Some good news has emerged for those seeking a universal standard for green meetings! The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX) are looking to collaborate on the creation of a Green Meeting Standard.
On the heels of two planning meetings, industry stakeholders gathered in Vancouver, Canada at the Green Meeting Industry Council’s Greening the Hospitality Industry Conference to discuss the preliminary scope, content and process for moving forward with the standard. The standard would enable meeting professionals to ask the right questions, make environmentally and socially responsible decisions and measure the impact of these choices. The standard could also potentially identify minimum criteria for being called ‘green’ in our industry, a baseline for which is sorely lacking.
The working group has identified a need to create credible, consistent and recognizable standards within each area of meeting management: destinations, accommodations, venues, food & beverage, transportation, communications & marketing and exhibits.
Input and participation in planning for the standard is presently being sought from stakeholders within and outside of the industry. Committees are now being formed. If you are interested in joining this important process, please send an email to operations@meetingstrategiesworldwide.com
On the heels of two planning meetings, industry stakeholders gathered in Vancouver, Canada at the Green Meeting Industry Council’s Greening the Hospitality Industry Conference to discuss the preliminary scope, content and process for moving forward with the standard. The standard would enable meeting professionals to ask the right questions, make environmentally and socially responsible decisions and measure the impact of these choices. The standard could also potentially identify minimum criteria for being called ‘green’ in our industry, a baseline for which is sorely lacking.
The working group has identified a need to create credible, consistent and recognizable standards within each area of meeting management: destinations, accommodations, venues, food & beverage, transportation, communications & marketing and exhibits.
Input and participation in planning for the standard is presently being sought from stakeholders within and outside of the industry. Committees are now being formed. If you are interested in joining this important process, please send an email to operations@meetingstrategiesworldwide.com
2 comments:
Currently, there is only one standard for sustainable events - BS8901, developed in UK. Is the North American standard you are talking about going to be similar to BS8901?
There is talk about some similarity with more exact measureables and checklists on the meeting practices themselves.
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