Tracey Wilt, manager of global travel and meetings management for Xerox Corporation, Webster, N.Y. saved 9 percent of meeting spend at a sales and marketing meeting last October by eliminating bottled water, using recycled name badges, and reducing shuttle buses.

At Oracle’s OpenWorld 2008 conference in San Francisco, the company saved $89,250 by reusing banners from the conference at other events. Oracle also saved $60,000 by reducing shuttle buses, and $1.5 million by eliminating bottled water.

A large pharmaceutical company held a 110-person meeting in June, where 70 attendees opted out of receiving paper programs onsite. The initiative to go paperless saved $350 in addition to the associated environmental savings. The company also no longer provides bottled water at meetings, which saved roughly $500 at the June meeting alone. 

Dahlton Bennington, CMP CMM, director of business meeting services for Spherion Corporation, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., estimates that reusing name badge holders for a meeting with 100 attendees saves $50. “If you had 10 meetings in one year, you can save $500 off your meeting spend in name badge holders alone,” she says.

Hotels can also cash in on sustainable savings:
A 1,354-room hotel switched to florescent lights in all rooms and saved $51,000 a year in energy costs. (Efficient lighting uses about 75 percent less energy and lasts 10 times longer.)

A 300-room hotel that installs low-flow shower heads (reducing water flow from 3.5 gallons per minute to 2.5 gpm) can save a total of $35,478 annually through energy, water, and sewage reductions. (Source: Jeff Slye, hospitality specialist, iReuse LLC)