10. LEED Certified Convention Centers LEED Los Angeles Convention Center – LA, California Santa Fe Convention Center – Santa Fe, New Mexico Phoenix Convention Center – Phoenix, Arizona (West Bldg is Silver, North Bldg is LEED) LEED - Silver Raleigh Civic & Convention Center – Raleigh, North Carolina Spokane Convention Center – Spokane, Washington Oregon Convention Center – Portland, Oregon LEED – Gold David L. Lawrence Convention Center- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania LEED – Canada Platinum Vancouver Convention Centre (West Building)
11. LEED Certified Sports Arenas LEED Philips Arena – Atlanta, GA American Airlines Arena – Miami, FL LEED - Gold Rose Garden Arena – Portland, OR
How to incorporate fun and exciting green elements into your meetings.
Cathy: Explain why we are using Portland as the primary example. Explain that although some ideas are “Portland specific” we hope that these will give you ideas of things to look for in your meeting city. Explain that we are going to discuss the basics of green at first and then will get into ideas to incorporate. Collect Business Cards for drawing Introduce video. PLAY VIDEO Cindy: Reference Handout. Questionnaire on “how green is your meeting”
Joanna:
Cathy: Destinations offer a large range of green services and as a planner it can be difficult to know which cities are actually walking their talk. The Best Places to MeetGreen® Scorecard is a list published by the company MeetGreen that recognizes the ability of cities to provide green meeting services. Each city's score has been independently verified by MeetGreen. The Scorecard ranks cities according to environmental programs in place at the convention and visitors' bureau, convention center and hotels in the city's conference package. MeetGreen works with progressive global organizations to integrate sustainable practices and produce conferences and events that deliver targeted business results. Since the company's founding in 1994, MeetGreen has embraced environmental responsibility as a core value and defining specialty. Meet Green produced the Book “10 Simple Ways to Green Your Meetings” and assisted Travel Portland with our Green Meetings Toolkit. Per the Portland based company, Meet Green , the following are verified “Green Destinations”
Cathy: These are unverified “Green Destinations’, which means that the city package is offering green services however those services have not been verified by MeetGreen.
Cindy:
Cindy:
Cindy:
Cindy: LEED Certified Convention Centers (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) – developed by the US Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. There are 4 levels of LEED Certification Standard LEED LEED Silver LEED Gold LEED Platinum
Cindy: The following are Convention Centers that are LEED Certified LEED Los Angeles Convention Center – LA, California Santa Fe Convention Center – Santa Fe, New Mexico Phoenix Convention Center – Phoenix, Arizona (West Bldg is Silver, North Bldg is LEED) LEED - Silver Raleigh Civic & Convention Center – Raleigh, North Carolina Spokane Convention Center – Spokane, Washington Oregon Convention Center – Portland, Oregon LEED – Gold David L. Lawrence Convention Center- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Aria Las Vegas – Las Vegas, Nevada LEED – Canada Platinum (by Canadian Green Building Council) Vancouver Convention Centre (West Building) – Just announced last week!
Some meetings are large enough to utilize sports arenas. There are the only three arenas to date to achieve LEED status. American Airlines was built as LEED and Philips became the first arena to achieve EB status. Just a month ago, the Rose Garden Arena in Portland was the first arena to achieve Gold status and this arena was built 17 years ago.
Joanna: The best way for a hotel to become Green Seal Certified is to get involvement from the entire hotel and staff. My hotel began with the interest of our director of operations. If people are interested and excited about the changes you are making they are more likely to do them. The hotel is more successful. Portland has 6 hotels Green Seal Certified, Doubletree Hotel, Hilton Portland, Marriott Waterfront, Mark Spencer Hotel, Marriott City Center, and Hotel Monoco. Have you heard of greenwashing? This is where hotels make false or misleading claims about their green practices. It is best to rely on an independent, third-party certification based on scientific analysis and on-site inspections, such as Green Seal.
Joanna: These are the minimum standards for bronze, entry level. Waste minimization – establish recycling program, refillable amenity dispensers, double-sided copies, donate leftover food, minimize disposable foodservice Energy efficiency, conservation and management-when equipment is replaced, upgrade to energy efficient models, use energy efficient lighting Management of fresh water resources – 2.2 gpm faucets, 1.6 gpf toilets, 2.5 gpm showerheads, use plants and trees tolerant to local conditions and natural water available, towel and linen reuse Waste water management – use environmentally preferable laundry and cleaning products Hazardous substances – Have adequate and secure storage for chemicals Environmental and socially sensitive purchasing policy – Appoint Green Team, Consider life-cycle costs, make policy public, find and use suppliers that take back packaging and pallets, minimize use of products with packaging that isn’t reusable or recyclable
Cathy: Intro: Support vendors and venues that have green practices in place. Research venues at GMIC website - www.greenmeetings.info or access information via the local CVB. By 2001, Ecotrust was a century-old warehouse transformed into a state-of-the-art, 70,000 square foot home to retailers, businesses, and nonprofit organizations. Visitors can take a self-guided tour learning how this historic structure was transformed into a marketplace for the conservation economy and a powerful example of green building.
Cathy: An example of stepping outside the box and utilizing a “non-typical” event venue. Significant energy and water savings have been integrated into a design that emphasizes the health and comfort of patients, visitors and employees. In contrast to conventional building designs that seek to seal nature out and then rely heavily on mechanical assistance, this building's design and engineering team have harvested natural resources. For example, rainwater that falls on the building is reused in toilets and landscaping, and daylight is fully leveraged for lighting.
Cathy: Originally built in 1891, the Portland Armory Annex was reborn as the Gerding Theater at the Armory in 2006. Shortly after opening, the building was certified by the US Green Building Council as exceeding the requirements for designation as LEED Platinum. During its first year as the home of Portland Center Stage, the Gerding Theater at the Armory was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal and recognized by Forbes magazine as among the top 12 green buildings in the country.
Cathy: – Theme Your Meeting! Joanna: Use Social Media to inform you attendees Use your Conference Website – set up a blog or site so attendees can get in touch with each other to share transportation from the airport or ride share. www.SpaceShare.com helps planners build social networking for ride shares so that attendees can hook up with other attendees to catch taxi’s or public transit together. NOTE that an Oregon MPI member just posted on Link’d in to organize carpooling for the Cascadia Conference which is held in Washington State where all Oregon members will be driving. Save money and paper by sending email blasts rather than postcards and other materials. TweetChat – MPI rolled out this component for MeetDifferent 2010 Cindy: Sustain Lane – Display a “Sustainable Lane” near registration with sample of green efforts you want to bring to attendees attention. Have a sample of the recycle bins with someone explaining what goes where for general use and also ones for exhibitors. (5 slides to show recycling container options)
Cindy: While scrolling through pictures mention that show managers can also get attendees involved in the recycling efforts by displaying a graph with the amount of recycling being captured each day.
Cathy: Select a city that has free public transportation if possible. Compliment or replace shuttling with public transit, inform your attendees ahead of time to pack accordingly. You can provide “ambassadors” that assist attendees on how to use the public transit and you can make it fun by providing maps, pictures or clues to help them on their route. Drive home to your attendees: NO cars, taxis or buses (unless public). Green!
Cathy: If you need to shuttle: Some cities have implemented anti-idling policies for shuttles. Denver’s “Engines OFF” program will fine companies up to $1000 for idling longer than 5 minutes. Letters are sent out to Convention planners explaining. If your hosting city does not have such a policy, check with your transportation company and request that busses and shuttles turn off their engines while waiting for attendees to board. Some cities may have companies using bio-diesel fuel. Ask you CVB or hotel contact.
Joanna: FINANCIAL INCENTIVE: Some facility are beginning to implement an incentive program for show management to help facilitate waste reduction. The Oregon Convention Center will be offering rental discounts if events reduce their previous waste by 20% HYDRATION STATION: Instead of ordering bottles of water for attendees just order groups of 5 gallon bubblers and titled the area as a “Hydration Station”. There are sponsorship possibilities for this option as well. SERVING IN BULK: Ask your venue to serve as much of their products in bulk so that you don’t have to order individually packaged items. Work with the venue to provide local/seasonal product. This will take some researching on your part and a collaboration with the venue and their purveyors so that you can get the particular items and quantity that you want. Rely on your Catering Manager to assist with what items are in season during your event. SHARED BREAKS: Consider cutting costs by working with other show managers that have events simultaneous to yours… possibly the venue will allow you to share your breaks so that both event attendees utilize the breaks and the show management splits the cost. HOUSEKEEPING: see next slide
Joanna to discuss housekeeping savings using Doubletree examples. Photo is from Sheraton Denver. Stay over guests can put hanger out prior to 2am to request no housekeeping for the next day. As a reward this guest will be given a $5.00 gift card to be used for food and beverage, services, or to be taken off of their final bill at check out. This provides bottom line savings for the hotel as well as helping the environment.
Cindy: Here are some ways to incorporate green efforts into your food and beverage orders. *China vs Compostable – China is the better way to go, however if there are water shortages in your destination city or a drought situation you may want to consider compostables. Make sure your destination city has a composting program.
Cindy – Using bulk products at your breaks and buffet tables.
Cindy
Cindy
MPI Oregon Chapter meeting – dessert centerpiece.
Edible centerpieces.
Cathy: Describe the Living Salad Bar
Joanna: We’ve talked about introducing green features into your meetings now here are some ways to get buy in from your attendees.
Joanna: Incorporate a “Community Service Project” into your conference agenda. -Clean a park, paint a school, plant a tree or work in an inner city garden. -Build bikes for the local boys and girls club You can find a local charity if you go to www.charity-charities.org You can find charities by category, cities and alphabetically. Cathy: Work with the local CVB on developing a sustainable pub crawl or wine tour. (Coffee shops or a dine around). You can hit 2-3 venues and have the event guided by a local professional and include a back of the house tour at one of the spots. Attendees can try the hot items of the season and learn how they’re made. Cindy: Green Thumb – provide an activity that teaches how to plant a mini herb garden. After the class attendees can donate the small herb gardens to local co-ops or shelters Geo-caching or Geo-teaming is a group activity that takes place typically outdoors and provides a fun way for team building and seeing the local community. You can learn more about a company that provides this service at www.geoteaming.com
Joanna: Incorporate Yoga & Green Tea into your AM/PM Breaks Plan an activity that the Destination is known for (support local businesses) Change slide as you describe the last three: Build a Sculpture or Outfit from recycled materials – change slide as you describe. Provide bikes for attendees to bike from their room to the meeting and then figure out the carbon offsets Bike Powered Snow Cone Booth
Cathy: This is a great green group activity – use local products when you can – check with the hotel, convention center, caterer, etc. Make it an interactive experience by having the attendees search for ingredients at a local market and use them later during a meal (next slide)
This is an early evening reception on the rooftop of the EcoTrust Building.
Cindy: Dress is made out of recycled Crowne Royal Bags
Adrienne’s piece is made entirely out of used coffee filters: the brown top is a natural resulting color from coffee grounds that is paper mached, the skirt is hand dyed by using berries.
Emily’s piece is made out of construction fencing and other misc. plastics.
Cindy: Jack Johnson En Concert: Efforts were taken to reduce the environmental impact of Jack Johnson's 2008 World Tour including powering buses, coaches and generators with over 14,000 gallons of sustainable biodiesel recycling and composting over 70 tons of waste from Jack's US tour dates, and more. Additionally, Jack Johnson offered fans the opportunity to offset fan automobile travel when they purchased a concert ticket through Ticketmaster. Over 31,500 fans offset a combined 1,807 metric tons of carbon from their travel to a show. Of course not every meeting has the budget for a big name entertainer, but using this same philosophy ask your LOC or your CVB for entertainers that offer sustainability in their beliefs and practices.
Joanna: Provide attendees seen properly recycling with “I was caught green handed” buttons, pins, etc to help provide an incentive and reminder or attendees to recycle and eliminate waste. Have enough buttons/pins for all attendees as the goal is that all attendees will have one by the end of the event. Or you can assign one attendee as the “Mayor of Green City” and ask him or her to tie thin strips of green used plastic to the lanyards of attendees that he/she catches doing something “green”. Have a carpool contest. Give additional raffle tickets to the members who carpooled with the most people in their car. Work with the local CVB or a local company that provides a carbon offset program that you can utilize for your event. You can offer a carbon offset option at the time of registration based on how many miles the attendee is flying and the type of transportation that will be utilized during the conference. Give attendees a sticker for their badge or make a list visible at the conference with the names of those that participated in the program. Websites: - carbonfund.org - earthera.com - ecosecurities.com
Joanna: Ask attendees to bring their own water bottle from home, maybe something that is meaningful to them or their company logo’d water bottle. Great way to start up conversation and to advertise their product, city, hotel or association
Joanna: Conference Bags – PCMA this year had a question on their registration website asking the attendee if they needed a conference bag. You can have a contest to see which attendee can bring the oldest conference bag If you have to purchase conference bags or you have already confirmed a sponsor then you can recycle the bags and donate them to a women’s shelter or research organizations that may take donations for third world countries. As an attendee if your organization doesn’t provide a recycling program for your conference bags you can simply leave them in your hotel room.
Cindy: When thinking about giving back think about your own meetings area of potential waste impact and match to a charity. An example is Missionwear – recycling vinyl banners where women needing work make these into school bags for school children locally or sent to children in Africa. To find a charity in the city you will be visiting, ask your CVB or local organizing committee. CENTERPIECES: Instead of floral centerpieces, select a charity and what they might need and then theme your centerpieces so that after the event they can be donated to the charity. ie, baby stuff, school supplies, a community nursery. You can also have a living plant that can be donated to a nursing home or local community garden with a note from your organization. TOILETRIES: Ask the hotel if they would support your organization by setting up drop baskets for half empty shampoo, conditioner, lotion bottles to be donated to a local shelter after your meeting. Clean the World take used toiletries, sanitizes them and sends to needy countries., i.e. Haiti. www.cleantheworld.org . Dress for Success – use the Oregon Chapter as an example of doing an annual clothes drive. Great for local meetings. Find a local food bank by going to www.feedingamerica.org . You can type in the zip code or state in which you are holding your meeting and obtain all the information you need to start a food donation process.
Cathy: Amenities are great ways to show your clients how green you can be. Examples are: Scarfs & Hats made of recycled bottle caps Natural wood paintings Solar Charges Bamboo Jump Drives (double up as a sales kit and a gift) Bike Chain Bottle Opener Bike Chain Luggage Tags
Cathy: Bulbs in recycled containers Green Tea Book marks with seeded pot Plantable Christmas tree ornaments As suppliers, we want to get our name out there and give out gifts that the planners will use and remember us by. Think about what is the purpose of the product and what is it’s life cycle vs. the duration of the event. Amenties, name badges, chotchkies that are used for the conference only and then end up in the landfill.
Cathy: Give the gift of a tree. There are many organizations where you can make a donation on line. Most of them offer recyclable greeting cards that you can send, or you can send an e-card. Use Intel thank you as example. You can also give actual trees to plant, but make sure that they will get used. Impractical to give as a booth giveaway. Examples: Arbor Day Nature Conservancy – Plant a Billion Trees American Forests Plant a Tree USA
