ATLANTA—The Green Meeting Industry Council Sustainable Meetings Conference wrapped up in Atlanta last week. The annual event, which drew approximately 200 attendees, was held at the Westin Peachtree Plaza. Highlights included keynote speeches by Laura Turner Seydel, daughter of Ted Turner and chairperson of the Captain Planet Foundation, and Derreck Kayongo, founder of the Global Soap Project. Additional highlights included educational session discussions on topics ranging from the APEX/ASTM meeting standards to best practices at green hotels and venues.
Seydel kicked off the event by addressing some of the topics she is most passionate about. Environmental education for children and air and water quality issues are two examples. She talked about the many organizations with which she is involved—the Captain Planet Foundation, Environmental Working Group, Mothers and Others for Clean Air, and Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. Seydel serves on her family’s foundation boards including The Turner Foundation, Jane Smith Turner Foundation, the Turner Endangered Species Fund, and Ted’s Montana Grill.
Seydel told a number of stories about her famous father—an environmentalist and advocate himself of many green causes. She said her father picks up trash during his walks and taught his family that you have to be responsible for other people’s actions as well as your own. Seydel emphasized the importance of exposing children to nature and referred to nature deficit disorder, a phrase originally coined by Richard Louv in his 2005 book, “Last Child in the Woods.” She said many children today grow up with a fear of nature.
Seydel closed her presentation by talking about the National Restaurant Association’s Conserve Initiative and also mentioned the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s Green Initiatives.
“We have to think about how our actions today will impact future generations,” she emphasized.
An Inspirational Presentation
Kayongo told his fascinating story about growing up in Uganda without soap and then being amazed once he moved to the United States that soap is actually thrown away. This inspired him to form Global Soap, the nonprofit organization that recently combined its operations and charitable efforts with Clean the World.
“Hotels throw away 800 million soap bars a year,” Kayongo said.
A general session on “How Corporations are Transforming the World Through Sustainability” featured panelists from Kimberly-Clark and Interface Global. George Bandy, Vice President of Sustainability at Interface, talked about his company’s Mission Zero challenge—to source 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. “Recently we have been focused on what happens when we get to zero,” Bandy said. “We have been thinking about restorative enterprises.”
Cristine Schulz, Sustainability Business Partner at Kimberly-Clark, said her company, which makes products such as KLEENEX and SCOTT brand toilet paper, pays close attention to social media and the company’s websites, ensuring that there is clarity about what goes into Kimberly-Clark products.
“Kimberly-Clark is investing in how to use wheat straw,” Schulz said. “We are buying wheat straw residue and pulping it.”
When asked what types of sales meetings Interface likes to have, Bandy said, “We always go to a big city with the idea that we will leave a ‘legacy’ in that city. We partner with shelters. We try to leave a legacy of value in that community.”
IHG & Green Engage
In a session entitled, “Hotels & Venues: Going Green Best Practices—Lessons from the Supplier Side,” Lindsay Wilkinson, Manager Environmental Sustainability at InterContinental Hotels Group, discussed some of the green initiatives at her company that fall within IHG’s Green Engage program. IHG’s focus this year, Wilkinson said, is making sure all 4,900 IHG hotels comply with Green Engage. She cited IHG’s successes in drought-impacted California. Last year, IHG Green Engage Water Conservation Kits were sent to 230 IHG hotels in that state, including Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo and Holiday Inn hotels. The resources in the Water Conservation Kits included details on how hotels can actively participate in conserving water, with tips on IHG Green Engage Green Solutions to implement, as well as examples of how other hotels have been successful in their water conservation efforts. The kits also included aerators to easily install on water faucets. “The guests are excited to see hotels doing something about the drought,” Wilkinson said.
Tim Trefzer, Sustainability Manager at the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, talked about the green achievements of the Georgia World Congress Center. The Center achieved LEED Silver certification in 2014, a goal that took four years to achieve. Last year the Center diverted more than 600 tons of material from landfills, approximately 19.3 percent of its waste stream. “Our next big focus is on zero waste,” Trefzer said.
In a session entitled, “Standards 201: Sustainable Tools & Technologies,” discussion centered around the APEX/ASTM Environmentally Sustainable Meetings Standards. Many facilities that have been certified to one of the standards were represented at the session. Barriers to adopting the standards were discussed—one barrier being that APEX/ASTM is not a strongly recognized brand. Karl Pfalzgraf, Practice Leader for iCompli, the organization that actually does the certifying, encouraged the crowd to have patience with the standards. “Standards take time,” he said. “If the standards are out there and nobody adopts them, it helps no one.”
Also in that session, the Sustainable Meeting Planning Program (SMMP) was highlighted, as well as the MeetGreen Calculator. SMMP is an online tool designed for planners that also can be used by suppliers. It helps one put on a sustainable meeting that aligns with the APEX/ASTM Environmentally Sustainable Meetings Standards. It also allows one to measure how a meeting scored against the standards. The MeetGreen Calculator allows one to benchmark the sustainable elements of an event. It makes it easy to benchmark against the same event year after year, and to compare against other events. There are 160 questions in 10 key categories and the questions address ISO 20121 and the APEX/ASTM Environmentally Sustainable Meetings Standards.
Go to the Green Meeting Industry Council.
