Green Events Source/blog

PARTNER PROFILE: Julie Larson of McDonald's

The words “McDonald’s” and “green” don’t always go together in people’s minds, but in fact, the fast food giant is becoming a leader in the green meetings movement, thanks to the work of event pro Julie Larson.

Larson has a background in catering management and a hospitality degree, and has been planning events for McDonald’s for over 14 years. Currently a project manager for meetings & events in McDonald’s corporate communications department, over the past 18 months Larson has lead the way toward making McDonald’s Worldwide Convention a model of sustainability for large events.

“It was a little over a year ago when the pieces really came together for me about how much of a positive impact my team could make” said Larson. “We’re in a position to find solutions to reduce waste and increase efficiencies and I was so exited by the possibilities. McDonald’s hosts more than 100 events per year and our Worldwide Convention has been called the largest corporate event in the world… I thought that if McDonald’s events could become more environmentally friendly, we could make a huge impact on the environment.”

According to Larson, she and her team began by taking “baby steps.” Beginning in July 2007 with the Managers’ Peak Event at Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, which involved 16,000 people over four days, the team made several small but significant changes.

First, they replaced all disposable items with biodegradable and compostable ones, keeping 750,000 pieces of non-eco-friendly pieces out of landfill. They also had a positive impact on the community by donating 35,000 bottles of water to the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, which serves the needy of Las Vegas, along with 13 pallets of other items for the charity’s resale shop.

Building on that experience, the team looked to expand the green agenda for the 2008 worldwide convention, which took place this past April at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center and involved 13,000 people over 4 days. Planning addressed seven key areas, including energy use, resource conservation, recycling, transportation, community impact and outreach.  Some of the highlights include:

• McDonald’s has always tried to minimize power use in the exhibit halls during move-in and move-out. Through careful scheduling, they were able to expand the program to reduce the amount of energy used to light and cool the entire facility for the duration of the show.

• Through a partnership with Freeman, McDonald’s recycling effort produced a 70% diversion rate, keeping 244 tons of trash out of landfills.

• PVC, aluminum, Plexiglas, carpet and other materials were kept out of landfills.

• At McDonald’s request, Orange County Conference Center commissioned two hydrogen buses to shuttle attendees back and forth to the convention center.

• In addition to donating furniture and flowers to local charities, McDonald’s planted 10 trees which will offset 10 tons of carbon over the life of the trees.

They were also the first convention to contribute to a renewable energy fund via a partnership of the Orange County Environmental Protection Agency and Progress Energy. This contribution will offset the 675,000 kw hours, three times over the life of the water heaters that the local community will install, thus reducing the impact in the community it was created in.

[Want to know more? Download mcdonalds_green_convention_fact_sheet_62408.pdf.}

            

“People want to know how we did it and I always point out that we couldn’t have done it alone,” said Larson. “The great thing is that no one ever told us ‘no.’ Our vendors, the convention center, the county and local EPA all said ‘how can we help you?’”

The next step will be to establish a policy that can be applied to all of McDonald’s events, from the smallest to the largest. In addition, Larson is hoping to use her experience to help make a difference in her home town of Chicago. She has teamed up with Green Events Source and a group of other green meeting advocates to initiate a region-wide program to improve Chicago’s capacity to host green meetings and events. Watch this blog for updates.

            

US Conference of Mayors Ban Bottled Water from Meetings

WaterWebster.org staff report

Mayors representing about 250 U.S. cities voted Monday to ban bottled water from city meetings and offices, except in cases of emergency.

On a voice vote, members of the U.S. Conference of Mayors supported a resolution proposed by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom that urges all mayors to phase out, “where feasible,” bottled water and support municipal water, said conference spokesperson Elena Temple.

Newsom earlier estimated San Francisco saved $1 million by using tap water instead of bottled. Co-sponsors of the resolution represented cities large and small, from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chicago’s Richard Daley, to Mayors Joseph A. Curtatone of Somerville, Ma., and Dan Coody of Fayetteville, Ar. Both Somerville and Fayetteville have populations under 80,000.

Coody, co-chair of the Conference’s Water Council, said in a telephone interview before the conference started that his city discontinued the use of bottled water several years ago.

He said he didn’t know how much Fayetteville had been spending on bottled water, but the main issues included paying for water that in many cases “is exactly the same quality as what’s right next to you in the kitchen.”

Environmental factors are another concern for many mayors, he said. The increased popularity of bottled water means more trash for landfills and more energy used for production and shipping.

Coody’s co-chair on the Water Council, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, said a U.S. Conference of Mayors’ study determined “bottled water costs more than 1,000 times what public water costs.” According to statistics provided to the Water Council, 25%-40% of all bottled water in the U.S. comes from the tap, some filtered and some not.

“That really graphically reinforced why cities aren’t buying bottled water,” he said, “you wouldn’t buy a pencil that cost 1,000 times more than another pencil.”

The resolution adopted by the mayors said local governments invest approximately $82 billion a year to provide water and sewer services.

The nonpartisan U.S. Conference of Mayors was established to represent the 1,139 U.S. cities with a population over 30,000. About 250 attend the convention, according to a staff person.

At its national conference last year, the mayors voted to study the implications of banning bottled water and asked for recommendations to be ready for this year’s meeting.

Laura Spanjian, external affairs assistant general manager of the San Francisco Water Utility, whose presentation to the Water Council was a significant part of the mayors’ study, said prior to the conference that less than 30% of water bottles are recycled.

In her May presentation to the Water Council, she noted that in 2006, total bottled water consumption in the U.S. hit 27.6 gallons per capita up from 25.4 gallons in 2005, meaning U.S. residents now drink more bottled water annually than any other beverage, other than carbonated soft drinks.

Seventy-four percent of Americans drink bottled water, and one in five drinks only bottled water, according to a 2002 survey sponsored by the EPA and conducted by the Gallup Organization.

Even though soft drinks and other container beverages take up far more landfill space, bottled water, said several mayors, is just an unnecessary addition to the problem. The bottles themselves only can be recycled once, compared to multiple times for glass and aluminum, according to the mayors’ studies, and few states include water bottles in recycling deposits, making it more difficult to reduce the volume reaching landfills. The plastic, although compressed as trash, takes generations to decompose.

“We’re not asking the industry to stop all sales,” said Spanjian, and the resolution urges cities to retain bottled water for emergencies.

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©2008 WaterWebster.org

Question of the Month - June 2008

Everyone says we need to measure the carbon footprint of our event, but I don’t know where to start. Can you give me some idea how to go about doing this and where I can get the information I need?

A lot of people don’t measure their event-related carbon because they think it will be too time-consuming and difficult. But it doesn’t have to be. There are a number of credible carbon measurement tools available on the internet and your suppliers and vendors can provide much of the information you need. Here are the critical things to measure and how to go about it:

1. Travel: The largest part of your event’s carbon footprint comes from transportation. Here, it makes the most sense to estimate the carbon output based on the number of people, the mode of transportation and the average distance they will travel to and from your event. A number of carbon offsetters provide simple calculators on their websites. Native Energy has a useful, easy event estimator on its website.

2. Shipping: Don’t forget about the carbon emissions generated by shipping and delivery!  It’s been estimated that from 10 – 15% of an event’s carbon comes from the movement of equipment and materials to and from the meeting site. You can estimate the carbon for this, as well, but it is far more accurate and reliable to have your shipper do it, since it will vary by the weight and mode of transportation used. For instance, EA Logistics does this as part of its Delivered GrEAn program and provides the free carbon offsets at no additional cost.

3. Energy Consumption: Another big source of carbon comes from heating, cooling and power use at the meeting site. You can generate a general estimate based on square footage. However, the facility should be able to give you a more precise estimate of your potential energy use and advise you on ways to reduce your impact, for instance, by scheduling heating and cooling during move-in and move-out and turning out lights when rooms are not in use.

4. Composting:  Your waste hauler should be able to tell you the amount of paper, cardboard, glass, metal and organic waste that has been diverted from landfills and provide documentation on its appropriate disposal – an important metric for any green meeting. The diversion of food waste through composting has the greatest impact on global warming: The EPA* has shown that composting reduces methane emissions from landfills – another common greenhouse gas that can be even more damaging than CO2 – at a rate of about 80% per ton of food waste. Recycling saves carbon because goods made from recycled material require less energy to produce than those made from virgin materials. Also more trees are left standing, helping sequester more CO2, but these impacts are difficult to measure.

If you can get a handle on these four dimensions, you can estimate the carbon your event will potentially generate and word with your attendees, exhibitors, site and suppliers to reduce emissions and waste, and what you can’t eliminate offset with high-quality carbon offsets. 

* U.S.Environmental Protection Agency, Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases: A Life-Cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks, June 2002.

Out of Africa... Preparing for the Future of Green Meetings With Amy Spatrisano

"I grew up in Africa, but I was unprepared for what it would be like to return there 29 years later," said Amy Spatrisano, founder and president of the Green Meeting Industry Council. She arrived in San Francisco on June 12 fresh from her visit to give the keynote address at The Green Event Summit, where she waxed poetic about her experiences and outlined a stirring call to action for event planners and suppliers alike.

            Highlighting the game hunter’s Big Five (the five most difficult animals to hunt: the cape buffalo, elephant, rhino, leopard and lion), Spatrisano asked the audience “are you prepared?” to meet the challenges facing the green meetings movement. Here are some of her insights about what the future will bring and the creatures who inspired them:

• The Cape Buffalo is an indicator species and the disappearance of its natural habitat is a sign of environmental degradation. In looking head, it’s not just enough to have environmentally friendly meetings, but to have truly healthy meetings that are restorative to both people and planet. 
• The Elephant is one of the most community-oriented animals on earth and inspires us to keep the human connection in every event we do. That means providing opportunities for community service and paying attention to issues such as labor and human rights in our personal and professional choices.
• The Rhino stands for authenticity, that is “walking the talk” of corporate social responsibility and reaping the benefits from doing so. It also is a caution not to lose authentic human connection by substituting technology for face-to-face interaction.
• The Leopard symbolizes credibility and cautions us to guard against making unsubstantiated claims or falling prey to greenwashing. In order to maintain trust, we must communicate openly, and honestly, be transparent and be ready to substantiate our environmental claims. 
• The Lion’s regal bearing inspires us to take the time to measure what we do and establish a standard for green meetings.

Spatrisano went on to describe the standard setting process taking place under the auspices of APEX with the involvement of The Green Meeting Industry Council, USEPA, ASTM and the English standard setting group BS 8910.  Watch our newsletter and blog for more updates on this important process.

Question of the Month - May 2008

Question: Why is everyone suddenly so down on bottled water? We all thought it was a good thing to serve at events because it was healthy.

It's hard to argue with the convenience and health benefits of bottled water. Unfortunately, the trend has had some negative consequences on the health of our planet.

Millions of tons of plastic bottles are produced each year -- and plastic is a nonrenewable, petroleum-based material. According to the Illinois Recycling Coalition, nationally only about 21% of plastic bottles get recycled, so the vast majority end up in landfills. Even the so-called eco-bottle, which boasts 30% less plastic and a smaller paper label, reduces but doesn't eliminate the waste and energy consumption associated with this form of packaging. Another consideration is the amount of water that is wasted when guests only consume a portion of a bottle.

It is more environmentally friendly to serve water from pitchers or water stations in glasses or refilllable sport bottles whenever possible. That said, there are times and places when bottled water is the only option. In these situations, choose the smallest serving size possible and be sure to make recycling as easy as possible.