ENVIRONMENTALLY
RESPONSIBLE MEETINGS
Stellar Events
strives to enable our clients’ meetings to reflect conscious environmental
choices.
A setting with
hundreds of attendees is a powerful opportunity to practice principles that will
not only conserve resources but may also save money. A few examples
include:
Pre-planning:
-
Marriott Hotels has numerous initiatives such as “reduce-reuse-recycle” waste
management
that make it an industry leader – read more
here.
-
Universal Orlando (which
includes several superb Loews Hotels) practices “Green is Universal” policies that include conversion to
alternative fuels such as Biodiesel and Enthanol. The resort
also recycles
used cooking oils for alternative fuel uses.
-
Present
proposals utilizing double-sided printing whenever possible.
-
Suggest
room gifts made of recycled materials.
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Print
program materials on recycled paper with biodegradable ink.
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Emphasize
paperless communications in all aspects of pre-trip planning.
-
Ask
attendees during on-line registration which meals they plan to attend; this
reduces food
waste as well as
cost.
On-site:
-
Serve
complimentary filtered water from pitchers at breaks, instead of bottled water.
This offers considerable financial savings, as
bottles may cost around $5.00 each including tax and gratuity, and also avoids using hundreds or
thousands of plastic bottles.
-
Rearrange
and re-use floral arrangements at more than one event, or order reusable
decorations such as silk flowers.
-
Consider
menu choices utilizing food from local growers.
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Provide
receptacles for collecting name badges for recycling at the end of the program.
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Ask the meeting venue to
provide visible and accessible recycling containers for paper, metal, plastic and glass.
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Ensure that lights and
air conditioning will be turned off when meeting rooms are not in use.
-
Promote activity choices
that support the environment in specific destinations, such as
reef-building and
wetlands restoration in Hawaii.
Please join us in supporting
organizations such as
TerraPass, which sells
carbon
offsets to reduce and balance the impact of travel on the environment.
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