We’ve all heard the hype—video or Internet conferencing is the wave of the future. It’s eco-friendly, cheaper, and “just as good” as meeting face to face. I’m sure that some of this is true—particularly the cheaper part—but since my job (CÉGEP professor) is based on the interaction of people in a specific space, together at the same time, I am particularly sensitive to the claim that virtual interaction is just as good as the real human kind. Once you include all of the computer waste, the printed documents, and the power-sucking equipment, the environmental savings might not be as great as we thought. But it’s still better than your average, über wasteful, conference.

Today’s conferences are, like so much of our culture, super-sized. My wife recently attended an early childhood conference in Boston, MA. She drove down with her sister, making the transportation relatively benign, settled into her hotel, which proudly displayed their water-saving laundry policies, and prepared to start work the next day. While the workshops and speakers expressed concern and sensitivity towards “Children: Our Future,” the event itself made an irony of this goodwill. Whatever company was hired to organize and run the event used every opportunity to consume and dispose of as much stuff as possible, whenever possible.

The avalanche of publicity from booksellers, other vendors, and professional services companies was all on glossy paper or non-recyclable plastic. The giant plastic bags filled with marketing information made our reviled Publi-Sacs look green in comparison! There was no chance to recycle anything, even if you wanted to. No green bins, no incentives.

During a “brown bag lunch” each participant received a large, stout brown paper bag with rope handle—similar to what you’d receive in a fancy store—that contained a sandwich wrapped in plastic, cookies, veggies and dip all wrapped in plastic, a can of soda, and a banana. If creatively done, the lunch could have been reasonably disposed of: reuse the beautiful bag, recycle the plastic, compost the rest. However, without any facilities, everyone simply used the brown bag as a mini garbage bag, and loaded it up with all of the other waste, and threw the whole thing in the trash. There was so much garbage volume that the custodial staff had to change the plastic garbage bags in the hotel’s conference centre several times before dinner.

At the Green FestivalSpeaking of conference dinners, I recently attended an event in Louisville, KY, in which all the participants (roughly 1, 800) ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the same dining hall in the Convention Centre. Every single cup, plate, utensil, napkin and all the left over food was “disposable” and thus dumped into the trash. There were no recycling bins in sight, and even newspapers and notebook paper were unceremoniously trashed. As the trucks rolled away from the Convention Centre and toward the landfill (about 25-30 per day!) I thought there has to be a better way… Happily there is.

Green Festivals, the world’s largest environmental expo, is organized by Co-op America and Global Exchange and held in three US cities each year. In each venue, the organizers pay careful attention to waste, and demand that all conference participants and vendors do the same. Their planning process is one that should become standard procedure for conferences of any ilk. In fact, when we fill out those survey cards at the end of each conference (and they are done after all events of any size) we should make our voices heard.

Suggestions for a greener conference:

• Provide separate recycling for paper, metal and plastic, and compost.
• Demand that all food is served using reusable or compostable materials.
• Work with vendors to reduce marketing waste – give out free samples in hand, bowls, or reusable cups, provide marketing materials electronically if possible, provide reuseable bags to participants.
• Charge a sliding scale to encourage green transport and local participation. Focus on human interaction over hand-outs and screens. It makes the event more meaningful to all participants.

Do you have more ideas for greening events, or have a conference horror story of your own? Share them below!

— Roger