ALEXANDRIA, VA.—The Convention Industry Council (CIC)’s Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX) Panel on Green Meeting and Event Practices recently released the final draft standards for green meetings and events for review and comment by the meetings industry and to ASTM International for review. The process of developing green standards has been a partnership between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC) and APEX to answer the need in the meeting and event industry for a uniform measurement of environmental performance. By submitting the standards to ASTM for approval, the standards developed will be accredited standards.
The APEX panel and hundreds of volunteers from the meetings industry, government, international organizations and NGOs have devoted countless hours of discussion and refinement over the past two years to draft what will be a first step in solidifying green meeting practices.
“These standards are an attempt to create a level playing field of what constitutes ‘green’ for the industry,” says Karen Kotowski, CMP, CAE, COO of the Convention Industry Council. “While the standards are voluntary, demand and use by planners and competition will drive adoption. It is exciting to see these standards coming to life and the hard work of so many nearing completion. Like all APEX standards, they will not remain static but will incorporate revisions as necessary to maintain relevancy. However, this has been the first and most difficult part of the journey. The panel and all the volunteers should be commended.”
Nine individual topic areas comprise the entire standard and nine separate committees were charged with developing the standards. The topic areas include Accommodations, Audio Visual, Communication, Exhibits, Food and Beverage, On-site Office, Destinations, Meeting Venue, and Transportation. The draft standards will now go out to the industry for review and comment through APEX City Discussion Groups and a blog as well as to ASTM International for its review process.
Discussion Group Locations
Upcoming City Discussion Groups, events akin to town hall meetings, will be held in the following U.S. cities: Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; Fort Myers, Fla.; San Antonio, Texas; Denver and San Francisco. Those interested in participating in a discussion group may register through the APEX website at www.apexsolution.org. For those not in proximity to a discussion group, the APEX virtual blog site provides for greater access and participation. The draft standards may be accessed and feedback given at http://wp.apexsolution.org.
As the Green Meeting and Event standard goes through ASTM’s committees and the APEX processes, suggested changes and feedback will be reviewed by the committees and incorporated if appropriate and then submitted in final to ASTM. All comments, whether by City Discussion Group or by blog, are due September 11 in order to be considered before the standards are submitted to ASTM in final format. It is anticipated that the final standards approved by both ASTM and the APEX Commission will be complete by the end of the year.
While there are other green standards out there, the APEX/ASTM standards will be specific, measurable, performance-based criteria and are intended to be adopted internationally.
“Many people have asked how these standards will differ from or duplicate the British Standard 8901 Sustainable Events Standard,” says Amy Spatrisano, principal of MeetGreen, and chair of the APEX Green Meetings and Events Practices Panel, who has been leading the effort. “It is important to note that the two standards are different in their approach to defining a sustainable event standard. The BS 8901 standard is a management system written to inform the process of organizing an event, while the APEX standard provides definitions of specific operational actions with key performance measures. The standards will work well independently or in collaboration as frameworks for sustainable events.”
