GREEN GURU: Nancy Wilson Zavada, founder of Portland, Ore.–based MeetGreen, is an industry pioneer in integrating and measuring sustainability for meetings and events. In Zavada’s view, sustainability does not equate with deprivation. “Green,” she said, “is the new luxury.”
to talk to your supplier community and start to have that discussion” about sustainability. Planners also expect to see the standards incorporated
into sales tools, such as the Carbon Accounting Company’s Green Global Hotels network, which will allow planners to compare hotelenvironmentalmetrics based on the new stan- dards.With the standards, Leonard said, “we can finally begin to have a single, unified scorecard for how we are doing—one that compares apples to apples.”
AWay of Providing Solutions When the standards are released, CIC plans to offer resources that will make them easier to use, Leonard said, “stripping away some of the technicaljargon and creating accessible formats.” But as useful as they’re expected to be, Tinnish said, the standards aren’t a silver bullet. One thing they can’t do, Kennedy-Hill added, is to supply vision. She said: “Checklists are not very inspiring. They lack the human element.” There needs to be a change in thinking, Robèrt told plan-
Five Things You Can Do Now
As a participant in the development of the APEX Environmentally Sustainable Meeting Standards, Meet- Green’sNancy Wilson Zavada hasan insider’sknowledge of what they’re likely to contain. Zavada made a list of five practices that cut across all of the standards’ nine industry sectors. Pay attention to these things now, she says, and you’ll be ahead of the game when the standards are released: 1. Make sure your meeting or event has a sustain-
ability policy. Ask vendors for their sustainability policy dur- ing the RFP process. It is an easy way to ensure they are already practicing green meeting initiatives. 2.Always ask for recycling at any venue. Confirm the
property has it available and can give you measureable data after the event on the amount of waste kept out of the land- fill, including paper, metal, cooking oil, food scraps, etc. If a vendor can’t tell you their diversion rate, it may be a red flag. 3. Look for energy and water efficiencies from your venue, caterer, transportation supplier, and hotel. Ask if
venues can track your energy and water use during the period that you are there. 4. Before purchasing, ask yourself if you or your attendees really need an item. If you do need it, can you buy it in bulk, or find it locally? Check to see if it is com- postable, recyclable, or can be donated. Your caterer should also be asking these questions. 5. Measure and document your progress. Choose
several guidelines you know your organization can always commit to accomplishing, and measure the results at your next event. This will give you a baseline to work from. For example, if you are able to reduce the amount of hand- outs by half over past events, determine what the savings are in money (cold hard cash), resources (trees, energy, and water), and labor. Then build on this initiative during subse- quent events. This also makes good business sense and helps present the event’s ROI. — From Nancy Wilson Zavada’s blog, Pretentious Musings of a MeetGreen Martyr, at http://blog.meetgreen.com