Sustainability is a complex subject—stirring many impassioned and philosophical discussions—since it affects all of us. The meetings industry doesn’t have it easy when it comes to protecting the environment. Just ask the hundreds of industry professionals who have helped create the soon-to-be released Green Meetings and Events Standards developed by the Convention Industry Council Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX) and ASTM International.

Events generate significant waste, greenhouse gases, and pollution. According to MeetGreen, a company that works with organizations to integrate sustainable practices into their events, a three-day conference with 300 attendees will create the waste equivalent of the mass of 33 small cars, use water resources that could fill half of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and create enough greenhouse gases to fill more than 25 million basketballs. Thus, meeting planners and suppliers are looking for guidance on how to create more environmentally sustainable events. 

The Business Case for Sustainability

There are good reasons for seeking this guidance. Aside from leaving a cleaner world for succeeding generations, being green is good for business, according to Scott Beck, president and chief executive officer of the Salt Lake City Convention and Visitors Bureau. A member of the Convention Industry Council Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX) Green Meetings and Events Practice Panel, Beck became motivated by what environmental sustainability could do for business when he worked at the Sundance Resort in Sundance, Utah. “It’s not burdensome or inconvenient,” he says. “Once it becomes standard operating procedure, you can see the business results.” 

Beck gets regular inquiries on how to measure a green meeting. “Right now, there are no standards. We need the equivalent of a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, a quantifiable measure from a respected neutral third party as to ‘how green was my meeting?’”

Help is on the way. The APEX Green Meetings and Events Practice Panel developed the first round of draft standards over a period of two years. The work of the Panel continues to serve as the basis for standards being co-created by APEX and ASTM International, one of the largest voluntary standards development organizations in the world, with over 30,000 members, through a comprehensive voluntary consensus process. If the next round of balloting is successful, APEX/ASTM Sustainable Meetings Standards could be available to meeting professionals by the end of 2010.

A Little History

The process of developing green meetings standards was initiated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in discussions with the Green Meeting Industry Council. The two organizations agreed that there was a tremendous need in the meeting and event industry for a uniform measurement of environmental performance. 

Back in 2007, EPA embarked on the path of developing American National Standards Institute–accredited standards to define sustainability in meetings and events as well as in the facilities in which they are held. ASTM is an ANSI-accredited organization, and, thus, was a logical body to work with on developing sustainability standards. “The government purchases a significant amount of conference space every year around the country,” notes an EPA spokesperson. “This includes accommodations used by attendees. To aid in the government’s efforts to procure ‘green’ goods and services—including conference space and lodging—we need information on the environmental performance of vendors.” The EPA wants to give government procurement officials the tools to judge a property’s level of environmental performance in order to make purchasing decisions. Meeting planners, on the other hand, can follow the management and operational practices described by the APEX/ASTM Environmentally Sustainable Meeting Standards to put on greener events.

“It was important to ensure the hospitality industry’s involvement in developing the standards, so the CIC’s APEX initiative was an obvious partner,” said Amy Spatrisano, CMP, principal of MeetGreen®, and a co-founder of GMIC. “APEX’s process mirrors the ASTM voluntary consensus process.” As the umbrella organization for the hospitality industry, the CIC was the natural place to bring together a unified industry effort. 

The APEX Green Meetings Panel was chaired by Spatrisano, and was composed of nine committees that considered specific areas of the meeting planning process: 

• Accommodations
• Audiovisual and Production
• Communications and Marketing
• Destinations
• Exhibits
• Food and Beverage
• Meeting Venues
• On-site Offices
• Transportation

The panel’s work involved more 300 people across nine time zones. “Our city discussion groups garnered input from around the globe—from Japan to Europe and beyond,” notes Spatrisano. Each committee had a broad range of representation throughout the industry, from both planners and suppliers. Although EPA’s primary focus is ensuring completion of the consensus development process through participation with ASTM, EPA representatives also participated in the APEX Green Meetings Panel. Each committee’s report included 35 to 40 pages of recommendations.

“APEX did the ‘heavy lifting’ to develop the drafts for ASTM balloting,” notes Dru Meadows, AIA, CCS, FCSI, theGreenTeam Inc., and chair of ASTM Committee E60 on Sustainability.

Next Page: Onward to ASTM, Comprehensive Standards-Setting System