The Dollars and Sense of Green Meetings

Most planners recognize the benefits of green meetings, but there are still many organizations asking -- and it’s a good question – “Do greener meetings cost more?” The answer is “no”. There are so many simple, easy solutions you can implement at your next event (even if it’s tonight) that won’t negatively impact the attendee experience or your bottom line. Research shows that in the long run organizations actually save money, a nice little bonus that we like to think of as accommodating both of our green senses. And if you think about it, it also makes common sense: reducing waste decreases costs. Implementing energy efficiency programs in hotels and convention centers, reducing the volume of printed conference materials, providing locally grown food or designing re-usable signage, all cut costs by reducing waste.

We applaud you if sustainable and green meeting planning practices are already a goal for your organization. It is great to see more and more industries realizing the importance of ecological responsibility and understanding the need to make a measurable contribution right now. For those of you who understand the importance of earth-friendly practices but have not implemented them, we applaud you too because you are taking the necessary steps to learn more. The good news is, there is so much information available on ways to create green meetings and we encourage you to seek out those resources and share your ideas with others. The more we learn and the more we implement sound, ecological solutions the sooner the earth and our bank accounts will realize the benefits.

• Use stations or pitchers (rather than individual bottles) to serve cold drinks like water and juice.
• Create reusable signs – An idea that one of our event planners implemented was creating signs that did not include the year of the event allowing our client to use the signs for many years to come. You can also give signs to schools to use for art projects.
• Donate food to local food banks or shelters.
• Don’t add ice to water glasses unless requested.
• Don’t use saucers under cups.
• Serve condiments in bulk containers (sugar, salt, pepper).
• Use erasable, reusable "white boards" instead of paper flip charts that are discarded after just one use.
• Recycle all paper, cardboard, plastic, glass and aluminum possible.
• Use local, organic and seasonal food whenever possible.
• Suggest using real china, glasses and utensils or biodegradable disposables.
• Collaborate with venue staff - The good news is many venues are or are working towards providing earth-friendly facilities and solutions and will be more than happy to work with you to achieve your green meeting goals. They understand first hand that greener meetings increase profits.
• When arranging for printing of collateral materials ask printers to use post-consumer recycled content paper, print on both sides and use vegetable-based inks.
• Go paperless whenever possible. For instance, CRG’s event registration technology allows us to send all event information, confirmation letters and receipts electronically, which makes life easier for our attendees and clients. It also dramatically reduces the resources used by saving on paper, envelopes and fuel costs required to deliver these items using USPS.