Sustainable San Jose

February 2, 2024

Make your visit eco-friendly in the heart of Silicon Valley

The city’s main hubs for meetings and conventions, San Jose McEnery Convention Center, has acquired several certifications showcasing the city’s commitment to eco-friendly, sustainable practices, including the Santa Clara County Green Business and California Green Business Innovator certifications.

San Jose’s venues and communal spaces have been making grand efforts to create a more green and sustainable city for locals and visitors alike.

Embodying the Climate Smart Initiative

In 2022, San Jose City Council introduced a new plan, Pathway to Carbon Neutrality by 2030, created with the goal of making the city a more sustainable place to live and meet. In 2023, WalletHub ranked San Jose as the second greenest city in California and the sixth greenest city in the United States.

San Jose McEnery Convention Center’s culinary team sources local ingredients within a 150-mile radius to create fresh, organic and customized meals for meeting professionals who bring their events to the more than 360,000-square-foot convention center. In addition to sourcing locally, the convention center is one of the few on the West Coast to compost food waste; in 2021, the convention center recycled more than 81% of all collected waste in partnership with Z-Best Composting Facility in Gilroy, California. Additionally, the convention center donates and delivers meals to local food banks and shelters.

“That’s 389 diverted tons of waste from the meetings and events that we host,” says Matthew Martinucci, vice president of sales and destination services for Visit San Jose. “That’s a staggering amount of waste that is diverted. If you were to come here for an event, every fork you touch, every piece of cutlery, all of that, in addition to the food, is recycled.”

The convention center sits 3.9 miles from Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC), one of the country’s leading green airports, having implemented practices such as switching to San Jose Clean Energy, which provides 86% carbon-free electricity and building new construction to meet the U.S. Green Building LEED Silver certification, with a goal of earning LEED Gold certification. The convention center is home to two elegant ballrooms, plus 43 meeting rooms that can hold groups of 50 to 3,900.

Surrounding the convention center are 1,500 downtown and 2,500 city-wide hotel rooms. For added convenience, San Jose Marriott and Hilton San Jose are connected to the convention center. The 510-room San Jose Marriott features 21,957 sq. ft. of meeting space across 22 event rooms; Hilton San Jose is home to 354 guest rooms and 26,410 sq. ft. of meeting space. Hyatt Place San Jose, just across the street, houses 240 rooms and 6,865 sq. ft. of meeting space.

The convention center is also near four premiere theaters: San Jose Civic, Center for the Performing Arts, California Theatre and Montgomery Theater, all of which are available for private events. As Visit San Jose manages the four theaters, the eco-friendly practices of the convention center are also practiced there.

The convention center also gets its staff involved in its efforts, donating 1,000 hours annually (VTO, or volunteer time off) to community projects with organizations throughout the city and the Bay Area, such as Second Harvest Food Bank, Guadalupe River Park Conservancy, City of San Jose Department of Parks and Recs, and more.

How Meeting Profs Can Get Involved

San Jose offers numerous ways for meeting professionals to get involved in its efforts. That includes connecting with nature and wildlife at Guadalupe River Park Conservancy and Happy Hollow Park and Zoo, getting your hands dirty among colleagues at the six-acre community farm Veggielution, or even contributing to zero-emission coffeemakers Academic Coffee.

Guadalupe River Park is a 3-mile urban trail that can be traversed on foot or by bike. The trail runs through downtown San Jose, giving locals and visitors a place to unwind. The trail also includes several murals, and San Jose is working toward creating the longest public art trail in the Bay Area in collaboration with San Jose Walls.

Veggielution in Emma Prusch Farm Park has been in operation since 2008 and aims to connect people through food and farming. In addition to guided farm tours, Veggielution welcomes volunteers on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to help with planting, weeding, transplanting and other essential tasks.

Simply hosting your event in San Jose allows your organization to play a part in furthering your sustainability efforts. Martinucci says just last fall, a company that hosted a three-day event in the city gave the convention center a “carbon-neutral” rating. “That’s a phenomenal achievement,” he says. “It’s a good model for us to go to other groups and say, ‘Where else can you go where somebody can certify your meeting as being carbon neutral?’”