Travel Tips
A Convention With Conviction: Greening Your Business Meetings
Most of us have attended a business conference that went something like this: vinyl-covered binders full of single-sided promotional “literature.”
Disposable plastic eating utensils.
Conference bags full of promotional “trinkets and trash,” tent cards and thousands of logo mouse pads.
And, of course, hundreds of delegates who arrive at the conference from far-flung destinations that have required plane travel.
It’s enough to make any green-leaning employee blanch. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
There is a growing movement, in the business world and on the campaign circuit, that conventions can be lean, green and vastly productive. There’s little more required than the will to change the status quo and the right person to point the way.
What is a green conference? According to the organization Meeting Strategies Worldwide, which provides green guidance to businesses wanting to clean up their conferences, a green meeting is one “that incorporates environmental considerations throughout all stages of the meeting in order to minimize the negative impact on the environment.”
While you might get some resistance from hotels and caterers, many more are beginning to realize that green is good business – and offer their services accordingly, says Michelle White, Director of Environmental Affairs for Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.
White says those in the hospitality industry are seeing “elevated emphasis placed on environmental sustainability” with an increasing number of businesses asking for environmental information and demanding green meetings and events. Fairmont has responded by implementing an eco-meet program.
Their services include “disposable-free” food and beverage catering, a menu that includes local, organic and seasonal cuisine (with vegetarian options for those opposed to meat-ings!), and paperless services such as a TV channel that offers information and updates to meeting delegates and the use of e-mail as much as possible to minimize use of paper. Meeting planners can choose how “green they want to go,” says White. Fairmont even offers the option of a completely carbon neutral event through the purchase of renewable energy certificates, which theoretically offset the greenhouse gas emissions generated from the event itself.
GreenBiz.com, which offers companies information and consultation on corporate sustainability practices, offers up such simple suggestions as using double-sided printing when paper is necessary, promoting free shuttles and public transportation when necessary rather than rental cars. Other options include seeking out spaces that offer natural lighting (rather than energy-wasting light bulbs in window-less rooms) and other eco-friendly practices.
Not too long ago, many companies balked when their employees suggested that they green their off-site conferences. So what’s changing their minds these days? The bottom line.
A growing number of companies are now beginning to realize that a greener conference is a leaner conference and that they can save money while saving the planet – and look like an eco-hero in the process.
Indeed, Meeting Strategies Worldwide provides bottom-line figures that can persuade even the most skeptical of CEOs.
Consider this: According to an MSW analysis, one client saved $25,000 simply by offering tap water in pitchers rather than bottled water; locating an event within walking distance of hotels not only reduces pollution from transportation but one client saved roughly $40,000 for a three-day conference for 1,300 attendees. There are also cost-savings from online registration instead of paper, printing and postage costs; sending leftover food to food banks and soup kitchens saves on landfill costs, and so on.
The National Recycling Committee offers a seven-page Green Meetings Policy that covers everything from using vegetable-based inks and mailing labels with water-based adhesives to reducing packaging of “giveaways” to eliminating non-reusable materials such as draping for tables.
If you’re sold on the idea of making your business convention an eco-friendly one, here are some places to start your research:
Meeting Strategies Worldwide: 503-252-5458, MeetingStrategiesWorldwide.com
Fairmont Hotels: 416-874-2415, Fairmont.com
National Recycling Coalition’s Green Meetings Policy: NRC-recycle.org
Leslie Garrett is a national award-winning journalist and author. Her book, The Virtuous Consumer: Your Essential Shopping Guide to a Better, Kinder, Healthier World (with a foreword by Peter Greenberg), will hit the shelves in July. Visit Leslie at Virtuous Consumer.com
For more green travel tips, check out our Responsible Travel section.
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