Portland, Oregon

Did you know that Oregon is the only state in the United States to have passed a Sustainability Act, requiring businesses to adopt sustainable approaches? You’ll never have to ask for no polystyrene at your meetings—it’s against the law in Portland.

Portland’s Oregon Convention Center has been awarded the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) Existing Building rating. The center purchases 39 percent of its power from renewable sources and recycles an average of 48 percent of its waste.

Portland is home to three Green Seal–certified hotels and many others that practice recycling, energy efficiency, and water conservation. Travel Portland is one of the most sustainable CVBs in the world, with its own internal green team.

San Francisco, California

The city of San Francisco has a long history of being green. The city has a convenient transit link between the airport and the convention core. It has a highly walkable downtown. Laws ban plastic bags, mandate recycling, and promote green purchasing.

San Francisco’s Moscone Center has been an innovator in sustainable convention center management. The center achieves an average recycling diversion of over 60 percent through the operation of a sophisticated composting, recycling, and community donation program; generates a portion of its own energy from a solar power array on the roof of the building; purchases food locally where possible; and follows sustainable seafood guidelines. The city’s hotel community also has created the unique non-profit collaborative to provide donations to local community service organizations.

Banff/Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada

Banff/Lake Louise has a highly developed green meeting infrastructure for recycling, composting, and hybrid transit. The CVB offers green education programs for the hospitality industry and has created research papers on sustainable meetings, which are made available to CVB members. The CVB also helps prepare suppliers to cater to green requests by conducting focus group research about the attitudes and practices of planners.

Source: Meet Green

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