Meeting planners can learn a lot about sustainable events from next week’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, a five-time winner of the IMEX-GMIC Green Meetings award and the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green building.
A predicted 25,000-plus attendees and 800 exhibitors will attend Greenbuild at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC) from Nov. 8 to 10. As you might have guessed, the conference is uber-sustainable, which is made possible through a sustainability pledge that attendees can commit to at registration and onsite at the conference’s Sustainability Hub. The pledge features several guidelines for attendees to commit to, including bringing a usable water bottle to avoid waste impacts of disposable plastic water bottles, agreeing to walk to and from the event or use public transportation, responsibly disposing of waste materials by recycling or composting, using the linen and towel reuse program at host hotels and choosing sustainable food whenever possible.
This pledge allows Greenbuild to advance its goals toward becoming a zero-waste event, increasing stakeholder education, improving sustainable sourcing, improving performance tracking, reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and catalyzing the advancement of green building initiatives. Built to LEED Silver, BCEC currently has a 45 percent baseline waste diversion rate, with this year’s goal diversion rate set for 81 percent. More than 300 student and young professional volunteers will help with waste diversion efforts at this year’s Greenbuild conference.
