Annual Spring Breakfast will also honor green businesses

One of the region’s leading experts on housing trends and economics will be the featured speaker at the chamber’s annual Spring Business Breakfast on Thurs. May 17 at the Needham Sheraton.

Barry Bluestone, Northeastern professor and author of “Greater Boston Housing Report Card” will offer insights on how Greater Boston’s booming real estate and jobs economy impacts housing demand, affordability and business attraction, particularly in inner suburban communities like Newton and Needham.

The Spring Business Breakfast, presented by Eastern Bank, is one of the chamber’s two marquee breakfasts meetings of the year. The event will once again also honor area businesses for their innovative advances in reducing energy costs or the creation of green products or services through the chamber’s annual Green Business Awards, presented by World Energy Efficiency Services.

“No one understands how intricately our region’s economic prosperity and ability to attract great top employers is connected to housing than Professor Bluestone,” said Chamber President Greg Reibman.“This is a critical conversation for everyone who has an interest in our economic and cultural vitality.”

A former Newton resident, Bluestone is currently the Russell B. and Andree B. Stearns Trustee Professor of Political Economy at Northeastern University. Arriving at Northeastern in 1999, he became the founding Director of the university’s Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy and in 2008 became the founding Dean of the university’s School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs.

As a political economist, Bluestone has written widely in the areas of housing policy, income distribution, business and industrial policy, labor-management relations, and urban and regional economic development. He contributes regularly to academic, as well as popular journals, and is the co-author of eleven books including The Boston Renaissance: Race, Space, and Economic Change in an American Metropolis and The Urban Experience: Economics, Society, and Public Policy. He has been the chief author of the annual Greater Boston Housing Report Card which has been published by The Boston Foundation each year since 2002.

As part of his work, Bluestone spends a considerable amount of time consulting with civic organizations, community foundations, industry groups, housing developers, trade unions, and with various federal and state government agencies.

In the 2017 “Greater Boston Housing Report Card” Bluestone found that while there is a building boom for homes in Boston itself, permitting in the surrounding region has dropped since 2015, helping to keep housing prices high.

The Spring Business Breakfast is presented by Eastern Bank with additional support from World Energy Efficiency Services, The Village Bank, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham, Needham Bank, NBC Boston, Northland Investment Corp and Eversource. Tickets are available by clicking here or call 617-244-5300.

About the Green Business Awards

Each May at the annual Spring Business Breakfast, the chamber’s Environment Committee honors the achievements of local businesses that have taken significant or innovative strides to reduce their carbon footprints and adopt environmentally friendly practices.

The Green Business Awards, sponsored by World Energy Efficiency Services, are selected by the committee following a public nomination process, interviews and site visits. Judges consider waste prevention, recycling, purchases, energy and water conservation, stakeholder involvement, transportation and social capital in the decision-making process. Further, the recognition that these outstanding businesses receive each year inspires others to also embrace best practices and commit to reducing their own carbon footprint.