has pursued sustainability issues and opportunities in the value chain, focusing on both upstream ingredient and material suppliers, as well as downstream retailer and consumer opportunities."

• Advisory Board, Blue Legacy