Green Meetings Essentials

Presented by

Carole GarnerDirector, Conference Management

MeetGreen

Moderated by

Tyler DavidsonChief Content Director

Meetings Focus

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

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Housekeeping

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Today’s Speaker:

Carole GarnerDirector, Conference Management

MeetGreen

cgarner@meetgreen.com

Green Meetings

EssentialsCarole Garner

Director, Conference Management

September 24, 2014

What you can expect to learn today

• How to motivate your event stakeholders to get behind

sustainable meetings– Understand what the “push back” might be and how to overcome the

obstacles

– Teach your staff and vendors how to incorporate sustainability initiatives

into their meetings

• Know which guidelines should be included in your RFPs

and contracts

• Understand the components of the on-site, back of house

tour and how to conduct one

• Ask for measurable data and include the information in a

post-event communication

Before we begin…a couple questions

Describe the current state of sustainability with your

meeting(s).

– A. Your department has a sustainability policy but it has

not been implemented yet.

– B. You have some green practices in place for your

meetings and are interested in implementing a policy.

– C. Your company is interested in incorporating (more)

green practices into your meeting(s).

Rate your knowledge of meeting sustainability

– 1- I have been implementing green meetings practices

into my meetings for over a year.

– 2- I started implementing green meetings practices within

the last year.

– 3- I am ready to implement green meetings practices.

– 4- I know a little about green meetings but want to learn

more.

– 5- I don’t really know much about it but am excited to get

started.

How to talk about sustainability with event stakeholders

• Start with strategy

• C-level executives

and board members

• Staff

• Vendors including

facility

Rebecca, we think making our annual conference more

sustainable is a fantastic idea. In fact, we’ll increase your overall

budget by 25% to make sure you have the resources you need.

Fantasy

Reality

C-Level and Board Level Stakeholders

• Identify the why

– Part of organization’s core values

– Part of your attendees’ core values

– Brand perception- risk management

• Use data

– Money saving strategies

– Money making strategies

Empowering staff

• Collaborate

• Incentivize!

• Recognize the effort, share results and

tell the story

Staff: Collaborate

• Make it relevant and set the context

– Inspire through storytelling

• Educate and inspire

– Low hanging fruit first- make it seem possible and easy

• Gain agreement on what will be implemented

• Set processes in place to succeed

Staff: Incentives

• Have staff set their own goals

– Make goals attainable

– Support with scheduled check ins

• Carrots are good!

– Reward behaviors that work towards your goal

Staff: Recognize and Share

• Celebrate successes and efforts

– Share challenges and wins

• Debrief on learnings

– Track metrics

– Aggregate across events to

share with stakeholders

Getting Vendors on Board

• Money talks

– But some of us have more than others…

• Start early

– And put it in the contract

• Talking works too!

• Create a spirit of collaboration, not an

adversarial relationship

Sample Contract Language

“…These sustainability goals will be reasonable targets for improvement that challenge the Hotel's

environmental performance while remaining manageable and economically feasible. During the duration of

this contract, both the Hotel and X Company acknowledge that the process to further green the Hotel will be a

collaborative one. MeetGreen agrees to provide expertise and recommendations to the Hotel on "greening"

the facility...Similarly, The Hotel agrees to support this commitment internally by engaging and educating all

departments of the Hotel about this special commitment.

Making it work on site

• Sustainability coordinator- an on site champion

• Back of house tour- observe, observe, and ask

– Meet with the people who know

– Areas to cover

• Housekeeping

• Loading dock, recycle/ waste facilities

• Kitchen

• Sleeping rooms

Tell the story

Reference Information

• APEX- Accepted Practices Exchange Sustainable

Meetings Standards

– http://www.conventionindustry.org/standardspractices/APEXAST

M.aspx

• GMIC- Green Meetings Industry Council

– www.gmicglobal.org

• MeetGreen® Calculator & MeetGreen Resource Kit

– www.meetgreen.com

• Hilton LightStayhttp://cr.hiltonworldwide.com/sustainably/sustainability_lightStay.html

Carole GarnerDirector, Conference Management

MeetGreen

cgarner@meetgreen.com

Tyler Davidson

Chief Content Director

Meetings Focustyler.davidson@meetingsfocus.com

Questions?

Our TAKE 10 feature, offered either on our website or via our Webinar Wrap

e-newsletters, provides answers to some of the key questions we just did not

have time to get to during today’s webinar. Look for an email coming soon!

Upcoming Events

• So You Think Your Event Website is Working? – presented by

Kevin Yanushefski

Thursday, October 2nd at 1:00pm Eastern

• Contracts: The Basics & Contracts: Advanced – presented by

Joshua Grimes

Wednesday, October 8th and October 22nd at 1:00pm Eastern

On Demand - Also available for you to view at any time.

Visit (www.meetingsfocus.com/webinars) today learn more, register and

Watch Now!

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Green Meetings Essentials

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