Sustainability While Traveling

Posted by Amy Jarvis on February 02, 2010 at 10:32pm

For the past two days, I have had the opportunity to attend the EUEC Conference in Phoenix. Being surrounded by passionate, intelligent speakers who aim to combat the climate crisis has led me to examine the sustainable aspects of traveling and attending conferences.

The hotel at which we are staying is fairly environmentally conscious. The cleaning staff allows guests to choose whether or not they want clean sheets and towels while the rooms boast efficient lighting and individual thermostat controls. The card keys are even made of corn plastic. However, the hotel has no recycling protocol or process to speak of, and the rooms lack lighting controls to shut off lights when guests are no longer occupying the space. Furthermore, at the conference we are eating on paper plates, and let’s not forget the thousands of air and road miles traveled for all 1,800+ attendees to get to Phoenix. This begs the question: how sustainable can a conference with in-person attendees be, and what actions to green a conference merit the effort?

One of the more obvious solutions lies in buying carbon offsets (a process which, incidentally, has come under scrutiny in a variety of presentations). Additionally, a conference can reduce printed materials and provide durable dishware, a practice in which we engage on a daily basis throughout M+NLB’s offices. For a conference with limited resources and time, what are the most important things to do to provide a sustainable conference experience?

Any and all comments are welcome.

Amy

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