WE Can...Green, Corporate/Citizen Socially Responsible AND Sustainable

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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2009
Why? Because WE Can.....Green, Corporate/Citizen Socially Responsible AND Sustainable

"Radical Transparency offers a way to unleash the latent potential of the free market to drive the changes we must make, by mobilizing consumers and executives to use data to make more virtuous decisions." Daniel Goleman, from Ecological Intelligence, How Knowing The Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything

There are so many facets of transparency, reporting and tracking available to us that is why WE can and should be making informed, virtuous decisions. Transparency is popping up everywhere. http://www.goodguide.com/ has a phone application that allows us to scan the product code of an item we are interested in buying in the store, and, read its environmental standings in comparison to its competitors so that we can make an educated purchase. Soon there will be eco-ratings to assist us with all of our purchases. All of the hotel brands now have Departments of Sustainability in which they are studying how to roll out "greenitiatives" corporate wide. I encourage them all to be as transparent as goodguide.com so that we can track their efforts right into our RFPs.

Buildings and then transportation are the two largest sources of carbon emissions. When we hold meetings and events outside of our daily lives we have many sources of information to help us make intelligent, informed and responsible choices. Regarding meetings and events; the third largest component of our carbon footprint and sustainability at our meetings and events is our catering. I admire the saying, VOTE WITH YOUR FORK. In the case of planning an event we are dealing with a multitude of decisions. If we are holding a two day event for 100 attendees, that's six meals, times 100, equaling 600 plates of food not to mention all of the snacks, cups of coffee, and hopefully you have all gotten it figured out by now; glasses of water....) Partnering with our chefs takes on an enormous responsibility. Imagine the difference between purchasing local organic over herbicide nurtured vegetables from half way across the globe, and, compare enjoying the local tap water compared to flying in plastic bottles of airlifted spring water from afar. Many culinary teams are taking pride in their locally sourced seasonal cuisine and your guests will too. The attendees might even remember how their grandparents served that same dish at the very same time of year. WE can ask all of the chefs and conference service managers to source locally, put it in our RFP and make it known from the start of negotiations. Does this nuance with the culinary team take a short time longer, yes; however, think of the satisfaction that your team will receive from supporting local farmers and culinary artisans. This is a virtuous cycle.

Below are a couple of examples of embracing all of the possibilities of green sustainable meetings for your reference. Make 2010 about the power of the possible to move your meetings and events to a new sustainable level, why, because WE can!

• Oracle's Open World Conference and Open World Live are great examples of greening business while embracing technology. OW Live is a great website that had live streaming video during the conference with a Twitter feed alongside the video. You can view the archived videos at http://tinyurl.com/yaxgohx Oracle's team is awesome. I have had the chance to meet Jodi Morrison, Oracle's Senior Director Technology & Operations and I follow Paul Salinger's tweets, Paul is the Vice President of Marketing at Oracle. In my eyes Paul and Jodi with the Oracle team are at the leading edge of green meetings. Their events are fascinating to track.
• Check out this article about the success that Natural England had with their 2009 conference with the integration of seven sites across England for their annual conference of 2500 attendees. This is a stellar example of utilizing video conferencing, the web and audience engagement tools. http://meetingsreview.com/europe/news/view/23734
• Here is some Eye Candy – Enjoy a gorgeous video meditation on Sustainability by Peter Corbett: http://tinyurl.com/ybr46g3
• This is an awesome video tribute to the power of social media. http://m.hellotxt.com/wzGO
  Be Well, Behave and Be Green. Kim is on the Board of Directors for the Financial and Insurance Conference Planners association (FICP) where he is Vice President of Education. He volunteers on the, CIC's APEX/ASTM Green Meetings Events Panel. He is currently an Event Marketing Specialist with Guardian Investor Services LLC, NY, NY. Kim received the award of Greenest Meeting Planner of 2009 at the Green Travel Summit in March 2009, and the 2009 Changemaker Award from Corporate Meetings and Incentives Magazine.

This article was submitted by Phil Allemang, KCMPI VP Communications, with permission from Kim Beriin.