Eliminate the use of plastic water bottles from conferences in an effort to cut down on land fill waste. Request only glass water pitchers and glasses from your conference venue instead. Come up with different take-away ideas; such as handing out BPA water bottles with the clients logo on it. This gives the attendees the ability to fill up their new BPA water bottles from the pitchers of water provided during the cconference.
Other good ways to reduces waste are:
Minimizing lights and not using air conditioning for set up days
make your box lunches buffet style so they can pick and chose what they want in their lunch on their way out and you do not require a “box” for them to transport their lunch in
Marker boards instead of flip charts
Turn off lights and AV equipment when not in use
As a planner you should also consider puchasing food and beverage products in bulk. To reduce paper communicate electronically with your exhibitors and attendees, include confirmation emails and event evaluation surveys. Communicate your daily program itinerary via digital screens and televisions instead of printed programs. Consider providing access to conference online as opposed to printed proceedings. you can rent out plasma screens for some presentations that use less electricity then standard projectors.
All of these are great ways to try and reduce the waste at your event or meeting.
