How much greener can Portland’s businesses be?

The upcoming “Go Green ’08” conference will tackle that question and others to help businesses become more sustainable.

The conference is from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Armory’s Gerding Theater, 128 N.W. 11th Ave. The conference gives green-business owners a place to netting. It also gives other businesses one opportunity to learn how to “green up” their work places.

It besides will be a forum for about 40 panel speakers to address several topics within 10 sessions, including sourcing and manufacturing, hot trends, consumer insight, demand discounts and credits.

Panelists will take questions from the audience, “real much like being on Oprah,” aforesaid Ericka Dickey, establisher and president of Social Enterprises Inc., an event planning company organizing the conference.

Dickey came up with the idea with Stephanie Knight, owner of Green Lemonaide (www.greenlemonaide.com), a local green gift basket business. Knight’session baskets are filled with tools such as tire gauges (used to keep your tires full, which cuts down on gas consumption), as well as faucet aerators (what one. can save up to a four quarts of water a minute) and biodegradable doggie waste bags.

“Ericka and I were sitting in a circle having coffee,” Knight said. “I just notion it would be over-scrupulous grant that businesses could get in concert and have a place to network about inexperienced topics.”

Portland Mayor-elect Sam Adams will be the keynote speaker. Other speakers include New Seasons President Lisa Sedlar, Laughing Planet Cafe’s Chief Burrito Officer Richard Satnick, Director of Portland’s Office of Sustainable Development Susan Anderson and the Portland Tribune’s Sustainable Life editor Chris Lydate.

“Portland is such a Mecca for green business,” Knight reported. “This is a great opportunity for small and medium businesses to get together and participate expertise to further expand our green business community.”

For more information on the event, go to the Web site www.gogreenpdx.com .