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!

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!

Expertise and Passion Meet

When was the last time you left an industry meeting…

…feeling more energized than when you arrived?
…with a specific goal that will make a huge environmental and economic difference in your organization?
…with a “buddy” that will help you along the way to your goal?
…and with the knowledge that you are onto something big and there is an exciting time ahead?

As a planner for 30 years and a veteran of many meetings in our industry, this experience was new for me. Overwhelmingly, everyone I talked with said the same thing. The enthusiasm for the opportunities ahead to really make a difference was contagious. The sharing and support between participants was moving. We left ready to take on the world.

I invite you to talk with, any of the over 200 participants from 9 countries, who attended the Green Meeting Industry Council’s Conference about their incredible experience.

And then I invite you to join us next year to have this experience for yourself!

Red light, yellow light, green light....GO!

Some good news has emerged for those seeking a universal standard for green meetings! The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX) are looking to collaborate on the creation of a Green Meeting Standard.

On the heels of two planning meetings, industry stakeholders gathered in Vancouver, Canada at the Green Meeting Industry Council’s Greening the Hospitality Industry Conference to discuss the preliminary scope, content and process for moving forward with the standard. The standard would enable meeting professionals to ask the right questions, make environmentally and socially responsible decisions and measure the impact of these choices. The standard could also potentially identify minimum criteria for being called ‘green’ in our industry, a baseline for which is sorely lacking.

The working group has identified a need to create credible, consistent and recognizable standards within each area of meeting management: destinations, accommodations, venues, food & beverage, transportation, communications & marketing and exhibits.

Input and participation in planning for the standard is presently being sought from stakeholders within and outside of the industry. Committees are now being formed. If you are interested in joining this important process, please send an email to operations@meetingstrategiesworldwide.com

Musings from MPI

MPI-Professional Education Conference in Houston was all about “Meeting Different”, including an ‘Unconference Alley’ where delegates could drop in and discuss issues that mattered to them without panelists and presenters, including a Green Café. Close to 200 planners stopped by the Café, dropping in to pose questions and share information in roundtable discussions about green issues that included:
APEX Green Meeting Standards: Where do we start and how can you help?
Help me help you! What can hotels do to help meeting planners go green?
How do I start a carbon offset program?
Ok I’m recycling – now what’s next?
What can the destination provide to help green meetings?

PEC also featured an entire learning track on corporate social responsibility (CSR) including informative presentations about benchmarking green meetings, standards and certification, contract language and liabilities and tips on how to stay green in a brown situation.

In keeping with the green theme, conference organizers:
Used organic cotton bags and lanyards and provided recycling bins for them.
Printed on recycled content paper using vegetable based ink.
Provided recycling stations for paper, glass, plastic and cans.
Powered the conference using 100% wind energy.

A message board was also available for attendees to post information about what they are doing to be green, and provide recommendations for MPI moving forward. Thanks to Shawna McKinley for sharing this information.