This week I am here at EclipseCon 2008 producing a conference for 1,400 open source technology programmers. Last post I talked about Bjorn, EclipseCon and how technology and green meetings go hand in hand. Today, I want to share the additional green practices EclipseCon embraces.

EclipseCon’s commitment to their conference community is to:
Choose greener cities and venues
Give you a greener place to rest your head
Feed you a healthy, tasty, sustainable menu
Reduce, reuse and recycle while we re-think how we meet

Participants are appreciative! One of last year’s evaluations read, “Thanks for making recycling available during the conference. I recycle at home and want to recycle on the road too.”

It is also the right thing to do economically. We printed EclipseCon 22×28 session signs (without the year) four years ago at a total cost of $10,345. We have reused them each year only replacing a few damaged ones. Total savings over the past three years $36,907.

By serving water in large water stations instead of individual bottled water, the cost savings was $10,800 off the bottom line. Now that’s a great way to make a Conference Chair happy!