What a green meeting is should be more clearly defined by the end of the year according to Karen Kotowski, COO of the Convention Industry Council (CIC). She told me recently that more than 200 volunteers have been working for almost two years to help develop Green Meeting and Events Voluntary Standards.

The effort has been led by CIC’s Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC). An APEX Panel on Green Meeting and Event Practices has been guiding the standards creation process.

If your property has any stake whatsoever in the meetings business, I strongly recommend paying attention to the standards.

There are nine individual topic areas that comprise the standards and nine separate committees were charged with developing them. Operators of lodging establishments will be most interested in the Accommodations section of the proposal but should also pay close attention to the other eight sections. They include Audio Visual, Communication, Exhibits, Food and Beverage, On-site Office, Destinations, Meeting Venue, and Transportation.

Over the past few years, private corporations, nonprofits and governmental organizations have increasingly been including environment-related requirements in their requests for proposal (RFPs). The purpose of the new standards will be to create a level playing field of what constitutes ‘green’ in those proposals, Kotowski says. There is the expectation that demand for the new standards will drive use and compliance. There will be no organization enforcing the guidelines. “Hotels will want to meet the standards to gain a competitive advantage,” Kotowski adds.

I read through the proposed standards. My first impression was that an incredible amount of work went into putting them together. My second impression was that there are a lot of standards to consider -- some involving products that many hoteliers have yet to adopt -- bulk dispensers for soaps, shampoos and lotions, for example. It is clear that the standards are fairly balanced and do not burden hotels unfairly. What I mean is that planners as well as suppliers (hotels, convention centers and others) all have a responsibility to take necessary steps to reduce waste, save energy and water, etc.

A Basis for Making Decisions

The standards are a laundry list for planners to consider; they provide a basis for making purchasing decisions. No property will ever meet all of the standards. As stated by APEX on its website, the standards not only define environmental performance specifications but also make judgments relating to acceptable levels of performance within those specifications, identify pathways by which service providers can improve performance, and provide a coherent system of scoring that performance.

The standards are not set in stone. They are flexible and may change. The final draft standards are currently open for review and comment. Upcoming City Discussion Groups will be held in the following U.S. cities: Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; Fort Myers, Fla.; San Antonio, Texas; Denver and San Francisco. Those interested in participating in a discussion group may register through the APEX website. For those not in proximity to a discussion group, the APEX virtual blog site provides for greater access and participation. The draft standards may be accessed and feedback given at http://wp.apexsolution.org. Ultimately, the standards will be submitted for approval to ASTM International, one of the largest voluntary standards development organizations in the world.

Kotowski says that once the standards have been finalized, there will be a strong push to get the word out to the entire meetings community. CIC is comprised of 34 member organizations. Each will help to publicize the standards.

Don’t take this effort lightly. Billions of dollars of meetings business will be influenced in the coming years by the new Green Meeting and Events Voluntary Standards.

Glenn Hasek is the publisher and editor Green Lodging News, where the original version of this post appeared. Glenn can be reached at [email protected]

Image courtesy of the EPA.