Resources for green meetings; for today, and for the future
Earth Day: it’s not just about spending extra time thinking about what we love about nature. It’s not a day for a green-themed party with leaf-adorned table settings, nor is it a day to hold a short-term campaign that fades into the background over the following weeks.
Think of it as a “green New Years’,” a day for setting resolutions we mean to keep through this year, and beyond. Its history is grounded in activism; its calls-to-action are resounding. It’s a widespread social movement, a day during which we, as human beings sharing this planet, take a moment to assess the work we’ve done, recognize where we’ve lagged and identify how we can improve our climate impact across the board, from the individual level to the corporate and governmental. It’s a day to launch initiatives, personal and company-wide, that will stay, grow and flourish.
History of Earth Day
In April 1970, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed a nation-wide environmental teach-in, hiring activist Denis Hayes to serve as national coordinator. Together, they named the event “Earth Day,” and Hayes’ team expanded the event to include the entire U.S.
In Smart Meeting’s ongoing journey to inspire meeting professionals with the latest tips for elevating the event design process, we worked with the AI app InVideo to bring our content to visual life and allow all viewers to accessibly enjoy content in video form. We hope you enjoy. Please consider following our YouTube channel for more weekly tips and trends for meeting planners.
On this first Earth Day, around 10% of the U.S. population took to the streets to advocate for environmental awareness. Their movement paid off; the next few months saw a wave of environmental legislation and initiatives, including the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Act and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Countries around the world soon followed with environmental legislation of their own. 46 years later, the United Nations selected the anniversary as the date to sign the Paris Climate Agreement.
That very first Earth Day is recognized as a driving force of the modern environmental movement, and Earth Day, in its modern form, is recognized as the largest international civic event each year, with over 17,000 partners and organizations in 174 countries and over one billion participants.
Read More: Tracking Your Group’s Carbon Footprint Now a Reality
Earth Day 2024: Planet vs. Plastics
This year, EarthDay.org, the official site for the annual event, has set “Planet vs. Plastics” as the theme.
The central goal is for a 60% reduction in the production of plastics by 2040 to lead to the larger goal of a plastic-free future.
Plastics are everywhere; straws are often the scapegoat, but they aren’t the only culprit. Do you have plastic-headed thumbtacks holding up pictures on a corkboard? What about your event badges? How many attendees do you produce those badges for? Wherever you are right now, if you sit back and look around you, you’ll be hard-pressed to find your surroundings completely plastic-free.
Read More: Drowning in Plastic
So, a plastic-free world is difficult to imagine. But the stakes are enormous.
Background on Plastics and Their Impact
According to EarthDay.org, over 380 million tons of plastic are produced annually around the world, and 95% of all plastics will not be recycled at all. There are different types of plastics, with codes that denote which of seven recycling codes it is. Generally, the higher the number, the more difficult it is to recycle the material.
But even so, not everything you’ll put into a recycling bin will actually be recycled. It depends on what materials the local municipality considers to be recyclable or not—and even if the object has that classic three-arrow symbol, it takes a little more digging to find out if it can actually be recycled where you are. When a plastic material is not recyclable, in almost every case it’ll be diverted to landfill.
To add to the horror, plastics will never fully decompose. They’ll exist in their disintegrated form, microplastics. Plastic isn’t only an environmental issue; it also impacts human health. When plastics break down into microplastics, they release toxic chemicals that can enter our water sources, food sources and even the air we breathe.
With all of these scary numbers and decomposition processes in mind, you might be thinking, “Well, what in the world can we do?!”
The simplest answer is to reduce our plastic use as much as possible. And, have grace with yourself. Plastic is so engrained in our lives. But just as there are innumerable areas where we use plastic, there are alternatives out there. And when large masses of people reduce their plastic usage across the board, there’s less of a need for as much plastic to be produced. From there, the impact of plastic on the earth can begin to diminish.
Where Do We Go from Here?
Meetings and events, unfortunately, produce a lot of waste. But in recent years, sustainability has grown from a niche topic to a central focus in the industry. More planners than ever are including certain sustainable measures in their RFPs, looking for ways to reduce waste and even carbon accounting—keeping track of the carbon emissions produced throughout their events.
Read More: 4 Easy Tips for Reducing Meeting Waste
Sustainability is dense, and there are so many layers, so for the purposes of this article, we’ll share past discussions and stories Smart Meetings has held, so you can browse educational materials on sustainability at your leisure. many of our past sustainability articles linked throughout, if you want to learn more about other areas of sustainable planning.
Waste Reduction
Just as you looked around you, wherever you are right now, to identify the plastic in your vicinity, imagine yourself in your last meeting room. Where was the plastic? Were attendees given plastic water bottles? Were amuse-bouchées passed around on little plastic plates? Plastic cups for drinks at a networking reception? What happened to the décor once you broke your event down? And so on.
Waste comes into nearly every aspect of a meeting and event you can think of. In September 2023, Smart Meetings hosted a webinar, “How to Master the New Green RFP” with Emily Scheiderer, senior director of education, sales and services at Destinations International (DI), Michelle Moore, senior director of meeting sales and services at Experience Kissimmee and Rory G. Archibald, senior business events manager at Visit Scotland. They discussed a wide range of ways planners can incorporate sustainability into their RFPs, with a big focus on how meetings deal with waste. Scheiderer shared a particularly interesting fact when she said that carpet, of all things, has a larger impact on a meetings’ carbon footprint than many people realize. To account for this, planners can reuse or donate carpet, or sacrifice it all together—and the group went on to discuss how that might affect the meeting experience across the board.
Just a few months earlier, Smart Meetings shared the story You Can Go Net Zero in its January 2023 issue, which addressed both the how-to and the stakes for green RFPs. It includes all kinds of easy-to-understand explanations of where waste comes from in meetings, how planners can keep track and how planners can reduce waste to strive for the ultimate goal of net zero meetings.
A year later, Smart Meetings published another sustainability feature story in January 2024, Your Complete Guide to Sustainability. Here, you’ll discover essential vocab, need-to-know organizations for further resources and how planners can work in sustainable changes that leave attendees feeling happy and inspired, rather than feel like the meeting was lacking when things they’re used to having, like water bottles, are replaced with something like glass carafes and cups.
If you’re interested in learning more about carbon accounting, Smart Meetings spoke to Heather Griffin, vice president of marketing at Impact XM, to learn more about the company’s seven sustainable action areas for planning green meetings.
Don’t Forget to Celebrate the Victories
This Earth Day sees the debut of a wide array of sustainable initiatives within the industry across the board.
At Anaheim Marriott, the team behind nFuse restaurant has debuted a completely carbon-neutral cocktail, La Naturaleza. The straw, a classic culprit of plastic waste, in this cocktail is actually carbon-negative, made with AirCarbon. Traditional synthetic plastic cannot decompose, but these AirCarbon straws, produced by Newlight Technologies, Inc. convert greenhouses gases into a biodegradable plastic replacement that natural microorganisms can consume as compost. Smart Meetings spoke with Henry Martinez, director of event operations, about the cocktail while onsite at the property. Watch the interview to learn more.
Marriott Marquis Washington DC is trailblazing in its own way with the appointment of DC local and sustainability expert Stephanie Miller in a brand new role as sustainability concierge. She will assist guests and meeting planners at the property with adopting sustainable practices throughout their stay as well as answer questions about how to get around the property and surrounding neighborhoods sustainably. And, it’s worth a mention that this property is one of DC’s largest LEED Silver-certified hotels.
National boutique hotel brand Staypineapple just recently announced that it has replaced all single-use plastic water bottles with complimentary PATH refillable water bottles, which, being aluminum, can be recycled at the end of guests’ stays. Guests can refill at Quench Water Bar refill stations, which offer both still and sparkling water. This change will help to divert nearly 500,000 single-use plastic bottles from landfills annually.
New Haven, Connecticut is home to Hotel Marcel, which not only holds LEED Platinum certification, but is the country’s first 100% electric, solar-powered hotel, operating completely fossil fuel-free. It actually produces more energy than it uses, with over 1,000 solar panels that produce over 575,000 kwhs annually and even an elevator designed to generate power for the hotel when braking. It has found ways to cut energy use, such as with its Power-over-Ethernet Lighting System that reduces lighting energy use by over 30%. Hotel Marcel offers 165 guest rooms and suites and over 9,000 sq. ft. of meeting and event space.
Finally, Ensemble Hospitality has debuted a new eco-friendly tourism program, “Sustainable Travel with Ensemble.” It focuses on reducing Ensemble’s overall carbon footprint and reducing carbon emissions over the course of the coming years at its nine owner-operated hotels. Five key initiatives make up the program: carbon offsetting, through the reduction of energy consumption by 10% per year; reduction of single-use materials, with the elimination of 90% of all single-use plastics like bottles and bags; minimization of waste, with an increase in reduction, reuse and recycling and a 10% waste diversion; reduction of water use, with a decrease in consumption by 5% per year; and a focus on sustainable sourcing for food.
Read More: Best of 2023: Sustainability
