Convention Centers Prove Green is the New Black

Finally, proof from convention centers that green meetings are also an economic advantage...

The Oregon Convention Center reports that its recycling and other eco-minded practices will pay a $62.3 million dividend to the local economy. The nearly 30 events planned through 2010 will pay more than $4 million to use the convention center. Thanks to the magic of economic multipliers, visitors will spend enough on shopping, dining and lodging to send a $63.2 million wave of activity through the economy. (source: Portland Business Journal)

The San Diego Convention Center impressed me during a recent site inspection. From the General Manager to the Operations team, they are “walking the talk” and continuously looking for ways to improve their environmental performance. The energy efficiency systems now in place save money and the planet—and they have the measurements to prove it! This website talks about their policies as well as providing a downloadable fact sheet. http://www.sdccc.org/meetingplanners/greenmeetings.cfm

The Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, which has made environmental sustainability a priority for more than 20 years, is reconfirming their commitment and tripling its capacity to make it one of the greenest convention center’s in the world. Take a look http://www.vcec.ca/ I can personally attest to this. Way back in 1998 during a site inspection for a technology conference, they proudly offered me their environmental policies without being asked!

Sustainable for business…sustainable for the environment! Let’s hear from others...

Toot Your Own Horn

You’ve done the hard work--set up minimum guidelines for your meetings, put green meeting practices in place, measured the outcomes and took a huge step towards saving our planet. Now it’s time for a pat on the back and recognition for making a difference. If you are like most meeting planners, recognition doesn’t come along very often. So here’s your chance to share what you have accomplished!

PCMA has just announced an “Environmental Leadership” Award with the following criteria.

PCMA presents this award to an individual or organization who best implements their policies of environmental sustainability. An organization is defined as any company that serves the meetings and convention community, as well as any non-profit association or affiliated chapter. The award recipient will be involved in demonstrating environmental leadership by executing an "environmentally friendly" meeting/event or have implemented a "environmentally friendly" business practices into their workplace. This recipient has established and implemented detailed environmental policies and a strategy to execute them.

Here’s the link with all the details

http://www.pcma.org/x2714.xml#Green

See you on the red carpet!

Summertime...and The Livin' Is Easy

The long, hot days of summer are a perfect time to relax and enjoy live music in a beautiful outdoor setting! And that is exactly what I did this weekend. Even while relaxing I had one eye on the environmental practices taking place at the festival. I just can’t help myself, I truly am a MeetGreen Martyr.

The good news is, Pacific Northwest festivals and events are really going green this summer! Hopefully, you are seeing this as well in your area. If you are organizing an event here are the….

Top Ten Things You Can Do

1. Talk to your waste/recycling hauler early in the planning process to develop a recycling program
2. Hire/appoint a recycling coordinator
3. Purchase green power for the stage and lighting
4. Use biodiesel to power generators
5. Ask food vendors to serve local, sustainable food
6. Do not allow vendors or the venue to serve food in Styrofoam and non-recyclable plastics
7. Provide incentives for the audience to use mass transit
8. Purchase carbon offsets to mitigate the travel by artists
9. Develop talking points for the artists to discuss what is being done to green the event
10. Get started. Choosing even one idea from this list will have a huge impact. Measure what you have done and build on it next year.

Thanks to Stages Northwest for this list. They have additional resources available at
http://www.stagesnorthwest.com/greenresources.html

The Big Apple Says "Serve Apples"

The New York State Department of Health has developed a general set of guidelines for healthy meetings. Many of the healthy meeting guidelines are also green meeting guidelines (imagine that!) Here are some of the recommendations for planners:

- Serve local fruits and vegetables whenever possible.
- Serve fruit juice or unsweetened iced tea instead of soft drinks.
- Present a vegetarian option at all meals.
- Feature soups and sauces made from a base of vegetables.
- Provide space on the registration forms where attendees can indicate dietary restrictions.
- Place pitchers of water in meeting rooms.

Healthy on so many levels!

What's for Dinner?

Normally during a conference there is an evening where participants can enjoy the local fare. Whether guests are on their own or sponsors are hosting a meal, they will be searching for a restaurant. Help them along with suggestions for an environmentally sustainable restaurant which is as easy as checking this website www.dinegreen.com

The Green Restaurant Association certifies restaurants using the following standards:
-Does the restaurant use a comprehensive recycling system for all products that are accepted by local recycling companies?
-Are they free of polystyrene foam ("Styrofoam") products?
-Will they commit to completing four Environmental Steps per year of membership?
-Will they complete at least one Environmental Step after joining the GRA?

The website also has a great calculator for use by restaurants to check their environmental footprint. I would suggest planners use it as their minimum guideline checklist for determining restaurants to recommend!

Also, check with the CVB in the host city to see if there is a local green restaurant association or list of sustainable restaurants.

To Teach Is To Learn

Having recently co-presented our "Simple Steps to Green Meetings" Seminar in Washington DC, I am reminded how much I too learn from each seminar. From San Francisco to Washington DC, the professionals who gather to learn more about green meetings bring a wealth of knowledge and creative ideas with them. I wanted to share some tips, tricks, and information that I have learned from students.

-Ask the hotel if they use biodiesel in their airport shuttles.
-Adjust your coffee orders if guests are bringing their own coffee mugs as personal mugs are usually bigger than the china cups found at the event.
-One planner’s organization did a carbon footprint study and found the US Postal Service has the lowest carbon footprint of all shipping services for their needs.
-Use a logo lapel pin to put a paper badge on instead of a plastic badge holder. The paper badge will last the duration of the conference and guests can reuse or collect the pins.
-If guests must rent cars, supply them with rental companies that have hybrids in their fleets. Note: Advantage Rent A Car just reported it will become the first major American rental company to have a 100 percent "green" fleet of cars within the next 24 months.

Thanks to all for your great ideas!

I Want More!

More discussions with other green meeting planners…
More help finding resources…
More best practices…
More information on current trends in one place…
More ideas!

We are all like sponges, soaking up the information and looking for more! So we launched the MeetGreen Forum and invited our colleagues and folks who have attended our seminars/webinars to join. And they did! We are having lively discussions, sharing information, and asking questions.

We also want to invite the blog readers to join the fun. The link below will give you easy directions.

http://www.meetingstrategiesworldwide.com/resources/forum/

Pop on the forum, ask a question, answer a question, share a resource.

Because as Margaret Mead said, “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

Choosing a Carbon Offset Provider

The third post in the carbon series deals with choosing a carbon offset provider. In today’s climate of unregulated providers, this can be a “buyer beware” situation.

Which offset provider do I pick?

There are many organizations that are able to provide carbon offsets, and many more that are emerging daily as the ‘carbon market’ grows. Because each program is different it is critically important that meeting and event planners make informed decisions when selecting their offset provider.

Key questions to ask your prospective offset provider include:

1. Do they provide offsets for meetings and events? Choose a provider that has experience with events. Ask them for references of planners you can contact.

2. How do they calculate event emissions? Do the calculations include transportation, buildings and/or manufactured products? Some offsetters will only calculate emissions for air, however others can also account for emissions from ground transportation, food production, waste hauling and building operations. Also, ask providers about any assumptions they make when calculating emissions. Some calculations are based on national or state averages, others on actual emissions by your vendors. Try to be as accurate as possible.

3. Do they only calculate emissions associated with climate change? Or do they include emissions that affect public health? Most offset providers will only calculate greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide. Others may also calculate sulfur dioxide or particulates which are believed to impact human health locally.

4. What type of event reports are they able to produce? Negotiate what kind of data you want your offsetter to provide. Common measurables we ask for include a breakdown of emissions volume by type, estimated fuel use, and total miles traveled.

5. What percentage of offset funds are retained for administration? This question is critical. Our research shows fees my vary from 3% to 50% of the offset cost, with the average lying close to 20%.

6. Is the offset provider a broker? Some offsetters manage their own projects, others broker or sell the projects of others. Using a broker has the benefit of accessing a diversity offset projects that meet your needs, however can mean you pay higher fees than dealing with the project provider directly.

7. Is the organization a registered charity and able to provide audited financial statements? For some of your attendees and sponsors the ability to provide a taxable benefit may be important. If not, you might also consider private offset providers.

8. Are you certified? Certification for offset providers is only just emerging. The two most common are the Gold Standard and the Voluntary Carbon Standard. Not many offsetters are certified at present, but ask if your provider is working toward certification or has undertaken any verification of their projects.

Our organization has struggled with making the right decision for both ourselves and our clients. We have recently undertaken a vetting process of over 25 offset providers and developed a spreadsheet to help. It is now available in Meeting Strategies Worldwide’s MeetGreen® Toolbox along with a Primer on Carbon Offset Certification. The Toolbox is available on www.meetgreen.com.


My thanks to Shawna McKinley for the Carbon Offset Primer which served as the basis for this series.

What is a Carbon Offset?

This is the second post in the carbon series. I hope you are finding it helpful. As a meeting planner, I never thought I would need this type of information. Of course, I never thought I would be called a "dumpster diver" either!

What is a carbon offset?

“A carbon offset is a project implemented specifically to reduce the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Offsets are so named because they counteract or offset the purchaser's GHG emissions.” (Source: Climate Trust) The important thing to realize about a carbon offset is that it does not reduce your actual event emissions. It allows you to be responsible for those emissions you can’t avoid.

Carbon offsets projects can take a variety of forms including:
• Investment in renewable energy, such as solar or wind power.
• Energy efficiency projects, such as retrofitting buildings with energy efficient systems
• Tree planting which will absorb emissions from the atmosphere.

How do I start?

Steps to providing a carbon offset program for a meeting generally involve:
1. Finding an offset partner organization
2. Working with the partner to estimate conference emissions (travel and venue energy?
3. Ascribing a dollar value to the emissions footprint
4. Engaging a sponsor, delegates or your organization to ‘buy’ the offset

It is important to consider the fit with your organization. A few questions to ask are:
- Will members be accepting of the option?
- Should the program be voluntary or mandatory?
- Is selecting one offset program too restrictive?
- Does the offset project need to be local? Is location important?

How can we fund a carbon offset program?

There are a few scenarios for funding carbon-offset programs that meeting managers currently employ.
- One option is to use the program as a sponsorship opportunity and publicize that the sponsoring company has offset the entire event’s greenhouse gas emissions. This strategy gains powerful recognition for both the sponsor and for the event.
-A second scenario is to ask attendees to offset their own travel by contributing a specific amount as part of their registration fee. Make their contribution optional. Then, those who participate will be taking an active role in contributing to improving the environment.
- A third option is to include the offset as part of the conference budget and let attendees know that the organization is doing this on their behalf.

Up next…picking a carbon offset provider in this wild, unregulated industry.

What Size Are My Shoes?

Welcome to the first in a series about carbon emissions as they relate to conferences and events. Let’s start with the basics...

What is carbon?
Carbon is a basic building block for life. It is present in all living things. In its elemental form we know it best as coal, oil and natural gas which is a source of energy for many of our activities on the planet.

What we tend to be most concerned with when it comes to meetings and events is our ‘carbon footprint’, which we often use to describe the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases emitted over the full life cycle of a product or service. In addition to emissions output our carbon footprint may also include raw materials, or inputs.

What is your carbon footprint?
Just for fun you might enjoy seeing what your personal carbon footprint is. Follow the links to the Earth Day Network calculator www.myfootprint.org and Climate Trust’s www.carboncounter.org.

What is the ‘carbon footprint’ of a conference?
The “carbon connection” with meetings and events tends to be three-fold, associated with:
• Transportation: the gasoline and kerosene that fuels buses, taxis, shuttles, freight haulers and aircraft.
• Buildings: fuel that lights, heats and cools the hotels and venues we occupy.
• Manufactured products (purchasing): oil and other fossil fuels that may power factories that produce goods we need as well as the materials that go into the production of food, paper, plastics, fabrics and other products that we give away at meetings.

Climate Trust has a basic carbon calculator for events as well http://www.carboncounter.org/business/offsets-for-events.aspx

Next post I will talk about how to address your conference’s carbon footprint.

Ready...Set...Offset

Today’s campfire story is about a huge international company. It seems the president of the firm announced one day the company would be carbon neutral in the near future. Walking the talk, they quickly implemented green meeting practices into their upcoming annual meeting—reducing and recycling wherever possible.

One important component for the organization was to offset carbon produced by both the participant travel and the energy required to hold the meeting. The participant travel was to be offset by individuals either by signing up on the website when registering or by signing up onsite at several kiosks. In the weeks before the event we had a minimal amount of interest.

During the Opening Session, the President presented his plan for the carbon neutral program. He said that immediately after the session he was going to a kiosk to sign up to offset his travel and get a little green sticker for his name badge. He challenged others to join him. As the session ended, the offset kiosks were hit hard with participants signing up and getting their sticker. It seems the little green sticker became a “badge of honor” in this very competitive group. Some folks were even asking if they could offset twice and get two or pay more and get a different color like gold or platinum. This was by far the highest percentage of travel offset we have ever seen. I guess looking good for the boss is still a motivator.

Note: I will be posting about carbon, determining your footprint, and offsetting options in the next few blogs, so stay tuned.

BYOB

One of the newest green meeting practices is asking participants to bring their own conference bag instead of the host organization supplying one. It makes sense, we all have so many. Before you say your participants would find this “tacky” or “cheap”, hear me out.

Because, what is actually happening is participants are showing up with:

-Bags from earlier conferences,
-Bags from organizations they belong to in their personal lives,
-Bags they have imprinted with personal messages such as “Ask me about…”,
-Bags from their favorite vacation spot,

And it has become a whole social networking game that really has participants enrolled. I have heard reports the coolest bags are those from the very first conferences held by the organization and those who carry them are very highly regarded. Also prestigious are bags from unique destinations and/or made by indigenous people.

What began as a way to save the environment and money has the unanticipated consequence of a new conversation starter! Who would have guessed?

What's Hot? Not Bottled Water

As you know, not serving individual bottled water at conferences and events has the potential for huge environmental and economic savings. Some planners have been concerned about how to sell this to stakeholders and participants. From what I have been reading lately, that job may be getting easier!

From Grist…

“Forget SUVs and Styrofoam: hip-to-the-times green folk are directing their ire at plastic water bottles. In the last few months, the energy-intensiveness of bottled water -- 1.5 million barrels of oil go into making the bottles for the U.S. market each year, and oodles more to transporting the H2O -- has seeped into the public consciousness. Big-city mayors have urged residents to stop hitting the bottle, and highfalutin restaurants are serving filtered tap water. Advocates point out that water flows freely in nearly every U.S. home, while 38 billion recyclable plastic vessels are trashed every year.”

From the New York Times, August 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/fashion/12water.html?ex=1344571200&en=4cafffbfd43f5234&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

“In the last few months, bottled water — generally considered a benign, even beneficial, product — has been increasingly portrayed as an environmental villain by city leaders, activist groups and the media.”

From the Harris Interactive Poll…
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=898

“Americans claim that they are doing things that will reduce their carbon footprint. A startling 21% have stopped drinking bottled water.”

What She Said...

Lisa English, CMP, CMM exemplifies many meeting planners as they begin to embrace green meeting practices. In a recent article, she articulately conveyed her experience and I wanted to share it with you.

http://www.conceptsworldwide.com/info/library/conceptualize/issues/issue-11/-/headlines--its-easy-being-green/

Lisa, welcome to the journey!

Because Sometimes You Just Can’t Help It

We try hard to be “paperless” in our planning practices, but there are some times in meetings when you still need to use paper. So the goal becomes, to minimize its use, choose the right product and then reuse/recycle it properly.

When choosing a paper, there are some terms to look for and be familiar with:

Post Consumer: Post-consumer paper is produced using paper that has already been a product (and probably put out at your curb). It is different from pre-consumer waste, which is the re-introduction of manufacturing scrap into the production process.

Recycled: A new product that has been made from re-processed materials. Recycled products can be made from post-consumer or pre-consumer waste.

Recyclable: A product that can be re-processed where facilities exist.

FSC or SFI-certified: Forest Stewardship Council or Sustainable Forestry Initiative-certified. These schemes identify and verify environmentally responsible papers.

Tree Free: Refers to paper that does not use tree fiber, but other kinds of fiber (i.e. hemp, sugar cane).

PCF: Process Chlorine Free: This most commonly means that the paper was produced without chlorine.

Changing from virgin paper to 100% post-consumer paper makes a huge difference. But don’t believe me…use this fun calculator to see the amount of trees and energy you can save by switching.

http://neenahpaper.com/environmentsavings

Don't Leave Home Without It

Your water bottle and coffee mug that is! During the registration process, we now ask conference participants bring their own. In recent months, I have heard about a new practice called, BYOB, or bring your own (conference) bag. It is being instituted with great success as well. Anything we can do to minimize our impact while traveling is critically important. To that point, EPA statistics show:

The average conference participant (at a three day conference):
Produces 61 lbs of solid waste
Uses 846 gallons of water

The same person at home (for three days):
Produces 13.5 lbs of solid waste
Uses 258 gallons of water

Road Warrior, Doug Kennedy, shares some great tips about how hotel guests can minimize their environmental impact.

http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2008_1st/Mar08_GreenTraveler.html

Meeting Industry Embraces Earth Day

WOW, what a week! The meeting and events industry really went wild with information and resources about environmentally responsible meetings. Industry publications (both in print and online) had loads of coverage. And the news media followed suit with articles and interviews specifically on green meetings and events. Here it is the end of the week, and I am still digesting all of the reports.

In the upcoming week, I will be synthesizing this wealth of information (so you don’t have to) and posting it on my blog. Stay tuned!

First up--I want to congratulate ARAMARK for this week’s announcement…

Partnership to Promote Shift to Sustainable Seafood Announced. Industry leader commits to completing transition within 10 years.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium and ARAMARK have entered into a partnership under which ARAMARK commits to new practices that will guide its purchases of sustainable seafood for all operations across the US. ARAMARK is beginning immediately to shift its seafood purchases toward sustainable sources. The company will complete the transition by 2018.

ARAMARK’s US operations alone employ 180,000 people and serve tens of millions of consumers at businesses, universities, schools, sports and entertainment facilities, parks and other locations. “Being good environmental stewards is important to our employees, our customers and the communities in which we live and work,” said Robert Dennill, ARAMARK’s associate vice president for corporate social responsibility. “The expertise and knowledge we are able to gain from the Monterey Bay Aquarium will guide business practices and influence consumer behaviors, helping strengthen our commitment to the environment.”

As you know, ARAMARK is the exclusive caterer for many of the facilities used for meetings and events. Speaking for meeting planners around the country, “We applaud you!”

Wash It or Toss It?

"Wouldn’t it save energy and water to use disposable cutlery instead of washing metal silverware?" A question we are frequently asked especially in regions of the United States where water is in short supply.

The Environmental Defense Fund provides the answer:

“Using 1,000 disposable plastic teaspoons consumes over 10 times more energy and natural resources than manufacturing one stainless steel teaspoon and washing it 1,000 times.”

Speaking of water efficiency, “virtual water” is now being measured. For instance, a cup of coffee uses 37 gallons of virtual water when you consider the amount of water used to grow, produce, package and ship the beans according to Joel Makower’s blog.

http://makower.typepad.com/joel_makower/2008/04/a-deeper-dive-i.html


The next big question is how will this impact the meeting industry?

One Fish, Two Fish…How Can I Choose Fish?

As meeting planners, we sometimes order meals on a rather large scale. Not just one, but sometimes thousands are served by the choice we make. For that very reason when choosing fish, they should come from a sustainable fisheries. Your purchasing power can make a difference by supporting those fisheries that are better for the environment, while at the same time relieving pressure on others that are not doing as well.

We recommend using a Seafood Watch pocket guide provided by Monterey Bay Aquarium to make choices based on supporting environmentally friendly fisheries and aquaculture operations. Their website http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_aboutsfw.asp provides a wealth of information including how to order the guides for your use.

If you want to impress your clients and friends with your sustainable seafood knowledge (and don’t we all), here is a fun trick! Use the “Fish Phone”. Yes, just text 30644 on your cell phone, type in “fish” and then type in the type of fish you want to know about, say “albacore tuna” for example. A response will come back within a few moments and provide information to help you make a decision. Won’t you be the life of the party?

Hotter Than It Should Be

One year ago today, as members of the Live Earth Sustainability Expert Team, we were feverishly developing the “Green Guidelines for the Live Entertainment & Events Industry" for use in all eight concert venues. http://liveearth.org/docs/LEGreen_Guidelines_First_edition_final.pdf
Shortly thereafter, we began working to “green” the Giants Stadium venue in New Jersey for the 07/07/07 Live Earth Concert Series. The process was a bit like Jane Goodall meets The Sopranos. With a combination of education, resources, and sheer tenacity, we convinced the Giants Stadium management team, cleaning company, parking lot crew, multiple caterers, and union folks that three streams of waste--recyclables, compost and other waste--could be separated by the audience (with the help of 800 volunteers—at least until The Police came on stage—but that’s another story). The Stadium crew became enrolled in the process and were champions for the cause right along side our team.

Three short months later on a hot, humid Saturday, we were all standing on the 50 yard line among over 51,000 screaming fans with the task of bringing recycling and composting to the largest, most complicated concert ever to take place at the Stadium. And by the way, we were told, “Al Gore will be here.” No pressure.

Thanks to the efforts of thousands of people who made a real difference, we were able to divert 76% of the waste from the landfill to recycling or compost. A sweet success!

It is spring once again and time to green this summer’s outdoor events. Where to start? Use the guidelines, ask vendors and sponsors to partner with you, enroll the artists and audience, and prepare to be amazed!