The Meetings and Events Standards Are Here!: http://wp.apexsolution.org/

Calling All Green Citizens 8/16/09

Opportunity Strikes! Until September 15th is your chance to review and comment on the APEX Green Meetings and Events Standards. Go to, http://wp.apexsolution.org/ to read, review and comment on the voluntary standards that have been written by your peers in the industry.
There is a 30 day period for public review and then the comments will be incorporated. Then the standards will be vetted with the American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM) Sustainability committee. With ASTM approval the government can incorporate these into their procurement department for over twenty thousand governmental meeting planners. This will be an amazing green filter for purchasing and give metrics on meetings that we haven’t had up to now.
These voluntary standards have been written in a historical perspective. They will act as guidelines and be a tool of measurement. Planners and Suppliers will now have a level field and transparency. Evaluating a green meeting will become much easier with these metrics. We will be able to create a baseline, track historical performance and create a positive competitive environment.
Daniel Goleman, author of, “Ecological Intelligence” writes about transparency and how healthy it is for facilitating change without mandatory regulation and compliance. Goleman writes, “…the first generation of transparency came about as a result of forced disclosure such as the right-to-know laws…”, “The second generation of transparency was also mandated, by rules that forced companies to disclose hard-to-detect risks or benefits…”. “Third-generation transparency goes beyond voluntary and government-dictated disclosure to bottom-up transparency driven by vigilant, active consumers.”
The APEX and ASTM Green Meetings and Events Standards are just this; “bottom-up” driven specifications that our industry peers(over 200 planners and suppliers) have crafted so that we can all track, collaborate and improve our environmental, social and economic impact when we meet.
Goleman writes about how this radical transparency as self perpetuating. In the case of meetings; first there was a lack of inertia while there is a very little understanding of how to measure green, now currently we are becoming more mindful as we identify the need and means to measure our environmental performance. And, finally the radical transparency creates a synergy of “active attention” because of the “intrinsic pleasure of mindfulness”.
We are on the entering a stage of gaining pleasure from being aware of are impact on the environment and being able to make educated decisions to alleviate enormous waste. We are starting to revel in understanding a path to sustainability for ourselves and future generations.
I leave you with this powerful phrase from Denial Goleman. “intrinsic pleasure of mindfulness”

http://www.danielgoleman.info/blog/

Be Well, Behave and Be Green
Kim is on the APEX Green Meeting and Event Panel and is liaison to the Food and Beverage Committee. He also volunteers on the Board of Directors for the Financial and Insurance Conference Planners association (FICP) where he is Vice President of Education. He is currently an Event Marketing Specialist with Guardian Investor Services LLC, NY, NY. Kim received the award of Greenest Meeting Planner of 2009 at the Green Travel Summit in March 2009.

2000 Times More Energy = A Recipe for Disaster

 

Calling All Green Citizens 7/26/09

 

GO H20 NAKED, GO BOTTLELESS! : It takes 2000 times the energy to produce bottled water compared to tap water. The Pacific Institute, www.pacinst.org, has released a study showing how bottled water is 2000 times more energy-intensive than tap water and they warn that product that has traveled long distances, i.e., FIJI Water, Evian, etc. is even more of an energy vortex. Think about that the next time you create your banquet event order.

VOTE WITH YOUR DINING DOLLARS: Your dining decisions have a huge impact and when you are holding an event it's multiplied by the number of guests, 3-5 times a day. Quoting Daniel Goleman from his book, "Ecological Intelligence", "If we can find a better choice, that's a vote, and every vote counts. Saying it doesn't matter what I buy, is like saying it doesn't matter who I vote for." www.danielgoleman.info

SODAS: Here is another insight based on Goleman's book. Coca Cola did a water consumption study in partnership with The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to better understand how to reduce the amount of water used to produce a liter of Coke. They wanted to reduce the amount from 3 liters to 2.5 liters. In this study they looked at all of the components in the production process and the rude awakening was that when they looked at sugarcane they discovered that it requires some of the most intense water use of any crop. The shocker is that it takes 200 liters of water to grow the sugar cane that is required for one liter of coke!

MENU: Watch out. There are so many sources of negative environmental impact when it comes to your dining and menu choices. One would think that a "lacto-vegetarian" meal would be a much lighter carbon footprint, WRONG! If you substitute a hard cheese in place of beef the amount of dairy needed to make the cheese can involve as much energy and methane emissions as does the cradle to cradle impact of beef.

More to come on the culinary front. Watch for the APEX/ASTM Green Meetings and Events Standards to be posted for public review and comment in August. If you become a member of ASTM for only $75 dollars you can even vote on these. We need industry consensus on these for their approval. Logon, review, comment, vote, move it forward. www.apexsolution.org
www.astm.org

 

Be Well, Behave and Be Green

Kim is on the Board of Directors for the Financial and Insurance Conference Planners association (FICP) where he is Vice President of Education. He volunteers on the, CIC's APEX/ASTM Green Meetings Events Panel. He is currently an Event Marketing Specialist with Guardian Investor Services LLC, NY, NY. Kim received the award of Greenest Meeting Planner of 2009 at the Green Travel Summit in March 2009.