Going Green To Do List
By Lori Hill
The first question that most clients will ask when you suggest going green is, “How much will it cost?” In many instances, it will save you money such as reduced costs for printing handouts and creating less signs. You can also stress to clients that it is the socially responsible thing to do.
Green can also be a selling point when promoting your event to the media (be sure to list all of your green initiatives in your press release!). Finally, depending on the nature of the event, a green event can be a natural fit (e.g. my children’s music festival is a natural fit for a green event since we need to ensure that we leave a nice Earth behind for our kids!).
When planning meetings and events for clients, I’m now encouraging them to go green with their venue and menu selections, among other things ISES (International Special Events Society) is instituting green initiatives for its annual conference held each August.
Green Venues
Before selecting your hotel, be sure to select one that has an airport that is accessible via mass transit and be sure to inform your attendees about those options. For guests who must fly and feel guilty about the carbon emissions (don’t we all?), they can offset those carbon emissions through many organizations including www.terrapass.com
If you are holding your meeting/event at a hotel, there are two chains (that I’m currently aware of) that already have established green standards: Kimpton and Fairmont. If neither of these are an option, visit one of these websites to find a green hotel near your locale:
www.environmentallyfriendlyhotels.com
Many hotels are in the process of establishing green initiatives, so be sure to ask them what practices they have in place or are planning to institute.
If a venue doesn’t offer the services you are looking for, negotiate to include them in your contract. Green services that hotels and meeting venues are offering these days include:
- A reuse-your-towel program and the option to have your bed linens changed every 3 or 4 days
- Low flow shower heads in sleeping rooms
- Programmable thermostats
- Energy efficient light bulbs
- Lighting systems equipped with motion sensors
- Environmentally friendly cleaning products
- Environmentally friendly personal products (e.g. Aveda or Burt’s Bees) which are then donated
to shelters - Paper collection bins in meeting and sleeping rooms
- Hanger recycling program for dry cleaning
- Cloth napkins vs. paper napkins or environmentally friendly alternatives
- Filtered water served in glasses vs. bottled water
- Condiments, beverages, and other food items are provided in bulk instead of individually packaged
So why are these initiatives so important? Obviously, the reuse your towel and bed linen programs and low flow shower heads conserve water. As the citizens in Atlanta will tell you, our water supply everywhere is shrinking every day. So we need to conserve it at all times.
Programmable thermostats, energy efficient light bulbs (CFLs) and motion sensors all reduce energy use which in turn reduces carbon emissions and lowers energy costs.
Environmentally friendly cleaning and personal products prevent harsh chemicals from entering the environment and your body.
Paper collection bins enable you to recycle all that paper – newspaper, office paper, cardboard, etc. – that you collect and use during your stay. According to the National Recycling Coalition:
- Americans throw away enough office paper each year to build a 12-foot high wall of paper from New York to Seattle
- Making paper from recycled paper reduces contributions to air pollution by 95%
- Recycling a stack of newspapers just 3 feet high saves 1 tree
On a similar note, it is better to recycle dry cleaning hangers vs. using energy and resources to make new wire hangers and more trees to make the paper covers.
Cloth napkins are the better alternative vs. paper because if one person uses just one paper napkin at each meal, that is 1,095 paper napkins in the trash each year – for just one person! Think of all the trees that were used to make those napkins. So cloth napkins, please!
Bottled water is downright bad for the environment. According to the Earth Policy Institute, 1.5 million barrels of oil are used each year to make plastic water bottles. Furthermore, they fill up our landfills (since not everybody recycles), create air pollution (from the trucks that transport the bottles) and aren’t always chemical and bacteria free.
A UCLA study showed that United States tap water was just as safe, if not more than, bottled water and besides, 25-40% of all bottled water in the United States, including some major brands, is made from tap water!
On a similar note, think of the energy used to create all those individual condiment packets and the waste created from the ones – used and unused – thrown into the trash which creates more volume in our landfills. Bulk is the better option.
Lori Hill is president of the environmentally friendly firm lori hill event productions, Inc. in Burtonsville, MD. Hill has been a member of ISES for more 12 years and currently sits on its International Board of Governors. Visit www.lorihillevents.com to contact her.
Here is the site to solve your eco related queries
http://www.ecogreenhotel.com
Posted by: Scott Parisi | October 08, 2009 at 03:25 AM