I am pleased to present our first Guest blogger here at The Gems – Shawna McKinley. Shawna is a true dynamo when it comes to creating sustainable events and I am very thankful that she has agreed to make a contribution here! – GR
An Alphabet soup of standards you greet,
When starting to green how it is that you meet.
APEX, ISO and BS eight-nine-oh-one,
Reading them you’d think event sustainability’s not fun.
Carbon is something you’ll count a lot,
But that’s not much if an offset is all that you’ve got.
Donations are great, better than landfill indeed,
But reduction is really the action we need.
Equality and ethics you add to the pot,
(And if you do be sure to ask Joan Eisenstodt.)
Food waste is something that should be a crime,
One third of what’s picked goes to rubbish in time!
GMIC’s there to help with people who know
How far sharing your green event story can go.
Haggle for compost and recycling for your event guests,
But remember: making sure they sort is a real test.
For some planners ISO can show that you care,
Although flexible objectives and targets may not seem fair.
Environmental justice counts too, but what does it mean?
Ask a housekeeper whose chemical cleaners are often unseen.
A trip into the kitchen gets my vote.
Spy enough food packaging to make you choke?
Local is good for signs, swag and food,
But if it’s grown in a hot house it might spoil the mood.
MPI mentions the importance of “CSR”.
My advice to you: be clear what the words’ meanings are.
Be careful of ‘natural’ and ‘organically grown’
When you buy it you might be unclear what you own.
When it comes to organic or offsets for that matter,
A third party label helps silence greenwashing chatter.
And what exactly is PLA, PET or PVC?
Recycling plastics takes a master’s degree!
Quality is really what sustainability is about:
A luxury experience for which no guest will pout.
Rethinking is what we all need to do.
The important step after? Reducing, by me and by you.
Sponsors may grumble, but are possible to convince,
With a virtual collateral rack you’ll be their new prince.
Let’s admit transportation is what’s really the bitch
We need less. Now. And a hybrid sales pitch.
Unrenewable and unsustainable is our energy use,
It will put us at the back of the economic caboose.
Virtual is catching on, the technology advancing,
If you’re not experimenting now it’s your future you’re chancing.
Water is something to conserve, although use we accrue,
Just ask Texas, Las Vegas and those in Africa, too.
Xeriscaping might sound like a new extreme sport,
Meeting venues might want to look up a report.
Because the youth of the world will look back and see
The stuff that we waste doesn’t come for free.
Our zen and theirs: that’s the real cost,
So green your event now, before opportunity’s lost!
Shawna McKinley is Director of Sustainability for MeetGreen where she helps diverse organizations navigate the challenges and opportunities of the sustainable event alphabet. She lives in Vancouver, Canada. Please check out Shawna’s blog – Sustainable Destinations - which is a wealth of information for those who wish to learn more about sustainable events.
