Today’s meetings industry has a golden opportunity to go green. As meeting planners educate themselves on using more earth-friendly practices in their meetings, hotels across the country are polishing up their environmental credentials, too.

A typical five-day conference for 2,500 attendees uses 62,500 plates, 87,500 napkins, 75,000 cups or glasses, and 90,000 cans or bottles, according to Meeting Strategies Worldwide, a leader in green meetings and events based in Portland, Oregon. Multiply that by the thousands of meetings held around the globe annually, and the industry’s impact on the environment becomes clear.

Although a green approach to meetings is still far from standard, more and more planners are expressing an interest in reducing the environmental impact of their meetings. Their voices, in turn, are helping to spur the hotel supply side into action.

The Green Meeting Industry Council defines a green meeting as one that incorporates measures through all its stages to minimize any negative impact on the environment. In a survey of North American planners conducted by Elite Meetings International in August 2007, 54 percent of respondents said they had considered environmental impact when planning a meeting or event. A full 80 percent felt that environmental considerations for meetings and events will grow increasingly important in the future.

The reasons stated for not incorporating environmentally friendly elements included limited interest by senior management, fear of change, limited availability of venues using green practices, insufficient information, the need to present a high-end experience, and cost.

A major initiative on the green scene came recently from the Environmental Protection Agency. On May 1, 2007, the EPA implemented new rules for its $50 million annual travel and meeting budget. Employees responsible for booking agency meetings must now evaluate every proposed venue in terms of a 14-point environmental checklist.

The list looks for programs in place for recycling, use of recycled and recyclable products, use of biodegradable products, use of bulk dispensers and reusable containers and utensils, paperless check-in and checkout, linen and towel reuse, access to public transportation, energy efficiency, water conservation, use of local or organic food, and staff training as well as environmental leadership and initiatives, certifications, and voluntary partnerships. The move illustrates a growing awareness of the impact meetings have on the environment and sends a strong signal to hotels wishing to compete for the EPA’s business.

Even those who have not yet converted to green practices can often be persuaded by good economics. Joella Hopkins, president of the event planning company Simply Mumtaz, based in Woodland Hills, California, began offering “Eco-Chic” services last year. She tells clients there are a great many things they can do to add shades of green that don’t cost more money. In fact, some green practices actually cost less. “Instead of printing,” Hopkins tells them, “you can E-mail presentations, conference guides, and registration materials. With a mass printing and mailing, you’re looking at thousands of dollars—plus the cost of postage. So right there, you’re saving money.”

But old habits die hard, and some planners find it difficult to drum up enthusiasm for greener ways. Shawna McKinley, project manager with Meeting Strategies Worldwide and still active in the Green Meeting Industry Council where she served as executive director, recommends educating people about the process. “People are much more receptive to change if they understand its intent,” she says. The education process could be as simple as mentioning the efforts in preregistration materials and then setting out table cards at the event to remind everyone of the benefits.

Nancy Wilson, who heads Meeting Strategies Worldwide, advises planners to go digital whenever possible. The savings in terms of real dollars and environmental impact add up when registration, brochures, questionnaires, surveys, even presentation summaries can be handled digitally. She also advises planners to consider adding an offset charge for participants who still prefer paper, using recycled paper and printing on both sides of a sheet, creating reusable signage A table set with locally grown products, as opposed to imports, honors the environment at Carneros Inn in Napa Valley, California. and badges, and designing mailed pieces as self-mailers whenever possible.

Planners can also save money by thinking big—or at least in bulk. By offering pitchers of water instead of individual bottles, for example, planners not only save the cost of two to three bottles of water per person, per day. They also save in terms of the carbon footprint left by the processing and delivery of packaged water.

Michelle White, the director of environmental affairs for Toronto-based Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, agrees that adding green elements to a meeting can be cost effective. “A lot of aspects of green meetings in terms of accommodations, programs, and service won’t cost any more,” she says. “Some people still have the perception that green is more expensive, and that’s not necessarily the case.”

As the first North American hotel company to institute a chain-wide environmental sustainability program (dating back to 1990), Fairmont went green before green was fashionable. At the beginning of last year, the company dusted off the EcoMeet program, originally launched in 1998, and reintroduced it to the workplace. Today’s EcoMeet program offers planners an easy way to get started on the path to green, offering everything from disposable-free food service to paperless communications.

While some hotel companies can take pride in a long history of commitment to environmental concerns, others have come to the table only recently. For this reason, Nancy Wilson of Meeting Strategies Worldwide cautions planners to do their homework—ask questions, take back-of-the-house tours, request an audit statement, and even write green practices into the contract to add teeth to the requests.

Planners who worry that environmental measures might somehow diminish the luxury experience may be pleasantly surprised, according to White. Most of the green aspects of operations are invisible to guests. “Yes, guests might see a recycling bin, and they’ll see a sheet and towel exchange card,” she says. “But most guests will not know they are showering with a high-efficiency shower or using a low-flush toilet or that the lighting is energy efficient. And many of these operations happen in the back of the house, where guests would never see, like the recycling docks and composting areas.”

The choice of luxury hotels with environmental credentials is expanding. Like planners, hotels are learning that going green makes sound business sense. It’s no longer just a good thing to do. It’s also in their best interest. Making a commitment to the environment can reduce costs, attract new customers, give a competitive edge, demonstrate industry leadership, and enhance the bottom line for generations to come.

A number of upcoming new luxury hotels are building in accordance with the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. The Hotel Terra Jackson Hole, for instance, will be the first LEED-certified hotel in Wyoming and one of only a handful in the nation when it opens early this year. Checking for LEED certification, the nationally accepted benchmark for high-performance green buildings, offers one of the industry’s soundest methods of verifying green claims.

Jim Butler, a Los Angeles–based attorney specializing in the hotel industry for the law firm Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro, comments frequently on the merits of building green through www.HotelLawBlog.com. He maintains that the cost of developing a new green hotel can be nearly the same as a nongreen hotel if planned from the outset.

“There was a time when it cost 10 to 15 percent more to build green, and some still talk about it,” he says. “But those days are gone.” He says rebates, incentives, and long-term savings can offset any price premiums that do exist. The U. S. Green Building Council agrees, reporting that LEED-certified properties typically save 30 to 50 percent in energy usage, 70 percent in solid waste, 40 percent in water, and 35 percent in carbon emissions.

Even existing hotels are greening up in their retrofits. Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York, for example, recently installed a commercial water softener that reduced water use in the laundry, saving 476,000 liters of water per day—enough to supply 500 homes. And the Fairmont Dallas reduced its energy consumption by 41,666 kilowatt hours simply by adding a reflective tint to its windows.

The Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, based in San Francisco, tackles the granddaddy of all recycling projects by giving old buildings a new lease on life. The company’s hometown Argonaut, for instance, occupies the original Haslett Warehouse completed in 1909, once the largest fruit and vegetable cannery in the world. Another Kimpton example, the Hotel Monaco Washington DC, occupies the capital’s 1839 General Post Office building—the first all-marble building in Washington and the birthplace of the Pony Express.

Such rehabilitation projects may not necessarily enjoy all the strategic advantages of building green from scratch. Historic buildings cannot be sited to optimize heat and light from the sun or natural airflow the way today’s green developments are. Yet the brick, concrete, and steel saved in its projects do make a difference. And the company’s approach illustrates an environmental sensitivity that begins at inception and carries through on a daily basis in programs such as Kimpton’s EarthCare.

Measures undertaken by Kimpton include the use of environmentally friendly cleaning products. Since the switch, management has noticed an unexpected bonus: Employee sick days have decreased—and so has employee turnover. Other measures—such as the use of soy-based inks and recycled paper for sales materials, back-of-the-house recycling programs, in-room designer recycling bins for guests, donation programs, and complimentary organic or fair-trade coffee served in the lobby—add measures that like-minded companies can feel good about with little or no additional expense or effort.

Carbon neutrality is not yet the norm for meetings. But even small changes make a difference. “Even if you take two or three steps,” says Fairmont’s Michelle White, “just start somewhere. It all has a positive environmental benefit.” Much like the million tiny details that go into every meeting, even the smallest of environmental measures can influence the outcome. Photovoltaic technology gathers renewable power from the sun—a hallmark of hotels and resorts now rising to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.

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