Send a summary and link to this article To Email Your Name Your Email Bot Test To pass the Bot Test, please type the white text that you see in the gray box. This helps us prevent spammers from abusing the system.

Printable Version

Green Meetings Mean Business Here's how you can jump back into the game - or stay ahead of it – by taking advantage of the still-emerging green meetings market. Tuesday, November 22, 2011 Dan Marcec

bookmark this We are on Twitter @hotelinteractiv

As we reported previously, the groups and meetings business will be one of the biggest indicators of occupancy growth in 2012. And though it’s not surprising, the ubiquitous trend to go green is going to have a direct impact on how your hotel competes for that business. If you still think going green is a passing fad, you’re already a step behind. So here’s how you can get in the game and regroup, or if you’re already on the cutting edge, stay a step ahead.

“In terms of sustainable meeting practices and demand, the surface has just begun to be scratched; if you look at it as a bell curve, we’re still at the beginning,” says Ray Burger, president and founder of Pineapple Hospitality, a distribution and marketing company with a mission to balance profitability with sustainability. “From the federal government to corporate meeting planners all the way to individual travelers, you’ll see a lot more emphasis on green practices, with a lot more intelligent questions and requirements on RFPs.”

As a direct reflection of the heightened emphasis on green meetings, the industry's first and only comprehensive standards for environmentally sustainable meetings are being created through a partnership of the Convention Industry Council’s APEX initiative and ASTM International. Eight of nine standards have already been approved, set for full publication by the end of 2011, including Audio/Visual and Production; Communications & Marketing; Destinations; Exhibits; Food & Beverage; Meeting Venue; On-Site Offices; and Transportation. Only “Accommodations” remains in draft form, and currently is in balloting.

“In order to address all the areas where a meeting could have an impact, we really needed to bring together a lot of folks from different areas – meetings cover everything from convention centers, hotels, air travel, F&B, and a lot that goes into that,” says Lawrence Leonard, chief operating officer for the Convention Industry Council (CIC).

Specifically, more than 300 subject matter experts came together to contribute best practices to the process of developing formal standards and guidelines for what a green meeting entails. Though there definitely had been guidance in these areas before, the official standards broke ground on several fronts, Leonard says.

“The goal of these standards is to be proscriptive and give us as an industry a shared scorecard, a common way of talking about sustainable events and what we’re doing, and to give us a standard way of evaluating how we’re doing,” Leonard adds. “As you zoom out and people start reporting on their efforts, then we can see some aggregated data on the industry as a whole, and it will give us a way to assess and where the real challenges for us lie.”

Though these standards are in their infancy, literally, as the first are being published as I write, they are designed to give specific outlines for all areas of sustainability – from waste, water and energy to recycling and food products.

“The overall impact right now is a big open-ended question, but these standards at a fundamental design level bring together the intent and activity on both planner and supplier sides; it takes shared responsibility to a whole new level,” Leonard says. “A lot of hotels have put a lot of thought to their own programs that they’re branding and promoting and using in the market, and these standards are not designed to do away with any of those, but to co-exist and support each other.”

The Atlanta Marriott Airport, situated just a half mile from the United States’ busiest airport in one of its top convention markets, is on the front end of this push. As a recent example, in the hotel’s continued efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, the property acquired two additional compressed natural gas (CNG) shuttle vehicles for its guest operations as part of the property’s participation in the Clean Cities Atlanta Petroleum Reduction Program. The alternative fuel shuttle buses join the existing fleet of two compressed natural gas (CNG) and two fossil fuel vehicles.

“Part of our Marriott culture is being a global leader in hospitality management, and to be a positive force for the environment,” says General Manager Mark Spanka. “Greening our meeting space has been a gradual process through simple things like recycled notepads, pens from recycled materials, reducing water and paper usage, and through a partnership with America’s Second Harvest where we send leftover food so it isn’t thrown away. We look for any opportunity to go green.”

Though the hotel itself is flexible to host functions of myriad sizes on-property with 28,000 square-feet of newly renovated meeting space, including the 9,928 square-foot Grand Ballroom and 27 breakout rooms, the property is in close proximity to both the airport and Georgia International Convention Center, in addition to its location less than 20 minutes from downtown Atlanta. Therefore, even if a meeting isn’t in the hotel, elements like the hotel’s “green” shuttle service can entice eco-savvy travelers of all stripes.

“Companies want to do business with companies that have the same culture as they do, and we’re making every effort to be good stewards of the planet’s resources,” Spanka adds. “As you talk about how that impacts business, a large portion of RFPs want to know about green. I’d say 20 percent of RFPs five years ago would ask about green practices, and now 80 percent want to know about that.”

Burger agrees. “A couple years ago, you’d get asked about your sustainability program, and it would take five minutes of yes and no responses, but now you’re getting questionnaires requesting 60 detailed and very specific answers,” he says.

The private sector is not the only area where green specifications for meetings are leading the way.

While the hotel industry is understandably uneasy regarding President Obama’s executive order calling for cutbacks in travel, continuing his hot and cold relationship with travel and tourism, the recently released sustainable  travel guidelines from the General Services Administration can help hotels win the government business that is available.

Though the Order directs agencies to decrease travel and conference-related spending by 20 percent before 2013, hotels can take a look at what the government wants its meeting planners to key in on, and run with it to get a leg up on their competition.

For the full list of government guidance on sustainable conferences, click here and go to “Guidance: Sustainable Conferences”  in the right hand column.

Interestingly enough, bringing the green evolution full circle, the APEX/ASTM standards were actually borne out of the Environmental Protection Agency’s request to the Green Meetings Industry Council in 2007, which sought guidance for government meeting planners. The GMIC then conceived, conceptualized and initiated the standards in 2007 and passed the project along to the CIC, since the APEX initiative brings all segments of the conventions business together to tackle issues.

So while “going green” may be nothing new to you, whether you’re on the bandwagon or still skeptical, remember that the competition out there is fierce, and when you’re upgrading your properties during the ongoing renovation cycle, keep in mind elements that not only get you a good return on your investment, but allow your business to thrive so that you can keep that investment alive.