No matter the size of your business or your audience, your next meeting is a great opportunity to make choices that demonstrate your commitment to sustainability

It may save you money, too!

“Greening” your meetings, or integrating elements of sustainable practices into your planning process, makes good business sense. And your customers and employees will take notice!

Here are just a few areas you can focus on, taken from our own Sabre Event Marketing team’s best practices:

• Recycling/paper – make use of technology to limit event-related printed material, and request the venue to provide visible and accessible reduction, reuse and recycling services
• Food/water/decorations – choose a venue with bulk dispensers and a food donation program for leftover items. Substitute bottled water for pitchers, and replace throw-away cups with washable items. Use decorations and table center pieces that can be reused or donated
• Energy/transportation – select a venue that offers low-emission transportation options for customer transfers

If you are just getting started, check out the Best Practices guide from the Green Meeting Industry Council. And if you want to develop a policy with detailed measures, you can reference the newly released “Green Meeting Guidelines” developed in collaboration with the Green Meetings Council and the Environmental Protection Agency.

We hope these ideas and resources will put you one step closer to “greening” your meetings and reducing your business’s carbon footprint.