PORTLAND, Ore. — Meeting Strategies Worldwide has launched the MeetGreen Calculator, a gauge for environmentally friendly meetings.

The web-based calculator (subscription fee required) is available to anyone who wants to measure the environmental impact of their meetings and conferences. To assess an event's environmental impact, the MeetGreen Calculator compares practices of a specific event against the greenest alternative practices. Results provide a benchmark for future events and a comparison with other green events.

For example, environmental practices include use of locally produced food, selecting meeting sites where attendees can walk or use mass transit and diverting a significant portion of garbage by recycling and reuse.

The calculator is part of a suite of products and services that includes tools to use throughout the planning process to lessen detrimental environmental effects and a program to certify that an event is following the best green practices. Together they are called MeetGreen and constitute the first move towards an industry standard for environmentally friendly meetings.

Groups such as Sierra Club, US Green Building Council, Globe Foundation of Canada and Business for Social Responsibility have hired MSWW for the approach now quantified with MeetGreen.

"By working with Meeting Strategies Worldwide, we have attained a clear understanding of the level of environmental management we achieved with our recent World Urban Forum 3. Now we have a solid basis for improving our environmental performance in the future," said Ginny Stratton, Globe Foundation of Canada. "We are ecstatic to know that the host of practices we employed resulted in the highest possible MeetGreen rating and hope that the results of our efforts will create a legacy for future organizers of the World Urban Forum," Stratton said.

Events can make a difference in innumerable simple ways. Instead of providing costly and wasteful bottle after bottle of water, an event following MeetGreen best practices provides water in large containers and cups that are reusable. Instead of treating food leftovers as costly garbage, a MeetGreen-certified event likely treats leftovers as a donation to a local food bank. The strategy can result in reduced costs and always translates into quantifiable dividends for clients, attendees, local communities and the environment.

Meeting Strategies Worldwide for more than a decade has taken an uncommon approach in event planning and consulting to achieve outstanding results for its clients and the environment. The company made a name for itself as North America's pioneer in green meetings by looking for every opportunity to eliminate waste from its clients' events-a practice that also means gains for the environment.

"All organizations should be interested in the benefits of reducing waste. Now MeetGreen is available to identify and stymie waste associated with meetings - whether in the form of energy, natural resources or finances," said MSWW Principal Nancy J. Wilson, CMP.