A Wider Net

I’ve always been concerned about the environment, interested in environmental issues, and wildly cynical of big oil and the politicians who pander to it. So, I’m surprised that I haven’t spent more time and energy researching environmentally conscious events. Until recently, talking about environmental issues relating to events tended to make me feel as out of place as a vegan at Arbys. But at a few trade shows recently I noticed an increase in conversations around environmental issues and a few outstanding vendors devoted to green exhibits and practices.

So I’m going to spend a few posts sharing some research I’ll be doing into green event operation and marketing practices. For today, since I’m short on time, I’ll share a few interesting sites I found today that are related to the topic of green events.

Here’s a good article from MPI’s The Meeting Professional, that includes excerpts from a report indicating that green events saves money, plus a checklist of easy to execute tips.

ecosystems offers the first ever modular exhibit system that uses LEED certified materials.

CERC offers a huge list of resources and tips.

The Green Meeting Industry Council has some interesting, although somewhat dated, statistics.
This one I love - a post about how fancy restaurants are replacing bottled water (very bad for the environment) with well-filtered tap water. It’s about time!
BlueGreen meetings has this list of tips for greener meetings.

On a personal level, LifeHacker highlights two sites to calculate your carbon emissions based on your lifestyle and ways to offset them.

This PDF from Duke University offers a ton of actionable tips to lower the environmental impact of any event. One of my favorites: “If handouts must be used, print on both sides”. Who saves handouts, anyway?
Ecospeakers offers a list of very helpful links into the topic of green events, plus they act as a bureau for environmental-themed speakers

EADEnvironmental offers Environmental Action Certificates that illustrate how your event is reducing it’s green house gas emissions - suitable for framing.