LAS VEGAS -- Consumer Electronics Show (CES) keynoter Kazuhiro Tsuga, president of Panasonic Corp., had the unenviable challenge on convincing 3,000 profiteers gathered here Tuesday (Jan. 8) that environmental sustainability and concern for "people over products" is good business policy. He was having a hard time selling this message to his skeptical audience until he got a boost from a political star, Newark Mayor Cory Booker.
Booker, who is on many short lists as a future presidential candidate, told the CES crowd that Panasonic's risky decision to move its North American headquarters to northern New Jersey was instrumental in an economic boom for Newark unprecedented since the 1950's. He also said it was good for Panasonic's bottom line, largely due to energy savings based on Panasonic's own technologies, built into a new corporate high-rise.
Citing the construction of an energy-saving building in the inner city, coupled with an upgrade in mass transit to ferry Panasonic employees to their new "green" workplace, Booker called the city's Japanese corporate partner "a harbinger of hope." He said, "You have transformed my metaphor. I am hope unhinged!"
