What Meeting Planners May Ask You About Meeting Waste

Let's assume you run a hotel with meeting space and are working with a meeting planner who is hell bent on making sure as much of the meeting waste as possible is diverted from the landfill. What kinds of questions can you expect to get from the meeting planner about your waste management practices? A recent article submitted by MeetGreen, which works with organizations to integrate sustainable practices into conferences and events, provides some clues. Expect the planner to ask for direct-reported data from the hauler. Also expect the planner to ask if reported data includes all material hauled, including recyclables, trash, donations, and any other streams. (Sometimes venues will not factor in all streams, which can have significant impact on reported diversion trends.)

You may be asked to isolate the data for that planner's specific event and not include data that might be impacted by another event or events taking place at the same time. In other words, as best as you can, know whose "trash" is whose. The meeting planner may also ask to visit the back-of-house area where waste is handled. Don't be surprised if the planner peers inside your dumpster. You may even get a request to visit the recycling and/or compost facility where the meeting's materials will end up. Don't include any waste that is incinerated in the diversion data you provide to the meeting planner. Incineration is not considered an eco-friendly way to eliminate waste. Finally, if you claim a diversion rate of greater than 70 percent without offering composting, expect the meeting planner to be suspicious; compostable waste tends to account for at least 25 percent of event waste streams.

The days when meeting planners did not even ask about the waste stream are long gone. Expect today's meeting planners to be much more vigilent about waste. If you are proactive about meeting meeting planners' expectations, you will be sure to win more green meetings business in the future.