Environmental concerns became part of America’s consciousness as early as 1970, marked by the first Earth Day. But after that early exuberance, interest and commitment waned.
Today, eco-awareness has returned with a vengeance -- partly due to the recent fluctuations in petroleum prices and a public focus on climate change. Personal commitments to conserve resources have led to pressure on businesses across the board to show their environmental allegiance.
Companies and institutions are feeling the heat, both internally and externally. Corporate and public leaders want high sustainability marks. Consumer are starting to look for assurances that they are patronizing a “green” establishment and purchasing sustainable products.
A critical initiative within the hospitality industry involves “Green Meetings,” an effort to reduce the amount of resources -- energy, water, food, paper products -- consumed during events and conventions. Many meeting planners and organizations are including RFPs clauses that ensure a supplier’s commitment to “going green” before booking an event. You can see a sample clause here.
Below is a best practices to help align your company with the Green Meetings initiative.
Paying Down the Carbon Debt. If you are congregating a number of people for a conference or convention, you are, by definition, increasing greenhouse gases as people fly and drive to your event. And, while they're at your meeting, attendees will consume many megawatts of electricity and produce enormous amounts of waste.
The latest trend is for meeting organizers and sponsors to offset those easily measurable carbon emissions by purchasing or investing in carbon-offset projects. These include renewable energy, energy-efficiency, or reforestation projects in the U.S. and developing countries. There are a number of sources to research and purchase carbon offsets, including:
Going Local. There are at least thirteen states that currently have some form of green lodging program, or post helpful information for hoteliers. You can search under “green lodging - state name” for specifics.
California
Maine
Pennsylvania
Wisconsin
Delaware
Michigan |
Rhode Island
Florida
New Hampshire
Vermont
Hawaii
North Carolina
Virginia |
Two trendsetting states in the environmental arena are Florida and California. Florida has developed an interactive tool that breaks out best practices by zones on a hotel site. To see this tool, go to www.treeo.ufl.edu/greenlodging/
California’s program is detailed on the website www.ciwmb.ca.gov/EPP/greenlodging/
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Additional reading and resources:
Green Hotels – Benefits to your bottom line
www.greenhotels.com
Government of Canada http://international.gc.ca/foreign_policy/ees/EnvironMan/system/greenop/greenmeeting/annex-en.asp
Environment Canada Greening Meetings Downloadable, Customizable Guide www.atl.ec.gc.ca/greenman/manual.html
Convention Industry Council Green Meetings: www.conventionindustry.org/projects/green_mtgs.htm
David Suzuki Foundation: www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/What_You_Can_Do/carbon_neutral_events_2.asp
Fast Company 50 Ways to Green Your Company
www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/50-ways-to-green-your-business.html