One + - July 2010 - (Page 98)

Recognizing Market Transformation BY ELAINE POFELDT T he U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is changing the way we meet. It’s no secret that meetings and events can be hard on the environment. Bright lights and jazzy displays burn up a lot of electricity. And the leftover marketing handouts and food service waste ﬁll many a dumpster. A group of prominent architects, builders and engineers joined together when they acknowledged they were part of the problem and decided it was time for a change. The USGBC, founded in 1993— best known for its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certiﬁcation—works to ensure buildings are created and run in an environmentally responsible way. LEED has grown to encompass more than 14,000 projects in the U.S. and 30 additional countries. Since 2002, the USGBC has organized the annual Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, the world’s largest green building event (last year it drew 27,000 attendees, representing 66 countries). The conference—this year from Nov. 17-19 in Chicago— offers educational sessions, workshops and events aimed at building operators in the hospitality sector. The USGBC has been awarded the RISE Award for Organizational Achievement for its pioneering efforts, which are having a signiﬁcant impact on the meeting industry. “We call it the U.S. Green Buildings tent revival,” said Kimberly Lewis, vice president of conferences and events at the Washing- L MPI PROUDLY PRESENTS THE 2010 RISE AWARD FOR ORGANIZATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT ton, D.C., nonproﬁt. “When you come together, you realize you are one individual part of a huge movement that is changing the world.” To advance its message, the USGBC had made the Greenbuild conference a model of how to run an environmentally responsible event. In fact, one hallmark of its event is the requirement that hosts follow green guidelines. The Legacy Project has sought to leave projects involving demonstration buildings, educational programs and/or community projects in each of its host cities. “It is imperative as a leadership organization that we not only talk the talk but operate in the same manner,” Lewis said. ast year’s Greenbuild conference in Phoenix showed how much advance planning it can take to fulﬁll these guidelines. Prior to the event, nearly 83 percent of trash from the Phoenix Convention Center went to landﬁlls rather than a recycling plant, according to the USGBC. During the year before the event, the nonproﬁt helped make changes at the facility that increased the percentage of waste recycled from 17.5 percent before the convention to 45 percent during the event. These efforts also reduced the energy used at the Greenbuild conference by 50 percent, compared to the prior year’s event in Boston. A 60 percent reduction in paper use from 2008 to 2009 saved the equivalent of 960 trees at the conference, according to the USGBC’s calculations. Beyond the conference, the USGBC educates the owners and managers of buildings where it is 98 one+ 07.10

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of One + - July 2010

One+ - July 2010
In It Together
Contents
The Energy of Many
Impressions
Overheard
Agenda
Top Spots
Focus On
SoundOff
Hot Buzz
Art of Travel
Your Community
Making a Difference
Connections
Irrelevant
Refresh Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself
Who Owns Social, Anyway?/Embrace the Changing Pace
Penalty for Posting Event Videos Online
Improving Your Meeting Performance
Want to Kill Your Chances at Getting a Job?
A Natural Fit
Wearing the Green Crown
Off the Beaten Path
Cracking the Code
Clear Your Mindspace
There Is No Try
Grassroots Giving
Recognizing Market Transformation
Meet Where?

One + - July 2010