Offset my carbons
Here’s a guest blog by Betsy Bair, our editorial director:
Itâs not enough to plan a âgreen meetingâ nowadays. It has to be âcarbon-neutral.â
Well, of course it doesnât have to be, but thatâs the latest initiative to take hold in the environmental meetings world, a movement thatâs been limping along here in the U.S. until Al Gore and âAn Inconvenient Truthâ burst onto our movie screens in 2006 (and won best documentary at the Academy Awards on Sunday night—yippee!).
According to Marge Anderson, associate director, Energy Center of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis., in regard to the U.S.âs lack of a national carbon policy, âBig business is leading the cause in this country because the government isnât. In Canada and Europe, there are much stricter regulations on how to extract fossil fuel.â
Thatâs an understatement if I ever heard one. The efforts put forth at the Professional Convention Management Associationâs annual meeting in early January in Toronto, where the host facilityâthe Metro Toronto Convention Centre–produced a âzero-wasteâ event, were nothing short of amazing. But it wasnât just the convention center that impressed me. Recyling bins were placed next to the trash cans in my hotel room and at the airport.
While most states in the U.S. mandate recycling for home trash and waste, itâs not the case in our public facilities. And that puts us to shame. We still see greening efforts as too costly, not taking the longer-term view that environmentally-sensitive initiatives will in fact sustain our businesses (not to mention our earth). Anderson opened my eyes at that session I attended at Meeting Professionals International Professional Education Conference North America in late January in New Orleans: She emphasized that we must look at green initiatives at our meetings as making good business sense, not as moral imperatives.
So while the issues that surround global warming and the sustainability movement beget more meetings, and we therefore increase our carbon footprint as people fly and drive to them, we can offset those carbon emissions by purchasing or investing in âcarbon offsetâ projects around the world that invest in renewable energy and energy-efficient projects.
Thereâs no time to waste.
Related Topics: Industry trends and forecasts
June 11th, 2007 at 10:49 am
The scepticism about rouge used carbon salesmen is appropriate. However, it is clear that quality carbon offsets can be beneficial to the planet particularly if the offsets are for greenhouse emissions that have no optional greenhouse reduction strategy. A case in point is air travel. If you do travel by air then it is appropriate to offset the emissions. For this reason Uncook carbon offset have been designed as a quality product with highly additional projects administered through the respected Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme. See www.uncook.com for more information.
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