In a world where environmental sustainability is a hot-button issue, going “green” is increasingly important—as evidenced by some of the top leaders in our industry.
“I do not see green meetings as a trend or fad in our industry; I see it as a paradigm shift,” says Angela Gennari, CVO of VenueQuest, a global meeting and travel management company. “I believe that people are innately good, and that once we recognize a particular behavior as harmful or detrimental, we cannot as responsible human beings then turn our backs and continue those actions.
“I think that is the reason why so many people are changing their everyday behaviors and realizing that what may seem inconvenient at first, like recycling, quickly leads to acceptance and commitment. I have even been known to travel home with empty bottles or cans if my previous destination did not have recycling facilities!”
This conviction is echoed by Susan Sarfati, CAE, executive vice president of the American Program Bureau and principal of Beyond Excellent!, a company she formed a few months ago after leaving ASAE and the Center for Association Leadership. “Over the next several years, the ability to offer green meetings will become one of the most important factors in generating attendance, participant satisfaction and overall success of meetings,” she says. “The question is not whether or not to go green, but how to be the best at it so that attendees participate and evaluate your meetings well. It is simply a must for sustainability on our planet, for doing what is right, and for making solid business decisions.”
Scott Lindley, vice president of development for the Convene Green Alliance, cited a study by IMEX, an organization that holds a worldwide meeting industry exposition, that found 73 percent of meeting professionals would “deliberately avoid destinations and venues known to have a poor environmental record.”
Bruno Lunghi, CMP, vice president, event management for Marriott International, illustrated the challenge many meeting professionals face by quoting one planner who said, “I don’t have time to consider environmental options thoroughly or to figure it out. I want turnkey solutions from a trusted source that lets me know I’ve made the right decision.”
And, as Amy Spatrisano, CMP, principal of Meeting Strategies Worldwide and a leading advocate of green meetings, reports, “People are taking dif-ferent approaches to going green. All the large industry players are engaging at one level or another. What I am hearing recently from planners is their frustration when suppliers make green claims that don’t match their practices—essentially greenwashing.” (“Greenwashing” is a term used to describe the perception of customers that they are being misled by a company regarding environmental practices.)
She observes, “Meeting planners are hearing from properties about the wonderful things they say they are doing, but don’t know how to verify it.”
“Awareness of what options are out there is critical as planners evaluate potential destinations and properties,” adds Katherine Markham, CHME, co-founder of ConventionPlanit.com, an online search directory for the meetings industry. “We’re developing a ‘Green Friendly’ icon that will ap-pear on the listings of all companies that run environmentally sustainable programs. Clicking on the icon will display a summary of these programs.”
ConventionPlanit.com—also a comprehensive Web portal to the entire meetings industry—includes a section on green meetings in the “For Planners Only” section of the website, which is accessible to anyone. This includes links to all the organizations and resources cited in this article as well.
Communicating the Green Message
Because many green meeting practices are still new to attendees, communicating what is being done—and why—is critical to success. For ex-ample, if strategically placed water coolers with paper cups are replacing water bottles to save on plastic waste, explain this to meeting-goers.
The same is true for other changes that may affect the meeting experience, such as reduced shuttle bus schedules to save gas, different badge holders that are recyclable, fewer plates and dishes at meal functions to save on dishwashing, and so forth.
One hotel executive described a scene at a recent meeting where attendees complained about a new type of tray used at a buffet line. The next day, the meeting organizer put up signs explaining how the new tray was recyclable and that the change was made for environmental reasons.
The tone of conversation immediately turned positive. “People don’t want their comfort compromised for cost savings or environmental factors, so it is a balancing act,” says Marriott International Executive Vice President for Global Communications and Public Affairs Kathleen Matthews, who spoke on her company’s environmental efforts at a recent Convene Green event in Washington, D.C.
Even so, meeting attendees are willing to do things differently if they understand the reasons why. The key is to make changes for the right reasons–enhancing environmental sustainability–and not just to save money. Done well, these communications can even enhance the meeting experience, since attendees will know they are doing something important for the environment.
Green Leadership
Like most other initiatives in the business world, nothing really happens without leadership from the top. This is especially true with green meet-ings, where extra effort and creative planning are required to accomplish something that may not be critical to the bottom line but can support broader environmental goals.
In the book Simple Steps to Green Meetings and Events, authors Amy Spatrisano, CMP, and Nancy J. Wilson, CMP, tell the story of a corporate meeting where organizers successfully inspired attendees to purchase carbon offsets to benefit the environment.
During the opening session, a senior manager of the company announced that the conference intended to offset all the travel by attendees by selling carbon offsets for $15 per attendee. He explained that after the session he and other senior managers would purchase offsets at the kiosk in the main meeting area. When they did, they got a green sticker on their name badge. It didn’t take long for those wanting to impress senior management to purchase their offsets.
The organizers also set up screens in front of the session rooms with the names of those who had purchased offsets scrolling throughout the day. The conference now holds the record for the highest attendee participation the carbon offset provider has ever seen.
Likewise, if a meeting features a special work project with a local community organization to support environmental sustainability, the pres-ence of top company executives or top association elected leaders can help build participation and make them succeed. Efforts such as these demonstrate the power of leadership to support green initiatives.
A Green Sponsorship Idea
Wilson, the co-author of the book on green meetings, also gave an example on her blog about how green initiatives can open up sponsorship opportunities.
“They can really make a sponsor look good!” she says.
If your conference is giving out a USB key with conference presentations and handouts at registration, consider also having a “Refresh Sta-tion.” This sponsorship opportunity includes a central gathering area for participants to:
- Refresh their USB keys (at plug-in stations) and get the latest information posted from event speakers
- Refresh their bodies with fresh, hot coffee and cookies
- Refresh their laptops/cell phones with electrical outlets for recharging
- Refresh their minds by meeting new people and exchanging ideas at the tables
“It might even be a fun place to add a massage station!” Wilson adds.
Industry Green Standards
As green initiatives develop rapidly on many fronts, a lack of industry standards is making it difficult to measure their effectiveness and compare one program to another. “I believe confusion exists between both suppliers and planners, with planners being tasked to plan green meetings without having any context for what constitutes a ‘green meeting,’” says Sue Tinnish, director of the Convention Industry Council (CIC) Ac-cepted Practices Exchange (APEX). “Then planners approach suppliers asking for help with creating a green meeting and suppliers are in the same boat. Certainly they want to satisfy a customer and gain the business, but where do they turn to for green standards? The lack of standards leads to confusion and potentially greenwashing in the industry.”
Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approached the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC) to begin discussions about developing green standards. The EPA also asked ASTM International, one of the largest voluntary standards development organizations in the world, to develop an accredited industry standard.
EPA sought to institute a voluntary, market-based approach to environmental performance in the meetings industry. It also wanted to establish standards for environmentally preferable government-run meetings and conferences.
This led to a partnership between CIC and ASTM International to define what “green” means in the meetings industry. As a result, the APEX Green Meetings and Events Practices Panel (GMEPP) is developing baseline standards for organizations to produce meetings that achieve re-sponsible levels of sustainability. Spatrisano, the board chair of GMIC, an organization she helped create, is spearheading this effort.
APEX Commission Chair Terri Breining, explains, “APEX will create voluntary standards that the industry is hungry for. Creating green meeting standards that have wide acceptance within the meetings and events industry and beyond is critical to progress toward more envi-ronmentally-responsible meetings.”
Spatrisano has been actively engaging volunteers for the nine committees and various virtual and city discussion groups that will identify the best practices for the GMEPP. These committees include: Transportation, Accommodations, Meeting Venue, Exhibits, Food and Beverage, Communications, On-site Office, Destination and A/V production.
CIC sent out a survey several weeks ago as a “call for volunteers,” and more than 100 industry professionals responded. “We’re thrilled at the amazing response we’re getting from industry professionals to be involved in the process,” Spatrisano says. “A supplier told me recently he was impressed to see that the industry really is moving this forward. He said it gives him hope that green standards really will happen.”
Green Meetings: Saving the World?
It might be a stretch to think that green meetings can save the world, but they can certainly do their part. Angela Gennari of VenueQuest be-lieves, “Due to the scale and frequency of meetings, our industry has the ability and opportunity to create major change in the world by committing to environmental sustainability. I sincerely hope people will see that protecting the environment is not a simple choice, but rather a commitment to change. Environmental sustainability reaches beyond our industry, our country and even our continent. Our decisions today will determine the life that future generations will lead, and that is something that we cannot take lightly.”
Things may also change in the meetings industry itself. “Five years from now we might not be calling them green meetings anymore,” Spatrisano postulates. “They will just be meetings, and that will be the way we do business.”
Al Rickard, CAE, is president of Association Vision, a Chantilly, Va.-based communications company. He can be reached at arickard@associationvision.com.
Hotel Brands Are Going Green
Many hotel chains—both large and small—are going green. Here’s a rundown on what a few of them are doing:
Marriott International
Kathleen Matthews, executive vice president, global communications and public affairs, Marriott International, spoke at a recent Convene Green Forum in Washington, D.C. about how environmental sustainability is an integral part of the Marriott “Spirit to Serve” culture.
She chairs a Marriott Green Council that includes senior executives in each major operational area. This group guides the company’s environmental strategy.
Matthews observed that “more and more of our guests expect green accommodations—34 percent seek out hotels that are green, and 28 percent are willing to pay more for it.”
Marriott has a comprehensive environmental strategy that includes a goal to reduce fuel and water consumption by 25 percent by 2017. At least 250 of its hotels have earned the Energy Star designation from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The company has also directed its top 40 vendors to supply price-neutral greener products across 12 categories of its $10-billion supply chain, and hotel development partners are being empowered to design and construct new hotels according to green standards by updating Marriott design guidelines in line with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards by the end of 2009.
Marriott has also committed $2 million to fund an environmental management plan administered by the newly created Amazonas Sustainable Foundation that will help protect 1.4 million acres of endangered rainforest. Five percent of all meetings revenue that Marriott earns is donated to this initiative, and hotel guests can also purchase carbon offsets at Marriott properties to help fund the program.
Just a few months ago, Marriott launched an employee green meetings certification program, and as of early September, 525 Marriott associates had earned the certification.
In the food and beverage area, Marriott has a longstanding program to donate leftover food to America’s Second Harvest. Now it is developing a food and beverage product line that includes more organic products.
The company is also moving to use more sustainable fish and seafood resources. For example, Chilean sea bass has long been a popular fish because of its taste and versatility, but Brad Nelson, vice president, culinary for Marriott International warns, “It is a deep water fish and it won’t be around much longer” if hotels and restaurants don’t reduce their use of the fish.
Other initiatives include using farm-raised shrimp that is sustainable, cage-free eggs, and animals raised “naturally” without unnecessary drugs such as growth hormones. Hotel kitchens are also doing more cooking in batches to reduce food waste from leftovers. Excess food that cannot be delivered to Second Harvest is composted.
Hyatt Hotels & Resorts
Hyatt Hotels & Resorts has taken full advantage of the popular phrase, “Think Globally, Act Locally.”
The brand has intensified its focus on green initiatives in 2008 by establishing “Green Teams” in each of its full-service properties, recognizing the fact that effective environmental programs must be implemented at the local level.
“Every community is different when it comes to recycling and other environmental programs,” says Hyatt Corporate Director of Catering and Convention Services Amy Johnson. “The ideas that come from the Green Teams are the source of many of our best practices, and their contributions are critical to the success of our environmental initiatives.”
For example, Park Hyatt Toronto defers 85 percent of its waste from the local landfill, using other options such as recycling and composting. This exceeds the local requirement that 65 percent of waste be deferred. In Monterey, Calif. the culinary team at Hyatt Regency Monterey Resort & Spa is focused on safe fish farming. Hotels located near farmers often work with them to provide leftover food for composting. One hotel, Hyatt Regency Greenville, sends its food to a local egg producer who composts the food to produce chicken feed.
“Whatever we do in the green area has to be authentic, and the local programs meet that goal,” Johnson explains. At the same time, Hyatt has certain mandates from its corporate office that provides a strong framework for the local programs. For example, each Green Team must include representatives from each hotel division. Each food and beverage program must include some organic and locally grown components. Commodities such as soap, shampoo, and unused food are donated to local organizations and food banks that can use them.
Hyatt also has an enterprise-wide system to track energy, water and waste consumption. “We want to focus on things that can reduce the carbon footprint of meetings,” Johnson adds. “Eighty-five percent of waste coming out of hotels is water waste, so we want to do things that can reduce that.” These include programs such as offering guests the option of not washing towels and bed linens each night.
“We want to foster a culture of environmental consciousness among our associates, our guests and our business partners, and it’s working,” she says. “We encourage meeting professionals to ask detailed questions at the hotels and ask to see the back-of-the-house operations, loading docks, and so forth, so they can see how authentic the green programs are.”
Kimpton Hotels
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, a rapidly growing mid-size hotel chain, attributes much of its success to its environmental programs. During the past few years, Kimpton has consolidated many of the social responsibility programs from its individual properties into national branded programs. Kimpton’s “EarthCare” program includes efforts ranging from buying environmentally friendly cleaning products to starting up recycling programs in cities where none previously existed.
“EarthCare, as it exists in our hotels and restaurants today, is the evolution of all our past efforts.” says Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Steve Pinetti. “We were pretty aware and operating in a green manner even before the current green bandwagon kicked in.”
He reports that “many of our third party owners have insisted on developing green/LEED certified buildings” as they look at how their development efforts can have a positive impact on the planet. Many of the Kimpton Hotels are located in historic buildings that Kimpton refurbishes. “This allows us to maintain the inherent value of the initial structure while putting back into circulation a thriving new hotel and restaurant employing hundreds of local people,” Pinetti says. “Kimpton’s environmental policy and supporting practices have helped secure many new projects for Kimpton to develop.
“Even more important is serving the people who stay in our hotels. We conducted a guest survey that found 16 percent of guests stayed with us because of our environmental commitment. We were surprised at the findings, so we ran a second survey to substantiate it, and it came out the same. These travelers either worked for a company that mandated green travel or made a personal choice to do so. People today are going out of their way to spend their dollars with those businesses that share their same values.”
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., believes that economic growth and the well-being of society are inextricably tied to the health of the environment. The company embraces its responsibility for environmental stewardship and is committed to integrating environmental practices and sustainability principles into its core business strategy.
Through collaboration with hotel owners, franchisees, suppliers and business partners, Starwood is actively working to reduce the environmental impact of its business activities and continually improve and innovate on practices aimed at:
- conserving natural resources
- minimizing waste and pollution
- enhancing indoor environmental quality
- establishing and reporting on key environmental performance indicators
- raising environmental awareness among our associates guests and communities.
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts operates a Green Partnership program focused on operational sustainability. It includes operational improvements at the corporate level and at individual properties, and also innovative community outreach programs involving local groups.
Sustainability efforts encompass everything from reduced consumption of water and energy to recycling and diverting organic waste in hotel kitchens. They also include retrofitting energy-efficient lighting, purchasing green power and using alternative energy technology.
These and other efforts are led by the Fairmont Environmental Affairs Office and hotel-based Green Teams. Fairmont has also published a book, The Green Partnership Guide: A Practical Guide to Greening Your Hotel, now in its third printing . (The guide is available for purchase; contact environment@fairmont.com.) It’s a comprehensive how-to text for companies looking to green their operations.
-A.R.
Are You Really Paperless?
One of the most popular green strategies is for companies and associations to claim their meetings are “paperless.” But are they really paperless?
“My experience with paperless is that it becomes paperless to the organization but not paperless to the attendee,” says Marshall Lipson, managing director for professional development for the Society of Financial Service Professionals (FSB), Newtown Square, Pa. “There are on-site printers and people wait in line to print out materials.”
He views this as less than ideal and has done something about it for his meeting, the FSP Forum, which will draw about 750 attendees to Las Vegas this fall.
Three years ago, he contracted with a company called Digitell Inc., in Jamestown, N.Y., which recorded all conference sessions and then created CDs that combined session outlines, PowerPoint presentations and audio recordings. It was set up to allow atten-dees to go home and view the PowerPoints in a split-screen format that enabled them to take notes while viewing the presentation and listening to the audio.
That created a useful integrated resource that meeting attendees could access after the event that worked well for the first year, but Lipson wanted more. So he asked Digitell, “Why can’t we do this online in real time?” The company responded the following year by setting up a system that gave attendees the ability to view the split-screen format in the sessions and take notes on their laptops. FSP arranged for free Wi-Fi in every meeting room so they could access the program, and put powerstrips in every row so attendees could plug in their laptops. Digitell also provided technical experts to roam the meeting rooms to help attendees make the wireless connections and use the software.
Within seven days after the meeting, Digitell also sent audio CDs to attendees, who could synchronize this with their existing Power-Point presentations and notes.
The meeting didn’t feature any printers for attendees to print out outlines and PowerPoints, because FSP made these available online three weeks before the meeting so attendees could review them, decide which sessions to attend and print out any material they might need in advance.
“The first year, less than a third of the crowd tried it,” Lipson reports. “That was two years ago. About half of the crowd did it last year. The buzz is growing.We say that our meeting is truly paperless. We have not pushed the paper off on somebody else.”
This year FSP is also running a live Webcast just before the meeting to demonstrate the program online. “This will teach peo-ple to maximize what we mean by paperless,” he says.
RESOURCES FOR GREEN MEETINGS
The heightened focus on green meetings has spawned new organizations and many resources on the topic. Several are listed below:
The Convention Industry Council Green Meetings Task Force is working on industry best practices and standards for green meetings. Learn more at conventionindustry.org/projects/green_mtgs.htm
Want to benchmark your green initiatives against other industry events? Visit meetgreen.com, where you can use an online calculator to see how your meeting rates.
The Green Meeting Industry Council is leading the meeting industry in improving meeting management by supporting collaboration and the development and dissemination of resources and opportunities that improve the environmental performance of meetings and events. Check it out atgreenmeetingsinfo.
Want to join an online discussion on green meetings? Be sure to visit blog.meetingstrategiesworldwide.com, where Nancy J. Wilson, CMP, moderates a blog on topics ranging from best practices to future trends in green meetings.
The Convene Green Alliance is a grassroots environmental organization initiated by the association and meetings communities. It was formed in 2007 because “there was no place for associations to get together and develop environmental policies,” says Director of Development Scott Lindley. “It is also a forum for vendors to promote environmental programs to the association community.” Check it out at convenegreen.com
Looking to make your meeting or convention paperless? Be sure to read the Omnipress White Paper called “Debunking the Myths of the Paperless Conference.”
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System promotes sustainable green building and development practices. LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. Check it out at usgbc.org
Want to know what a “carbon offset” is and how it can help the environment? Find out at carboncounter.org
Green Seal is a nonprofit organization dedicated to safeguarding the environment and transforming the marketplace by promoting the manufacture, purchase, and use of environmentally responsible products and services. It certifies a wide range of products. Visit greenseal.org
Looking for green vendors in California? The California Green Special Events & Meetings Resource Directory, also known as the CAL Green Pages, is a directory for the green market in California. Find it at cal-greenpages.com
Need a detailed approach on how to run green meetings? Check out the book, Simple Steps to Green Meetings and Events, authored by Amy Spatrisano, CMP, and Nancy J. Wilson, CMP, and published in 2007.
The green meetings area is a rapidly evolving field. But the Convention Industry Council Green Meetings Report, published in 2004, still contains valuable information and guidance. Find it at
conventionindustry.org/projects/green_meetings_report.pdf