26 GREEN MEETINGS
communications by creating better education for partners so they won’ t ship brochures and then end up“ dumping” the left overs?
Finally be sure to document all these challenges, lessons learned, and ideas so you can revisit them at next year’ s event or any other upcoming meeting or happening.
Creating a green event is like cooking. It will take some practice at first, some trial and error, and seeking out and using recipes like the ISO20121“ Plan-Do-Check-Act Approach”( PDCA)
The good news is that more and more of our colleagues are getting into the“ kitchen” to host sustainable events around the world. This is a real win-win for our earth and the organizations we work for and indeed a recipe for success for the future of meetings. So as they say in Italy – the home of minestrone- Buon Appetito, or as we say in Germany, Guten Appetit!
n The seven myths of sustainable event planning
Sustainable events are still tainted with a large number of myths. We have taken a closer look at the classic ones in order to contribute towards a change in attitudes:
1) Doing without is the main objective: At“ green” meetings the main focus is not on doing without things, but rather on devising better solutions that harm the environment as little as possible. Nothing has to be lacking- even at“ green” events.
2)“ Green” meetings are expensive: Eco-friendly organisation of events is often less expensive than a conventional approach, as it leads to a great deal of savings potential, for example in connection with energy consumption.
3) More time, effort and expense involved: A counter-example: If you handle the entire registration procedure for an event with over 10,000 participants electronically, you also save time and effort in addition to valuable resources: printing, stuffing envelopes, conventional mailing etc. – all of that is eliminated.
4) Only eco-catering is truly good: Organically grown papaya from Costa Rica has a poorer carbon footprint than fruit in season that is grown domestically. So by concentrating on regional and seasonal foods for catering, you can definitely make a contribution towards the environment and also ensure that the produce purchased is always fresh.
5) Guests want fun and not moralising: Guests want to feel good with a clear conscience – that can neither be achieved by wasting resources nor by preaching and fingerwagging. What is needed in this regard is enlightenment – but by no means dogmatism. Then climate protection can be combined with“ emotion”.
6) Great commitment – and nobody notices: In order for event guests to perceive them as credible, planners have to communicate their social and ecological commitment externally and actively integrate the guests into their concept.
7) Eco-friendly is uncool: In certain industries there is still a deep aversion to so-called“ tree huggers”, even though the era of purple bib overalls has been over for a long time. But the positive feedback is huge as soon as guests can experience successful green realisation first-hand and if the emotional level is addressed as well.