“Start with the low-hanging fruit, the easy wins,” suggests Shawna McKinley, director of sustainability for MeetGreen, the independent planning firm whose principals, Amy Spatrisano, CMP, and Nancy Zavada, CMP, founded the Green Meetings Industry Council, an organization of suppliers and planners that hosts an annual conference offering education and best practices. These efforts can be informal, similar to Symantec’s approach. “In 2007, we started hearing the green buzz,” says David Hunt, vice president of global events for Symantec, whose team handles 50 to 60 events each year and is responsible for the company’s most high-profile gatherings. “That’s when we started wondering, what can we do? How can we minimize our footprint but still maintain a good experience for our attendees and make business sense?”

The company started with reducing water bottles, providing reusable ones alongside the expected plastic bottles. Within two years the bottled water was gone, and Symantec’s planners now routinely work with their hotel partners to supply filtered water along with sustainable cups.

Notes McKinley, “These small efforts are going to save you money or are cost-neutral, and they don’t cause any pain to attendees.” Following are her suggestions for basic elements every meeting can — and should — implement.

• Provide water from coolers and pitchers.

• Provide recycling bins for cans and bottles.

• Post meeting materials online.

• Turn off lights in empty meeting rooms.

• Don’t pre-plate or pre-pour F&B.

• Eliminate saucers for cups; use mugs instead.

• Collect and reuse name badges.

• Provide paper and pens in meeting rooms on request only.

• Change any one-time-use foamcore event signs to cardboard-based signs.

• Provide attendees with green travel tips before the event (see “Be Gentle, Travelers,”).

• Provide a carbon-offset choice in the registration process….

 

Read the whole article from Meetings & Conventions here http://www.meetings-conventions.com/articles/a-multi-tiered-approach-to-green-meetings/a50824.aspx