Green Events

At the end of day at many conferences or events, water, juice and soda bottles are stuffed into overflowing trashcans that are already stuffed with plastic wrap, paper lunch bags, chip packages and discarded brochures and handouts from the event. Sometimes the items are left strewn on tables waiting for a cleanup crew to throw into a plastic bag. Today there are many ways to organize an ecofriendly event so that fewer resources and commodities are used, thereby benefiting the environment and potentially yielding a cost savings in certain areas. The waste that is seen at conferences can also be witnessed on the Smith campus. With this in mind, the objective of this project was to look into how to organize green meetings, do cost comparisons between using biodegradable supplies and regular supplies and locate vendors for biodegradable products, with the intention of providing the findings to Ann Finley, Dining Services