Sustainable Meeting Guide

Created by:

Cody Buchholz, Caleb Clapp, & Jesee Elhardt

 Recapitulation
Being able to conceptualize, design, coordinate, and
execute a sustainable meeting or event will highlight
your name as an event planner in this day and age.
Understanding the detailed logistics behind
implementing a zero waste and sustainable event are
the key aspects that will be focused on in this guide to
creating sustainable events.

“Problems can not be solved at the same level of awareness that created
them”
~Albert Einstein
 Highlights
—Transformation of green meetings

—Value’s of stakeholders and why

—Important Definitions

—Leaders in Sustainability
 Sustainability
Significance to meeting and event planning:

An event has the capability of serving tens to hundreds of thousands of

individuals. When working with such numbers it is important to understand
your environmental impact. Understanding the significance of sustainability
and how to efficiently and effectively utilize all available resources is
necessary to reduce the environmental footprint of a meeting or event.

E.g.

The Orchard Garden Hotel in San Francisco.

“The innovative Orchard Garden Hotel, was the first of its kind in the state
(and third in the country) to receive the prestigious LEED certification. With a
pleasant palette of pale yellow and seafoam green, light wood furnishings and
marble bathrooms, the hotel affords all high-end perks (plush robes, flat-screen
TV, CD and DVD players, minibar, iPod dock), while implementing environmentally-
friendly programs like an energy-control key card system, soy-based ink,
chemical-free cleaning products and recycled stationary to preserve the
environment.”

~Forbes Travler
 Elucidation
Sustainability:

1: capable of being Sustained

2 a: of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so

that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged. b: of or relating to a
lifestyle involving the use of sustainable

Social Responsibility: is an ethical or ideological theory that an entity whether it is a

government, corporation, organization, or individual has a responsibility to
society.

Green Meeting: Purposefully reducing the amount of waste created by an event.

Corporate Social Responsibility: Economic, social, environmental. (CSR), is a

voluntary commitment to behave ethically in corporate citizenship, to honor
responsibilities in economic, business capital, human capital, and natural capital.
Today businesses that imbed CSR as a value into their organization make decisions
that end up in a triple bottom line.

Sustainable Development:Organizations that imbed CSR into their core culture

provide a structure for SD. Meets the needs of the present without compromising
the needs of the future.
 CSR Proven Possible
Company: Better Energy Systems

Purpose: A leading manufacturer of portable renewable energy products, committed to using the most effective
means to develop and distribute environmentally conscious products to the global economy.

Priorities: “Our focus is to stimulate the imagination of the modern consumer by developing products and
methodologies that we hope will broaden our sphere of influence with the mobile consumer; broadening
their perception of renewable technology and making Better Energy a way of life for everyone.

Internal Practices: B.E.S. has the following employees and organizational structure listed on their website. The
founder and CEO, Christopher Hornor, the Director of R&D David Fowler, the operations and Finance Director
Ian Leader, and the Director of Sustainable Technologies Lorenzo Falzarano MSc. After reading about each of
the listed personnel, I have determined that in the management structure of the company, they have strong
retention in employees. Each employee has multiple years of experience in the field that they are in and
came to B.E.S. to help change the world. There is not information on the inner workings of the firm located
on their website.

External Practices: Overall B.E.S. is a business, and they are trying to make money. Because the company is a
development firm and they are not a direct retail outlet they work primarily with distribution to retailers.
“We support our partners with, sales and marketing support, training, technical support, and more.” It
considers its distributors as partners, and works to compliment the business structure.

Projections: The name is Better Energy Systems, in the name it indicates what the firm is trying to do within
the market.
 Green Meetings and Implications
A Green Meeting:
Is a premeditated effort to reduce the environmental
impact of a meeting or event.

Business sense:
Businesses gain an advantage by implementing
environmentally responsible events. By striving to
minimize an event’s ecological footprint you create
goodwill and a good reputation for your company as a
socially responsible organization.
 Standards
BS-8901
-First Event Standard

Comprehensible format designed to identify and target

ideas to work on to create more sustainable events

Incorporates the financial, environmental, and social

aspects of a green meeting or sustainable event.

Based off of three phases:

Planning
Implementation
Monitor Check Review
 The First Steps
What are the steps to getting started in incorporating and implementing
green meeting practices?

Step 1: Establishing your organization’s commitment to greening is crucial to how successful your
efforts will be.

Step 2: Develop minimum guidelines to incorporate in your meetings. Criteria should be created for
all vendors used.

Step 3: Emphasizing communications. Expectations for your meeting can only happen when there is
clear communication, especially if greening practices are new.

Step 4: Negotiating green practices.

 Selling Yourself
How will you sell or convince your clients to green their meetings?

— You need to emphasize the idea that without going green, or at least beginning to implement green
practices, your business will be out of date, and will not be part of the newest, most beneficial
trend in the industry. Stress the ideas of better business practices, suggest the idea of hiring a
going green consultant to help you transition, explain the idea that more money will be spent now
on becoming green, but if properly done, the long run returns for monetary and environmentally
will be plentiful.
 Converting Your Suppliers
What steps will you take to convince suppliers to support the green meeting
practices?

— Develop supply chain management approaches that will encourage

suppliers to improve the environmental quality of their products and
services over time. Form working relationships with other public authorities
as well as with suppliers to generate better environmental performance
over time. Develop markets for sustainable goods and services through
market development.
 Green Suppliers
How would you find information on green suppliers?

— I checked out the website www.greensuppliers.gov, and found an abundance of

information regarding the availability of green suppliers, and even information on how
to transition your company to becoming a green supplier.

— Green Suppliers Network reviews can help you:

— Find customized solutions to your manufacturing challenges
— Save money and increase capacity
— See immediate results through hands-on training on the shop floor
— Achieve additional savings and efficiencies beyond traditional lean techniques
— Improve supply chain relationships
 Destination
3 factors to consider in evaluating the environmental
aspects of a destination.

-Surrounding amenities (hotels, transportation, food)

-Access to products and local services
-Surrounding parks, mountains, oceans
 Destination Decision Making
What value would you place on whether the destination has existing green
practices, or is at least willing to implement green practices for the
meeting?

— Personally, I would be happy with either:

— Most likely I would lean towards the idea of a place that is willing to implement green
practices. The goal here is to incorporate as many people and businesses as possible with the
idea of going green and the use of sustainable practices.
 Food & Beverage
— Here are just a few examples of what you can do to make an
event greener:

— Choose not to serve individual water bottles

— Choose food that is in season
— Choose seafood from sustainable fisheries
— Choose food based on the history of attendees’ preferences and attrition
— Choose china service
— Purchase organic and or local products if possible
— Request minimal packaging on all food products
— Purchase/Use environmentally responsible cleaning products
— Reduce/Reuse/Recycle
 Accommodations
What are two common green requests to make to a hotel?
— Linen and towel reuse program, and in-room energy savings program.

Who from the hotel should be included from the beginning when
requesting green practices?
— Accommodations personnel, housekeeping staff, operations, food and
beverage managers.

What should you do to ensure the green practices that the hotel
agreed to will be implemented?
— Environmental management program or certification.
 Accomplishing a Sustainable
Hotel
— It is more simplistic than you might think to go green with your hotel

— First the idea must be accepted from the top down, from the GM all
the way to the receptionist

— Then policies must be put in place for the use of new “green”
products and procedures as well as the initiation of employee
training

— Only offer local in season produce and hire locally as well as

outsource locally

— Provide the option of alternate fuel shuttles for guest and employees
 Green Venue
— Discuss your green meeting plans with event coordinators
ASAP for the best chance of actually achieving your goals

— Once the ball is rolling make check ups often to make sure all
preparation is moving according to plan, star in the back of
the house to make sure all food is being disposed of properly
and water is used sparingly
 Transportation
—Make alternative fuel transportation available
—Provide walking distance maps to guests to make
walking and biking more appealing
—Contract with eco-friendly taxies and shuttles to
maximize the chances that guests will use them
—Carbon offset programs are very important in order to
neutralize any green house gas emmitions
 Communications
—Green A/V is required in the form of: energy efficient
lighting, recycling batteries and paper programs, etc.

—Green A/V equipment is not only energy efficient it is

also very cost effective
Paper and Printing Considerations
— Print on recycled paper

— Design brochures/flyers/paper media to conserve paper

— Print double sided

— Avoid printed materials if information can be electronic

— Use vegetable inks or inks with a lower VOC (Volatile Organic

Compounds)

— Let people know that your printing on recycled paper and using
vegetable ink or inks with a lower VOC
 Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is energy that is generated from natural
resources – such as sunlight, wind, rain, ties, and
geothermal heat.

Having a renewable energy source provided at a venue is

one of the more difficult tasks for an event planner, but
as businesses and organizations become increasingly
aware of the need to be sustainable, more and more
opportunities are becoming available.