Category Archives: waste management

Great Expectations: Exhibitors and sustainable events

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You don’t need to see the leavings of a trade show to understand just how much waste is produced by our industry… but it helps.  For all the effort and focus on sustainable event standards and all the chatter to get planners up to speed and engaged, one wonders if exhibitors fell through the cracks.

With their heavy loads of brochures printed in far away places, with their oversize booths with bright lights and toxic carpets, and with their plastic giveaways that seldom make the suitcase home, it’s as though many exhibitors cling to methods and practices from the 70′s.  As much as exhibitors are vital to the financial health of events and trade shows, they represent liabilities related to waste management and energy use. But..how to get exhibitors on board with sustainable practices?

Exhibitor Outreach: Getting started

1. Research: Have a look at the APEX/ASTM standard for environmentally sustainable exhibits.  Also, and although it’s 2008 (c’mon, it’s not THAT long ago) An Inconvenient Booth is worth a free download. Check out Green Meeting Industry Council’s great webinar. And don’t miss this article from Exhibitor magazine‘s Charles Pappas on eco-friendly exhibiting.

2. Engage: Poll exhibitors for what they’re doing now.  Explore their interest in different alternatives for efficient lighting and signage.  Identify what items they may leave behind and create a plan to donate those to local charitable groups.

3.  Share:  Provide helpful advice and best practices for more responsible tradeshows.  The best example I know is UUA’s sustainable exhibits page. (disclosure: I was a small part of a MeetGreen effort to put this together).

4. Acknowledge: Greenbuild has worked for years to develop incentives and recognition for exhibitors who integrate sustainability.  Favorable locations on the show floor, promoting their efforts in communications, and basically making it cool to have sustainable exhibits.  IMEX encourages sustainable exhibitors with the IMEX Green Exhibitor Award.

The trick to getting getting exhibitors engaged in sustainability starts with your own commitment to sustainable practices.  Once the event organizer sees value in reducing waste, creativity in integrating good ideas into the event isn’t far behind.

Food waste? Or leftovers! Donations as management strategy.

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By some reports, consumers in the United States waste 40% of purchased food.  Review the U.N. report which states that one-third of the food produced internationally goes to waste. Then consider the research estimating that 925 million people suffer from chronic hunger.

Too often, events are big contributors to the amount of food waste.  Event planners find it difficult to accurately predict how much food may be needed and order on the high side to avoid running out of food.  Catering teams, also concerned with running short, will normally prepare 10% more food than the amount ordered by the client.  RIsk of waste increases when event participants opt out of catered events.  Should any of these decisions result in excess food, the likelihood is that it will be discarded rather than donated.

Safe, un-served food from events might be seen as an asset to communities rather than a type of waste to be managed.  Heavy, wet food is expensive to throw away into traditional systems. Once collected, it adds up to about 2000 pounds per cubic yard.   In a landfill environment, this organic waste creates methane, a Green House Gas 5 times more damaging than carbon dioxide. Still, standard practice throughout the United States is to throw this potential asset into the landfill.

Thoughtful venues, event planners and charitable organizations have developed solutions to reducing food waste by coordinating donations to community groups.  In San Francisco, Food Runners now has a network of 250 organizations to whom they deliver.  This network helps feed the estimated 160,000 people in that city.  In Las Vegas, Three Square Food Bankhas 23 trucks racing through the city to collect safe food from area restaurants. Can such organizations collaborate with events?

 

What you can do

1. Ask the caterer.  What strategies can they deploy to reduce waste?  What relationships do they have with local food banks or charities? Are there menu items that seem to be wasted less?

2. Ask the city.  What initiatives are in place to facilitate food donations?  Can they help you overcome barriers and concerns from the health department (often cited as a reason caterers fear donating food)?

3. Read the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act of 1996. In the United States, this active legislation dramatically reduces risk of liability  to any organization or person donating food to a charitable organization.

4. Engage your participants.  Explain the goal to reduce food waste.  On buffets, establish a table to serve a ‘put it back’ option for items like uneaten whole fruit and packaged yogurt.  Get and communicate accurate counts.

5. Communicate meal times to charitable organizations.  Help them plan to be on site to collect food at the right time.

You’ve seen good and bad examples of events managing their food waste effectively.  What tips do you want to share?

Go forth, eat well and waste less!

 

 

Pay it forward: donating event ‘waste’

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Consider for a moment that, by some reports, (here, too) the U.S. wastes 40% of it’s food.  The USDA figures that if just 5% of the US scraps were recovered they would represent one day’s food for 4 million people. The cost to deal with that waste is estimated to be 1 billion dollars annually. Then, ponder the U.N. reports on food waste which record one-third of all food produced goes to waste while 925 million people experience chronic hunger.

Catering teams serving event venues see food waste every day.  Some see cost, others see opportunity.  Thankfully, both types of people are creating collaborations with event planners and charitable organizations to create a movement to reduce event waste by ‘paying it forward’.

In San Francisco, Food Runners has created a network of 250 organizations who now receive food to help feed the 160,000 locals in need each day.  In Portland, Oregon, city leadership created the Fork it Over program designed to get safe, un-served food ‘waste’ to people instead of the garbage can. Las Vegas, a city that knows a thing or two about excess, has a number of initiatives, including the Las Vegas Rescue Mission. Most cities have systems in place, but a surprising number of event planners and suppliers don’t take steps to pay it forward and reduce waste.  Here’s my guess why few do it, along with reasons they should start:

1.  “It’s illegal/against city ordinance/risky.”  ‘What if somebody gets sick from food we sent?’:  All donors are protected from liability under the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donor Act of 1996

2.  “We’re busy” / “It’s a hassle”.  Don’t assume it’s difficult, ask your caterer.  If they don’t know, have them contact the city.  Food Bank networks are creative in helping you look good with food donations, often to the point of collecting the donation themselves.

3. ‘We just don’t have much waste’.  Being prepared is not a crime.  Simply by asking the caterer to help identify a recipient for donated food, you’re helping to create a system where less food goes to waste.

Get started with paying it forward

1.  Start early, ask often.  Initial emails, Request for proposals to caterers, site visits to cities and contracts with venues are all perfect places to include expectations for food donations.  Ask about options. Have suppliers explain how it works.  Show interest and support for the idea of donating safe, un-served food from the outset of the event plan.

2. Design the registration site so people commit to meals they want to attend.  This has long been the practice for gala events, but planners still rely on ‘gut’ to predict how many people will eat a breakfast.

3. Explain the initiative to event participants.  Don’t think that donating food needs to be a dirty secret.  Explain the plan and showcase the charitable organization(s) receiving food.

4.  Get and provide accurate counts.  Follow up with registered delegates. Collaborate closely with caterers to identify the right amount to prepare.

5. Track and reduce.  The goal isn’t to have lots to donate.  In an ideal world, the amount of food purchased and prepared would equal the amount consumed by event participants.  Here’s hoping that can happen. Until it does, and perhaps to help get us all closer, keep records of how much food was left from your event.  Note any unusual factors that influenced the result.  Set goals to shave that amount.  Share your solutions so others can waste less, too.

Help us create a list of organizations internationally who help facilitate food donations by sharing your comments here and/or share a link to their site on Twitter with the hashtag #GMICDonation.

Interested in more? Check out Shawna McKinley’s post on event-related food waste here

Waste as cost: who’s the biggest loser?

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This interesting analysis shows the correlation of the US economy to trainloads of trash headed for the landfill.  Upvote for novel perspectives of complex economic modelling.

Waste = cost
Paradoxically, the railroad study aligns a healthy economy with an increase of trash produced.  Meanwhile, In the world of business and events, the more you waste, the more you pay.

Example:  If an event attracts 15000 people, as happened a few months ago in Orlando, its possible to produce 470 tons of waste. Waste hauling rates vary widely but even if the waste collection and disposal costs were a very low $43 per ton, it represents an expense of $20,000 US.  But most of that waste doesn’t go to the landfill.. it goes to recycling, right?  Well, likely not.

This study figures that venues could easily divert (recycle, compost or donate) 38% of waste going to landfill.

One way to interpret that statistic is to say that event planners pay 38% more for waste hauling costs than is necessary. In the above example, that’s $7,700 which could be otherwise allocated.

Why pay more?
So, does measuring waste matter? To get an understanding of the size of the problem (or size of the opportunity) planners should conduct an aggressive study of the waste at their events.  Because it represents a cost, waste is a risk and a liability.  Planners should develop strategies and select great suppliers in pursuit of better, more profitable event.  A focus on waste is one plank of a smart plan.

1.  Conduct a study of the waste produced at your event

2.  Identify the cost of waste produced by your event at that location

3.  Review results of the waste study with venues to create strategies to reduce waste and cost

4.  Measure results of the new waste management plan and tie a value to the amount of waste reduced

5.  Share findings.  The Green Meeting Industry Council, as one ready example, will share your case study to help others.

Toot! All Aboard the improvement express! Please share your thoughts, examples, studies and experiences here! The faster we improve, the faster we reduce cost, both financial and environmental, for every body.

Destinations: Sustainability and Prosperity

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Stockholm, Sweden is, unquestionably, a leader in sustainable development for municipalities. In Sweden, environmental and social responsibility are hallmarks of a stable and prosperous economy.  One measure: 90% of the 523 kilograms of waste (or 655,000 metric tons) generated annually per person is used for energy to heat homes and businesses or is composted for bio fuel or is recycled.

A photo taken on a day off infers ‘Which way to sustainability?’ Signpost.  Husarö, Stockholm archipelago

Meanwhile, Copenhagen, Denmark is successfully integrating sustainability, with industry awards to prove their success (they were just named the European Green Capital 2014, beating 17 other cities).

The successes seen in Scandinavia are an example of cities ‘getting it right’ by balancing the needs of people and economy.

What if there was a convenient list of all the cities getting it right?  What if we could develop such a list that would save meeting planning time by identifying cities where sustainable events come easy?  As it happens, such a list can exist.  Here’s one opinion of cities getting it right (and a few powerful event destination cities that, thus far..  not so much):

Cities getting it right by helping sustainable event planners (a non-exhaustive list)

1. Copenhagen, Denmark

2. Whistler, BC

3. Amsterdam, the Netherlands see also RAI

4. Melbourne, Australia

Unsung heroes: Cities doing heavy lifting for sustainability that you might not know about

1.  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania  and, importantly, this amazing report

2. Gothenburg, Sweden and here (They’re friends, yes, but they merit attention. Nobody is doing more)

3. Bangkok and TCEB

Opportunity for Leadership: Cities too quiet in promoting sustainable practices

1. Vienna, Austria

2. Paris, France

3. Barcelona, Spain

4. Beijing, China

5. Sydney, Australia

In my day to day work here, we’re actively developing what is already a very cool site focused on providing planners a simple way to find cities which are ‘sustainable event friendly’.  Check it out here and then share your thoughts on what cities are missing, either from my lists above or from the list of scored cities on the Best Places to Meet Green site.

Resource Waste: Cool infographics

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Waste not, want not

Recycling represents an opportunity to preserve resources we’ve already invested in acquiring. Paper, plastic, steel, aluminum are just some examples of products which must be harvested and produced at great expense and refining.  If there were no value to these needed products, we don’t really have reason for an article.  But, of course, recycling pays.

Perhaps the economy in your community is so strong that earnings from recycling aren’t attractive.  For most places, the money represented by the mountains of recyclable products thrown to the landfill each year is needed revenue.  Consider that 80% of waste in US landfills could be recycled. *insert mental image of removing cash from your wallet and dropping it into a nearby waste bin*  Waste not, want not.

Theory: If we can raise awareness about the need to better manage our waste streams, it can lead to increased revenues for communities.  So, with a salute to two clever teams, I offer compelling infographics:

the first from BusinessDegree.net

Life of Garbage
Created by: BusinessDegree.net

The second, from Round2

Trash and Recycling Infographic
Infographic authored by ROUND2 INC., an Avnet Company specializing in computer recycling. To view the original post, check out the original Trash and Recycling infographic.
Recycling is a vital link to creating sustainable communities.  Please share your own resources related to the business case for recycling here!