The Average U.S. meeting attendee, over the course of a three-day event, uses more than 2,000 BTUs of electricity, consumes more than 800 gallons of water, and generates more than 80 pounds of waste.

Even more stunning, according to the 2001 Environmental Protection Agency study upon which these statistics are based, during the course of those three days, that meeting attendee will account for the emission of more than 1,400 pounds of greenhouse gases — the amount a typical driver produces driving his or her car for a month.

Picture a conference of 500 attendees. Multiply that by the thousands of such meetings held around the world each year, and you start to see how huge a role the meetings industry plays in pushing the world toward what most experts agree is a looming environmental crisis.

“The environmental aspects [of meetings] have been invisible to us,” says Shawna McKinley, executive director of the Green Meeting Industry Council, Portland, Ore. “But people are becoming much more aware of it, and they are making the connection as to how the meetings industry plays a role.”

Global Warming's Devastating Effect

In the past century, Earth's temperature has increased by 1 degree Fahrenheit; this rise is expected to continue dramatically. The effect could be catastrophic, according to Jonathan Overpeck, director of the University of Arizona's Environmental Studies Laboratory in the Department of Geosciences, who, along with his colleague, Jeremy Weiss, has mapped simulations of what could happen to coastal communities worldwide as sea levels begin to rise because of global warming.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report earlier this year predicting that sea levels could rise 7 inches to 23 inches by 2100, enough to submerge low-lying areas such as New Orleans and cause major difficulties for Florida. Other scientists, such as those from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, have suggested that the emission of greenhouse gases has brought the Earth's climate to the brink of a critical tipping point that could see the disintegration of the Antarctic and Arctic ice sheets, raising sea levels more than 10 feet and causing unthinkable devastation.

While Overpeck thinks sea level will increase by no more than 1 meter (3.28 feet), he has mapped a variety of scenarios. In each, some of the nation's premier meeting and incentive destinations would be in peril: A 1-meter rise in the sea level would put Miami Beach, Fla., as well as much of the rest of Miami under water. On the West Coast, a 2-meter increase would submerge San Francisco's waterfront. In the Northeast, a 3-meter scenario would wipe out Boston's Back Bay and submerge Logan International Airport. (See maps, above.)

Global warming will affect many of the word's popular tourist and meeting destinations in other ways. A report from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Great Britain (commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature), predicts an increase in the number of days in the Eastern Mediterranean (areas such as Italy and Greece) where the temperature exceeds 40 degrees Centigrade (104 degrees Fahrenheit); the possible re-emergence of malaria in Spain; shorter ski seasons in the Alps, particularly in the lower-lying resort areas; and damage to coral reefs and wildlife in seaside destinations.

In its report, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also predicted that hurricanes will be more intense, which could have severe consequences for areas susceptible to these storms, including New Orleans, the state of Florida, and even lower Manhattan, which could be flooded by the storm surge from a powerful hurricane.

Air Travel: A Major Contributor

Air travel is a major topic in the global warming debate. While airline flights make up about 3 percent of manmade carbon dioxide emissions (a leading cause of global warming), jet airplanes also burn kerosene, which produces nitrous oxide and water vapor, both of which are believed to add substantially to global warming.

The effect of air travel on the atmos-phere is expected to increase, with predictions that the total number of people flying on an annual basis will double over the next two decades, according to Airports Council International.

Europe is leading the way in trying to reduce or mitigate airline greenhouse gas emissions. The European Commission is bringing air travel into its emissions trading system, under which emissions caps will apply to all flights within the European Union beginning in 2011, and will be extended to include international flights in 2012. Airlines that want to exceed those thresholds will have to purchase emissions allowances, the costs of which will probably be passed along to the consumer. In the United Kingdom, in an effort to curtail air travel and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the government recently increased a tax on airline flights by $20 to $80, depending on the length of the flight.

Here in the United States, Susan Gurley, executive director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, fully expects that “there will be taxation implications due to environmental issues” when it comes to air travel. That's OK, she says, as long as the industry has some say about where that money goes. “I don't want to see that money simply going into the general treasury.”

The resultant rise in air travel costs, particularly for long-haul flights, is likely to increase pressure on companies to reduce business travel or trip distance. Companies might think twice, for example, about incentive travel to Australia or Asia.

In fact, concerns about airline greenhouse gas emissions (as well as costs) already have some companies re-thinking their air travel. Last fall, Cisco Systems Inc., based in San Jose, Calif., introduced its Carbon to Collaboration initiative, a commitment to reducing carbon emissions by a minimum of 10 percent over the course of one year. At its foundation is a commitment to cut air travel, including travel to meetings, by 20 percent. “Instead, we are encouraging people to use our new TelePresence technology for smaller staff meetings,” explains Michele Snock, global manager of corporate meeting solutions at Cisco. According to Snock, this two-dimensional technology “lets you feel like you're sitting at the same table in the same room — you can even make eye contact.” Starting in August, she says, her department will be measured by how often it can influence internal customers to use TelePresence videoconferencing to replace meetings involving air travel.

Greener Hotels

Global warming mitigation efforts are slowly extending into the hotel industry, another contributor to greenhouse gases. Marge Anderson, associate director of the Energy Center of Wisconsin, in Madison, a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving energy sustainability, believes that in the not-so-distant future, hoteliers will be forced to pay taxes — a cost that no doubt will be passed along to consumers — based on the size of their environmental footprints.

A growing number of hotel companies are making significant changes to green their structures and their operations. Take Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, for example. Fairmont was one of the first companies to take a strong interest in environmental issues, from the development of its Green Partnership program in 1990 to the recent implementation of its Eco-Meet Program, which provides planners with a structure through which they can reduce waste and increase the environmental awareness of their attendees.

Fairmont is proof that being environmentally sensitive can help a company's bottom line. Michele White, director, environmental affairs for Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, points out that the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa in Sonoma, Calif., recently completed an extensive lighting retrofit, replacing 4,440 incandescent bulbs with energy-efficient fluorescent lighting. As a result, the hotel now saves more than 203,000 kilowatt hours of energy, a cost savings of $61,000 per year. The savings paid for the entire initiative in just two months, she says, and accounts for an annual reduction of 300,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.

Todd Jersey, principal of Todd Jersey Architecture, a green architectural firm in Berkeley, Calif., recently designed two California hotels, Gaia Napa Valley Hotel in American Canyon and the Atman in Anderson. Gaia Napa Valley has received Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council; the Atman is pursuing silver certification. What is noteworthy about these projects, Jersey says, is that “you can get a super-high-performance green building at a commercially affordable price. It's not rocket science, but it does involve a willingness to be disciplined and push the envelope when it comes to design.”

The hotels have dozens of green features, including solar electric systems, daylight in every space, passive heating and cooling strategies, high-performance insulation, a lagoon that provides habitat for native aquatic birds, an ozone laundry system, high-efficiency Mitsubishi “Citi-Multi” HVAC systems, Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood, dual-flush toilets and waterless urinals, and finishes with zero volatile organic compounds.

“One thing about green hotels,” says Jersey, “is that our indoor air quality is perfect, and everything smells, feels, and looks wholesome. It's a healing environment, restful and restorative. And the principles that are involved in building a hotel like this are exactly the same for a 1,350-room hotel as they would be for a 135-room hotel.”

Typical meeting venues are probably the worst offenders when it comes to keeping out natural light, which is unfortunate, Anderson says, because research shows that the use of natural light not only reduces energy consumption, but has a positive effect on human performance and productivity.

“We've lost about four generations of architects [who neglected natural light],” she says. “At one point we had architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, but since then we seem to have made an effort to keep natural light out of our learning spaces, and using natural light is the best way to harvest energy savings,” Anderson says. “How you orient a building on a site, where you put windows, all of this has a lot to do with energy performance.”

In the end, that translates into a smart business move. Both meeting planners and facilities need to be environmentally conscious not only for altruistic reasons, but also because it makes business sense, says Shawna McKinley. “Sometimes when we talk to companies, the best message is purely environmental, but for most, it's the business case — how implementing best practices can increase energy efficiency, or avoid waste — and in the end, reduce costs.”