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Introducing Meet Green! June 2003 Newsletter
Welcome to MEET GREEN!
Ocean's Blue Foundation's quarterly e-newsletter in support of BlueGreen Meetings
June 2003
Not a subscriber? Send an email to sails@oceansblue.org, and include "subscribe" in message Subject Header. To unsubscribe please reply to sails@oceansblue.org.
INDEX OF ARTICLES:
1. Simple Ways to Give Back
2. Going Green Part of a Total Quality Culture at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre
3. Featured Tip: The Power of the RFP
4. Featured Online Resource: Ecolabels for Hotels
Green Seal - Greening the Lodging Industry (USA)
HAC Green Leaf Eco-Rating Program (Canada)
Meet Green! is a quarterly e-newsletter related to the greening of the meetings and events industry. Meet Green! is compiled and distributed for the information of meeting planners, hosts and suppliers who are interested in contributing to a more environmentally and socially responsible meetings and events industry. For further information on Oceans Blue Foundation's BlueGreen Meetings Initiative please visit: www.bluegreenmeetings.org. For content submissions please contact sails@oceansblue.org.
Meet Green! is supported by the Bullitt Foundation, Canadian Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaux, Canadian Pacific Charitable Foundation, Canadian Tourism Commission, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus, IMEX, Tourism British Columbia, Tourism Vancouver, United States Environmental Protection Agency and Vancouver Foundation.
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ARTICLES:
1. Simple Ways to Give Back
Louise Hall Reider believes that one person can make a difference to the global community and through her Programmes of Purpose is aiming to provide inspiration for creating meeting and incentive programmes that give back to communities.
Past President of the Society of Incentive & Travel Executives and a 20-year incentive industry executive, Louise Hall Reider is the Owner of LHRco, a company that is dedicated to designing and delivering meeting and incentive programs with an emphasis on incorporating a community service aspect.
"There is a whole generation of decision-makers, companies, meeting attendees and guests for whom social responsibility issues are important," she says. Hall Reider cites examples such a meeting program in San Diego in which a corporate group activity was to assemble bicycles which were then given to less fortunate children.
Another example includes the Responsible Tourism in Destinations Conference, held in August 2002 in Cape Town, South Africa, in preparation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. In keeping with the 'responsible' theme of the meeting, delegates were provided with locally-made gifts from recycled materials, including conference bags, beaded name badge holders and business card cases. Local crafters were invited to sell wares at the event, which also featured off-site trips to community development projects in nearby townships, including schools, women's craft cooperatives, migrant worker museums, and wetland conservation projects.
Hall Reider indicates one of the first steps in creating a successful and purposeful community service project for your next meeting is to first review the mission of the host organization, goals of the meeting and nature of the meeting audience, "That will help to identify which types of community service projects are most appropriate".
A meeting of an energy utility might be well suited to a tree-planting project to offset emissions associated with their conference, while an educators' convention might be receptive to supporting a book sale to raise funds for local literacy projects. Similarly an aviation association gathering may present opportunities to visit or contribute to a bird recovery or research center.
To help meeting planners integrate social and environmental responsibility into their next event, Hall Reider has identified the following 10 Simple Ways to Give Back:
1. Make your project appropriate for both the giver and the receiver. It is easy to make an international "faux pas", so work closely with your local contacts.
2. If your host company supports a specific type of community initiative, work to incorporate that. For example, if your company works with a particular charity already, try to partner with them.
3. Find out what is really needed and where you can make the biggest difference. For example if you are supporting a local school, find out if they need supplies, or a cash donation.
4. Paint or construct a house for "Habitat for Humanity", or a similar community initiative (www.habitat.org).
5. Organise a silent auction to raise funds for local causes.
6. Support environmental initiatives and try to recycle or conserve. For example, use re-useable floral centerpieces and donate left over materials to schools, seniors homes or other agencies that can use them.
7. Honour meeting participants with a donation in their name to a local environmental cause, such as adopting an at risk species, purchasing a piece of an endangered ecosystem or planting a tree.
8. Purchase gifts through local and fair trade charitable organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, Sierra Club, www.tenthousandvillages.com and www.unicef.org.
9. Give donations to charities in client's or employees names over the holidays.
10. See if there is a local children's music or dance troupe that would consider a small performance at your meeting in exchange for a donation to their scholarship fund.
For more information about Programmes of Purpose contact LHRco at (425) 450-8800.
2. Going Green Part of a Total Quality Culture at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre
Although one might first think the 'colour' of Scottish culture is found in its heather hills and tartan kilts, at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre the colour of the culture is found everywhere - and it is definitely green.
Congress centers have key opportunities to reduce environmental costs associated with meetings and realise economic savings, through reduced energy, water and paper consumption and the reduction of waste. For the EICC these opportunities have gone a bit farther than providing the standard recycling bins at conference functions.
A sampling of greening efforts undertaken by the Centre since its opening in 1995 include:
· Providing guidelines to each client that include a section on environmental issues which asks them to assist the EICC by reducing, reusing and recycling exhibition waste
· Recycling of exhibition waste (i.e. wood, paper & cardboard, used vending cups, aluminum cans and even used cooking oil)
· Providing floor plans, newsletters, and other internal and external communications electronically wherever possible and re-using and recycling office paper
· Giving preference to those products/services that have minimal or beneficial impact to the environment while ensuring client needs are met. For example, the catering team ensures that local, organic options are available to conference organisers and the cleaning team uses environmentally friendly cleaning products.
· Providing the opportunity for planners to make their events 'carbon neutral' by calculating the amount of carbon dioxide emitted to the environment as a result of the function, then by planting sufficient trees to absorb the emissions.
· Providing training to staff that outlines environmental commitments of the EICC, including staff obligations to minimize electricity consumption
· Monitoring building systems to improve energy efficiency and air quality, and reduce waste.
One of the key ingredients in making the EICC's environmental efforts so successful has been the systematic approach they have taken to integrate green considerations into all aspects of their operations.
Part of this process has been working to ensure environmental awareness becomes part and parcel of the EICC culture. The Centre has a well-established Green team that facilitates environmental initiatives and continuously monitors energy consumption, waste reduction and use of green products as well as wider environmental issues such as global warming, transportation and carbon neutrality. The EICC's Green Team has set targets that are both environmentally friendly and commercially viable.
Success in this approach has hinged on top level commitment to provide greener services, coupled with support to and empowerment of front line staff to carry through on environmental priorities and achieve stated goals.
EICC Human Resources and Total Quality Management Facilitator Geoff Fenlon comments: "We have been very successful over the last few years in our greening efforts and we attribute this success to two key factors. One is the strategic importance that we attach to a complex mix of quality systems that allow us to test and evaluate every part of our business, including environmental aspects. The second, and arguably most important, is the buy-in from the whole company. Staff throughout the company have actively taken up the cause - when you have the entire company committed and moving in the same direction towards the same goals, anything can be achieved."
And the efforts are paying off, environmentally, socially and economically.
In 2002 the EICC was certified to ISO14001 and recognized by Vision in Business for the Environment in Scotland. This follows their accreditation to VisitScotland's Green Tourism Business Scheme where they achieved the highest level - Gold - at their first attempt in 2001.
The Centre has realized a diversity of environmental benefits as a result of their efforts: overall gas and electricity consumption has decreased, paper usage has dropped by 46% and waste generated per event has also declined by 23%. On the business side, EICC has realized savings of over £60,000 ($100,000 USD) on electricity over 4 years.
"Tourists today value their environment as well as good service" EICC Chief Executive Hans Rissmann comments "The great thing about the being a green-minded facility is that it provides a Win - Win for all concerned. The Company reduces its costs, which means the customer can get increased added value whilst the environment is preserved for future tourists."
EICC Green Team Leader Reynaldo Guino-o explains: "Clearly it is the right thing to do - to protect the environment - but it also allows us to meet our customers' environmental demands and, equally importantly, helps realise savings and other commercial benefits. It has been a true team effort and we're very proud of our achievements, particularly in successfully developing the green culture within the EICC. We have achieved both significant and sustainable results".
For further information on the Edinburgh International Conference Centre please visit: http://www.eicc.co.uk/news/newsen.html
3. Featured Tip: The Power of the RFP
Want to go green at your next meeting, but don't have the time to do all the work yourself? Start getting your suppliers to work on doing it for you!
One of the easiest and quickest steps a meeting planner can take to reduce the environmental impact of a meeting is to include their environmental requirements as a standard preference clause in Requests For Proposals (RFP).
Share your environmental requirements with all those you are approaching to supply your meeting: convention and visitor bureaus, hotels, caterers and others. Give preference to those who best align with your environmental priorities.
A sample clause might be:
"Company XYZ believes green meetings are good for the earth and make business sense. We give preference to suppliers that have active and ongoing sustainability programs and policies. Specifically, preference is given to sites that have:
· A comprehensive sustainability plan;
· Programs to recycle and otherwise reduce solid waste;
· Programs for the conservation of energy and water;
· Environmentally responsible systems to handle to treatment of solid and liquid wastes; and
· Environmental initiatives above and beyond those listed herein.
Please articulate how your organisation meets any or all of these requirements."
The Ecological Society of America hosts between 3,000 - 3,700 attendees at their Annual Meeting each August. When tendering for meeting and accommodation venues their RFP specifically lists the following greening requirements:
"Recycling in the Convention Center - must have visible containers for cans, bottles, paper and must recycle all these types as well as, in addition, boxes and cardboard containers. We request that the Convention Center and hotels make specific provisions for water and energy conservation and post prominent information and signs about water and energy conservation practices in place.
Food Functions: Use of china cups, plates and silverware or paper - no plastic, no styrofoam.
Leftover Food: Provided to homeless shelters in accordance with local regulations.
AC Levels: No lower than 70 degrees in any location.
Light: All meeting rooms checked for lights off when not in use.
Recycling in Hotels - Bottles, cans in public spaces; in rooms if possible.
Hotel Green Linen Policy - in all hotels if possible
Food Functions: Same as above."
In addition ESA emphasizes that they "try to select meeting locations where the walking from hotels to the Convention Center is encouraged and possible and where shuttling is kept to a minimum."
Ellen Cardwell, ESA Meetings Manager indicates the demand for these requirements has come from their membership, "Our meeting attendees are enormously sensitive to these issues and keep insisting on there being more attention paid to this."
Cardwell admits that there can be a discrepancy between what you ask for and what you get in terms of green requirements and often it is in contract negotiations where specific green aspects of the meeting will be determined.
"I believe that you've always got to ask for what you want, even if you don't always get it. So, our RFP makes our greening requirements extremely clear from the onset and also makes it explicit that ability to meet these requirements will be one of the important criterion on which we base a decision to select a location or not."
She adds: "Some places simply can't do all or even most of what we want - in order to be fully green, a hotel property or a convention center usually needs to be located in a municipality where green services are accepted and promoted."
As far as how receptive suppliers are to this approach Cardwell states: "We have found that making this one of the requirements of the meeting has stimulated an enthusiastic response from locations which are already well on their way to being green, but can be virtually ignored in places where there is no recycling and environmental programs are rudimentary at best."
However, even where green needs cannot be met, by communicating these requirements in the RFP the meeting planner is sending a message: that as a client environmental responsibility is an important decision-making criteria for you. This is an important message in educating meeting and event suppliers that clients are interested in more environmentally preferable purchasing.
To ensure continuing improvement in the greening of your meeting be sure to monitor and follow up on how well suppliers succeeded in meeting your environmental requirements.
Cardwell's post-meeting electronic evaluation form includes, among a variety of other questions, specific statistical and open-ended questions on the green aspects of ESA's meetings. A full report on the evaluation is sent to the host CVB and hotels, as well as the Mayor and City Manager of the destination. In addition, comments are also passed on to vendors and suppliers at the next ESA meeting location to provide advance information on attendee expectations.
Ellen Cardwell, CFRE can be reached at ellen@esa.org. For more information on the Ecological Society of America please visit: http://www.esa.org.
4. Featured Online Resource: Eco-labels for Hotels
Green Seal - Greening the Lodging Industry (USA)
http://www.greenseal.org/greeninglodge.htm
Since 1995, Green Seal has partnered with the lodging industry, the nation's second largest employer, to promote environmentally responsible products and practices within lodging properties. Green Seal's campaign to inform the nearly 54,000 U.S. hotels and motels focuses on how environmental efforts both improve the bottom line and benefit the environment. A summary of Green Seal's activities and experience in the lodging sector follows:
Green Seal developed a comprehensive purchasing and operations guide for the industry, Greening Your Property, which is published by and sold through the Educational Institute of the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA). To order, click here or call 1-800-752-4567 or 1-517-372-2084.
Recently, Green Seal initiated a certification program to help travelers, meeting planners, and government and corporate travel buyers identify environmentally responsible lodging properties. For more information please visit: http://www.greenseal.org/certproducts.htm#lodging
Under the certification program, Green Seal is working with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to certify hotels in seven major travel areas of the state for use by government employees and the traveling public.
Green Seal is conducting a similar project with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the District of Columbia to certify green hotels in the nation's capital for use by DC and Federal visitors and employees on travel.
In fall 2001, Green Seal begins a project with the Commonwealth of Virginia to identify, audit, and publicize leading green hotels in the state.
Green Seal conducted demonstration projects on sustainable products and procedures with Marriott Hotels in Washington, D.C., and the Saunders Hotel Group in Boston.
Green Seal is a member of the Environment and Engineering Committee of the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA).
Green Seal has contributed regular articles on green products and services to AH&LA's Lodging magazine, which has a readership of 176,000 hotel managers and affiliates.
Green Seal is also part of numerous environmental programs helping the lodging industry, including the CERES (Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies) Green Hotel Initiative, the U.S. EPA's Sustainable Travel and Tourism Roundtable, and the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable's "Inn Keeping for the Environment."
For further information please visit: http://www.greenseal.org/greeninglodge.htm
HAC Green Leaf Eco-Rating Program (Canada)
http://www.terrachoice.ca/hotelwebsite/indexcanada.htm
The Symbol of Environmental Achievement
The HAC Green Leaf Eco-Rating Program is a graduated rating system designed to identify hotels committed to improving their bottom line fiscal and environmental performance.
The program was established by TerraChoice Environmental Services, to recognize environmental achievements through a reward of 1 to 5 Green Leafs; 1 for a minimum of committing to a set of environmental principles and 2 through 5 for results in applying those principles.
How Do You Measure Up?
The program provides a designation from 1 to 5 Green Leafs using the following criteria for each Eco-Rating:
1 Leaf: Hotel has identified and initiated measures to improve environmental performance in areas such as energy use, water conservation and waste reduction.
2 Leaves: Hotel has moved beyond awareness of sound environmental practice and achieved real results in reducing environmental impacts of its operations.
3 Leaves: Hotel has shown excellent progress in environmental performance in all areas of facility operations and management (Hotels must score higher than 55 points for 3 Green Leafs).
4 Leaves: Hotel has shown national industry leadership in terms of environmental performance for both hotel management and facilities. (Hotels must score higher than 75 points to be eligible for 4 Green Leafs).
5 Leaves: This designation is reserved for hotels serving as world leaders in environmental performance which continually introduce new policies and practices for others in the industry. (Hotels must score higher than 90 points to be eligible for 5 Green Leafs).
For further information please visit http://www.terrachoice.ca/hotelwebsite/indexcanada.htm.
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Shawna McKinley
General Manager
Oceans Blue Foundation USA
1420 5th Avenue, Suite 2200
Seattle, WA 98101
USA
T: 206.583.8338
F: 206.292.4965
E: sails@oceansblue.org
W: www.oceansblue.org
Meet green! Visit www.bluegreenmeetings.org.
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