Blog Post, April 09, Earth Awareness Month
My name is Kim Boriin, alias; The Green Boriin. I am a greenvangelist. Together with this blog I hope that we can explore green meetings, corporate social responsibility and sustainability. If you had Googled, “green meetings” a year ago you’d have gotten 2.8 million results. April 2009 a year later you receive 59.5 MILLION results. There is no doubt that there is a sea change happening regarding how we travel and hold meetings.
In this blog I want to share with you some of the amazing stories that are happening everyday in our industry, and, hear from you all what you are experiencing.
Presently, I volunteer with the Convention Industry Council’s Green Meetings and Events Panel. The CIC is partnering with the US EPA on the Green Meetings and Events Panel to develop Green Meeting Standards.
This entire effort is founded on industry consensus and everyone is invited to take part in reviewing, commenting and voting on these through the international organization, American Society for Testing Materials(ASTM). ASTM is one of the largest voluntary standards development organizations in the world and is a trusted source for technical standards for materials, products, systems, and services. ASTM International, was formed over a century ago, when a forward-thinking group of engineers and scientists got together to address frequent rail breaks in the burgeoning railroad industry. Standards developed at ASTM are by consensus of the industry’s technical experts participation in ASTM International is open to all with a material interest, anywhere in the world.
With the adoption of these Standards, EVERYTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE.
Going green and giving back continue to be an important part of almost every company's corporate mission statement. We can all seize the opportunity to design meetings with green, sustainable business practices and relationship-building CSR events. There are countless ways of framing these efforts so they benefit both the bottom line the community, and future business. Green, to me, means sustainable, healthy, forward thinking, and state of the art. CSR means embracing our company's mission to give back, and sharing these values through our meetings and events.
I truly believe that we stand at the dawn of the age of responsibility. We are the early adaptors, the beta testers, the leaders of Green Meetings. This place is not a resting place, this is a launching pad. Now is not the time to hold back, it is the time to encourage one another, and, BE THE CHANGE.
Be Well, Behave and Be Green