A really helpful tool for green conference planning would be sample
contracts - where the caterers get penalized for using styrofoam,
incentives are built in to the host facility for increased diversion,
etc etc. Apologies if this is on one of those websites whose URL I can't
seem to find just now!
Anne
Gracestone, Inc.
303.494.4934 vox
303.494.4880 fax
Mary Appelhof wrote:
Lisa Lynn Anderson said this in reference to a coming conference in
Fort Worth:
"A client wants to hold an eco-friendly event . . . Recycling programs
are
a great place to begin and often an indicator of how well the hospitality
industry is poised to work with us."
We held a conference back in the mid-80's, "Waste is not Waste Until
it's Wasted," (compliments to Mary Lou Van deVenter)to turn back
attempts to site an incinerator in SW Michigan. Paul Connett was a
keynote speaker. We used porcelain plates and cups and real silverware
with paper napkins for the buffet lunch we served. (Had to make
arrangments for washing the dishes in an approved kitchen over at
Wesley House.) Had buffet tables with the food. No condiments in
little plastic packages. Had containers labeled Worm Food for the
plate scrapings.
We had only 12 pounds of food discards from the meal for 150 people.
If I had thought about it more, I would have had participants put the
paper napkins in with the food discards. Anyhow, fed my worms with the
discards. They produced castings that I used to fertilize an African
Violet which I displayed at my booth at the following year's Recycling
Conference. Called the concept "Closed Loop Recycling," where food
discards from one year's conference became decorations for the next.
Contrast that to a Sustainable Business luncheon I attended this week:
Styrofoam plates, cups, plastic tableware wrapped in plastic. Waste
baskets full of plastic crap all mixed with food waste and condiment
packages. Real Progress, eh? (The organizers said they were told by
the caterer that plastic and styrofoam would not be used, but when it
was delivered, that's what they got and it was too late to change."
Good for you, Lisa Lynn, to help current planners do a better job.
Mary Appelhof
|