A recent survey of the readers of Financial & Insurance Meetings revealed that industry planners are personally committed to green meetings and events, but their companies are slower to get on board.

While 35 percent of respondents are in the process of developing green guidelines for meetings and events, and 17 percent already have companywide environmental policies that include green guidelines, 30 percent said that environmental issues are not currently a priority for their companies, and 17 percent said that their company’s environmental policies do not cover green meetings.

Asked if a hotel’s corporate environmental policy plays any role in their site selection process, 47 percent of respondents said yes—but they don’t specifically ask about it. Another 47 percent said it does not play a role. Only 5 percent said that they include green questions on their requests for proposal.

However, environmental issues are top of mind for both planners and attendees. Asked if they personally make an effort to go green when planning meetings and events, 72 percent of respondents answered yes. And 70 percent said that they think their meeting attendees are very or somewhat aware of the environmental impact of air travel and hotel stays.

The e-mail survey of 709 FIM magazine readers was conducted by the Penton Media Research Department from March 7, 2008, to March 18, 2008. It generated 40 complete surveys, an effective response rate of 6.6 percent.