Any planner who wants to specialize in green meetings has some research to do. There are so many ways to “go green” it’s difficult to keep track of them all long enough to decide which ones will apply in each situation. However, there are some basics that can help you keep your ideas organized and give you a way to build a large file on green meetings–paperless, of course.
First, let’s divide ideas into four categories. The three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), automation, waste impact, and community impact. You can easily reduce waste by requiring advertisers to offer reusable items, like water bottles, grocery sized canvas bags, reusable coffee mugs with lids, etc. This will reduce the use of throw-away plastic bottles and cardboard cups. Ask that the materials used are made from post-consumer waste, and this should also go for any printed material (which will also be recycled locally). You can also request that handouts be delivered electronically as well, or provided on portable digital media.
Automation is critical to the elimination of waste. In a day and age when the average person can book entire vacations online in minutes, you as a meeting planner have no reason to do anything less. Use sites that are created specifically for planners, and disseminate your information to all concerned with the conference digitally. If you can’t send everything by email and attachments, there are several sites where you can post PDFs and other materials for people to download.
Reduce travel to and from the conference center to hotels and restaurants. Since smart convention center planners put their facilities close to accommodations this should be easy, but remember that sometimes timing is everything. Make plans as soon as you can. You should also make efforts to choose the greenest accommodations, and request that hotels give you information on their environmental footprint.
Require the conference facility to provide recycle containers for all potential waste, which should be minimal due to your other preparations. Also see if you can donate any of the leftover materials to the local community.
When the event is over, do some research to see what kind of impact you had. How much did you throw into landfills? How much did you give to the community? How much money did you save the client? And so forth. Create a report and give it to the participants, lecturers, and sponsoring group, with a statement of how you can do even better next year. They may thank you for helping them improve their green image by using your services next time.
