Green Meeting Trends

Green Meetings Evolve When it comes to green meetings, George Gay wrote the book. Or at least the RFP. As CEO of First Affirmative Financial Network, in Colorado Springs, Colo.,... Shades of Green for Financial and Insurance Planners 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.... Carbon Neutral Events Reduce what you can, offset what you can't. Meeting professionals are using this environmental strategy to move toward carbon-neutral events.... Meetings’ Environmental Impact To fight global warming, companies need to re-think how and where they meet....

Green Practices at Large Conventions PAINT A PICTURE IN YOUR MIND of 5,000 pounds of glass, plastic, and metal. That's what is recycled each week at the Hilton San Francisco. Now imagine... Sustainable Meetings We sat down with Shawna McKinley, executive director of the Green Meeting Industry Council, to talk about what's happening now and what's on the horizon for her organization.... Special Events Go Green Organic Catering

Case Studies

Building a Greener Company Inspired by Al Gore's passion to fight climate change, this global events company is scrutinizing its office operations and even its deaings with clients to ensure that it leaves a amaller environmental footp... Sun Microsystems’ Eco Responsibility Initiative What's Good for the environment is imperative for business. That axiom is a driving force behind computer technology giant Sun Microsystems' Eco Responsibility...

Conference Green Initiatives from the Society of Incentive and Travel Executives The Society of Incentive & Travel Executives is planning its first green International Conference in Monterey, Calif., December 6-9. Among the steps the... Zero-Waste Meeting: Professional Convention Management Association 2007 For the Professional Convention Management Association, the 2007 annual meeting, held in Toronto January 7 to 10, marked a series of firsts. It was the...

Green Venues

Green Cuisine: Questions to Ask Cabrin Kelly-Hale, a 28-year hotel catering veteran, joined the JW Marriott Starr Pass in Tucson as director of event planning during the resort's pre-opening... Hotels Go Green With some major exceptions, the hotel industry has been criticized for being slow to adopt an eco-friendly business approach. That is no longer the case.... Finding a Green Venue When Maja Leibovitz, president and CEO of Serious Celebrations, a New York-based event-management company, was asked by a financial services client to... Greening the Hotel Contract CLAUSE: Green Your Hotel Group expects Hotel will identify, recommend, and use as many environmentally responsible practices as possible and feasible... Green Restaurants A growing number of restaurants more than 1,000 in 23 states are earning certification through The Green Restaurant Association, a nonprofit environmental... Green Venue News In keeping with this issue's green theme, first up are facilities that have helped to green meetings through land and resource use or energy-saving programs,... Sustainable Exhibit System The debut of Eco-Systems Sustainable Exhibits captured the Buyer's Choice Award at the Exhibitor 2007 trade show in Las Vegas in March. This portable,...

Conference Centers Go Green The International Association of Conference Centers in late June commissioned a Green Task Force to educate and inspire member conference centers to conserve... Fairmont’s Eco Meet Program Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has rolled out Eco-Meet, a program option for customers who want to green their events by using nondisposable items during meetings... Carbon Neutral Airlines Even airlines are getting into the green movement. Silverjet, a new British airline that launched at the start of the year, bills itself as the first carbon-neutral airline... Recycled Exhibit Carpeting Freeman, the Dallas-based exhibition services giant, has recycled more than 1 million square yards of used aisle carpet as part of a pilot program begun...

Checklists and Tips

Eco-Friendly Meals Organic Food has moved away from its hippie associations and into upscale supermarkets, acclaimed restaurants, and, yes, even catering. In many cases,... Easy Ways to Go Green The more you integrate environmental steps into your planning practices, the easier they become. Here are nine easy ways to go green: Create Standards... Green Meetings Checklist Request basic recycling (paper, plastic, glass, and cans) and visible bins at hotels and convention centers. Require a linen and towel reuse program at...

EPA Site Selection Checklist The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has changed the rules under which it decides which facilities to use for meetings; it will now include environmental... How to Stay Green on the Road Randal Savage, corporate director, rooms, at Starwood Hotels and Resorts, White Plains, N.Y., has seen and heard it all. ... Assess Your Eco Impact Environmental meeting planning company Meeting Strategies Worldwide has launched a Web-based tool, the MeetGreen Calculator, which measures more than...

Learning to Go Green

Green Meetings Call to Action: FICP Webinar Concern about the environment, and a realization that going green makes business sense, are driving the robust trend toward green meetings.... Green Build Best Practices International Association of Conference Centers Seminar... Green Learning Lab at Meeting Professionals International PEC-Europe Using its recent Professional Education Conference–Europe as it resource laboratory, Meeting Professionals International has released a white paper that, it says, reaffirms the impact effective “learning” meetings have on ROI for both the meeting planner and the attendee.... IMEX Green Winners Last week, IMEX, the incentive and meeting exhibition, drew 3,500 hosted buyers to Frankfurt, Germany. ...

Association of Corporate Travel Executives Reduces Carbon Emissions The Association of Corporate Travel Executives is leading the way in reducing carbon emissions among travel industry associations. It is partnering with... Green Meeting Industry Council Best Practices Report There's no question that 2007 is the year of the green meeting. To lead the charge, the Green Meeting Industry Council has released The Future Is Green:... Green Power Seminar at Motivation Show Motivation Show week began with a Monday evening celebration for the CMI 25, the kickoff for this magazine's list of the 25 most influential meeting and...

Associations and Government Resources

• Green Meeting Industry Council
• Ocean Blue Foundation/BlueGreen Meetings
• EPA Green Meetings Resources
• Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions
• Convention Industry Council Green Meetings Report
• Special Events' Green Events