Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Still Live from San Francisco!

As promised, I am blogging live from Oracle Open World. It is my attempt to share what is actually happening at a conference that has taken on green practices. Last year’s conference set the benchmark and this year all efforts are towards raising the bar.

Now, I have planned conferences for a few thousand and know what it is like to work with large numbers of participants. Or so I thought. I must say, however, there are A LOT of folks here all wanting to work, play, network, and learn. Not to mention…eat, drink and sleep!

A conference program is really is a necessity this year. Planners took a look at what could be cut out of the program and reduced its size by one-third. They also switched to 100% post-consumer paper. In a related decision, they limited the amount of collateral printing at the show.

What was the impact of those decisions? A savings of….

965 Trees
411,585 gallons of water
692 million btu of energy
45,533 lbs. of solid waste
89,925 lbs. of greenhouse gases

The savings were announced at the opening session with great audience response!

Today’s lessons: look for ways to minimize printing; use 100% post consumer paper when you must print; measure it; and tell everyone what has been done on their behalf.

Tomorrow it is off to the conference’s “Green Marketplace.” Stay tuned!

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