eco-officiency blog » Conferences/Events

Greening Your Event

eco-officiency — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 05:00:10 +0000

One way to green your operations is to make your events and meetings more sustainable. Here are some simple ideas to get a company started;

Don’t Use Disposables: Refrain from using non-compostable or recyclable disposable products such as cups, plates and plasticware. Invest in compostable options (such as Eco Products) or re-useable items.
Offer Alternative Transportation Options: One of the biggest footprint of meetings is getting attendees to and from the meeting location. Offer alternative transportation options such as carpooling or public transit.
Use Green Locations: If you are holding the meeting offsite, consider hiring and using a vendor that has a green facility.
Reduce the Paper: Send handouts to participants beforehand so they can download them to their computer, ipad or smartphone and eliminate the paper handouts.

Here are a few green meeting and event resources;

The City of Denver just released an event calculator that will calculate the CO2 impact of your event.
Blue Green Meetings offers free tips and resources for greening events.
Green Events Source Book is a free guide to help meeting planners.
Green Meetings is a site produced by the EPA that helps focus on resource reduction with meetings and events.

Meeting Prep – Don’t Print that Document

eco-officiency — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:00:55 +0000

A study by Xerox showed that 45% of the office paper that is discarded was on the day it was printed – which begs the question, how necessary was it to print the document in the first place?

Next time you go to a meeting, consider whether everyone really needs a full copy of all the documents. If it is just an aid to be used during the meeting and then discarded, don’t print it. Not only does this waste paper, but often people will end up reading, or skimming, the document rather than listen to you talk. However, your audience still needs to be informed, so here are some alternatives to printing a copy for each person.

Print one or two master copies that can be passed around.
Develop a 1 page executive summary that highlights the main points
E-mail the information out beforehand so people can be familiar with the information
Use an overhead projector or white board to write up the main points or topics
Download to a e-reader such as a Kindle or iPad

Give Your Stuff Away Day- Saturday, May 15th

eco-officiency — Sat, 01 May 2010 05:09:14 +0000

This years begins a new day to help get rid of clutter and reduce waste called ‘Give Your Stuff Away Day”. A citizen based movement started by Mike Monroe that will initiate its first year of formation in 2010.

Give Your Stuff Away Day will happen on Saturday, May 15, 2010. Citizens across the U.S. will bring items of value that are longer needed or wanted to the curb for a free give-away. Mike has asked citizens not to put out trash, recyclables, illegal or dangerous items, food, drugs, chemicals, or weapons; which seems fairly obvious. Hopefully, at the same time, millions of other Americans will be driving, riding, or walking around picking up free give away items.

Not sure of its success or if people will really do it but might be a great opportunity to purge your garage, office and create re-use for items no longer wanted.

For more information visit Mike’s website at GiveYourStuffAway.com

Consider Purchasing Carbon Offsets for Work Travel

eco-officiency — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:00:58 +0000

Starting to wonder how much impact all that work travel is having? The average American commutes 20 miles a day, that’s about 5,000 miles a year, resulting in just over 2 tons of CO2.
Consider purchasing carbon offsets to counteract the carbon dioxide emissions of driving or flying home to meetings and conferences. A carbon offset for the entire year’s worth of commuting emissions could cost as little as $45. According to the Colorado Carbon Fund, a Carbon Offset means “neutralize,” “balance,” or “cancel out.” Carbon offsets counteract these activities by funding projects to compensate for CO2 emissions occurring at another source. These offsets help fund projects that reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Though there are many organizations that offer Carbon Offsets, the Colorado Carbon Fund and Aspen’s Canary Tags are two great providers that use the proceeds for projects in Colorado.

For more ideas on how to reduce environmental impact with business travel, see the article entitled What you Must Know about Flying Green by Patti Prairie CEO of Brighter Planet.

Attend CORE Sustainability Opportunity Summit- Denver, CO March 3-4, 2010

eco-officiency — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:38:23 +0000

CORE, the oldest and largest trade association in the Rocky Mountain region dedicated to promoting sustainable business practices and a more responsible global economy, announces that best-selling authors Andrew Winston of Green to Gold and Peter Fusaro of What Went Wrong at Enron will address plenary sessions of the fifth annual Sustainable Opportunities Summit and Expo March 2-4, 2010 at the Denver Convention Center. Top executives from Wal-Mart, AT&T, Waste Management and Miller Coors will also address topics on how sustainable business practices are improving business performance while benefiting the planet.

The 2010 Sustainable Opportunities Summit and Expo features 19 panel sessions and 70 speakers. The Expo opens to the general public on March 2 with over 100 exhibitors featuring the Rocky Mountain cleantech industry. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper will provide opening Summit remarks on “Denver, Gateway to Regional Sustainability” on Wednesday, March 3. Colorado Governor Bill Ritter will open Summit activities on March 4th.

The City of Denver will join CORE and the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado in co-hosting the Sustainable Opportunities Summit and Expo. The Summit brings together business leaders, investors and luminaries in academia and government to exchange ideas and demonstrate the competitive advantages available through a strategy based on proactive sustainable business practices.