Best Practices: Green Meetings Site Inspection Checklist

As we’re all aware, there’s been a lot of talk about ‘green’ this and ‘green’ that when it comes to meetings – we’ve even blogged about ways to ‘green’ your next Corvallis meeting – but when it comes down to brass tacks, how can planners, Destination Management Organizations (DMOs), facilities, and food/beverage providers work together to identify the most environmentally sound meeting options?

Portland, Oregon-based Meeting Strategies Worldwide can help! The Summer 2009 edition of Northwest Meetings & Events Magazine offers a green venue site inspection checklist based on the Meeting Strategies Worldwide MeetGreen Toolbox. Below, I’ve paraphrased a few basic questions to ask of convention centers, hotels, and caterers:

• Are paper products made of at least 20% recycled materials? Corvallis Tourism has recently committed to implement this change in our office and Visitor Center.
• Are glass, aluminum, paper, cardboard, plastic, and grease recycled?
• Are water-conserving fixtures installed in bathrooms and kitchens?
• Is energy purchased from sustainable sources?

Specifically food-related questions:

• Are locally grown and/or organic foods and products purchased whenever possible?
• Are condiments and beverages served in bulk, rather than in individual servings? Simply serving water in pitchers, as the LaSells Stewart Center has been doing for years, rather than in plastic bottles, reduces waste significantly.
• Is leftover food donated to an appropriate charitable organization?
• Is food waste composted?

The checklist gives you a simple way to record whether a property has a given practice currently in place, does not make it available and doesn’t plan to add it in the future, or will commit to implementation in time for your event.

We’re in the process of completing the verification process to have Corvallis included in the Best Places to MeetGreen database! Stay tuned for updates as we move through the process.

Happy green meeting!

                

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