Event management and consulting firm
Meeting Strategies Worldwide is offering two online tools to help planners select meeting sites based on the eco-friendliness of prospective locations and the estimated carbon emissions resulting from air travel.
The company launched
Best Places to MeetGreen, the home of the
MeetGreen Scorecard and
Calculator, at the start of the month. Both are free to use, although cities must pay a fee to be listed among scorecard destinations with green attributes, which are verified by the company.
To use the calculator, enter the expected number of attendees and their anticipated regions of origin into an interactive worldwide map. Step two involves selecting potential meeting sites from more than 140 major cities in 16 regions of the world. The calculator will estimate carbon emissions from air travel to as many as five places at a time.
The destination scorecard currently lists just five cities — Portland, Pittsburgh, Seattle, San Francisco and Orlando — and the firm hopes that more will participate in the rating service. Currently, Portland tops the list with a score of 147. The highest possible score is 178, said Vanessa Adelmann, the operations manager for Meeting Strategies Worldwide.
The
scorecard rankings are based on the environmentally friendly programs in place at the destination city's convention and visitor's bureau, at the convention center and at hotels in the town's conference package, Adelmann said.
