Case Study: Association
by: Marlene Goldman

In 2005 the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) initiated a commitment to integrate environmental responsibility goals into its annual General Assembly, with the help of Meeting Strategies Worldwide. The first efforts took place at the Fort Worth [Texas] Convention Center in 2005, then the America’s Center in St. Louis in 2006, and at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Ore., this year.

“Our first intentional greening process in Fort Worth was a real challenge because there was no commercial recycling in city,” says Janiece J. Sneegas, Ph.D., director, general assembly and conference services for the UUA. A private hauler was used, organized by Meeting Strategies Worldwide. St. Louis fared better, with some substantial achievements, including:

• A provision of a voluntary carbon offset. The result was 20 percent of the 4,000 plus delegates participated in the offset, raising $5,078 for Carbonfund.org.
  
  
• An introduction of green language into the RFP process to identify host cities beyond 2009.
  
  
• The inclusion of an extensive and specific environmentally responsible meeting clause into the contract with the convention center and caterer.
  
  
• The changing of hotel practices to adopt permanent linen and towel reuse, as well as communication to delegates of vendors unwilling to sign environmental clauses.

Also in St. Louis, over 76 percent of vendors made use of online exhibitor kits. Over 76 percent of products and services used by the exhibition company were sourced locally.

Leftover materials were donated to a local charity.

Twenty-five percent to 50 percent of the convention center waste was recycled, including: 250 pounds of cardboard, 900 pounds of paper and 150 pounds of cans/plastic bottles. Cans were donated to be recycled by a local charity group.

“One of the disappointments when we go in and ask a site to do a green meeting is we don’t want them to do it just for us. We want them to take it on as a matter of course,” she says.

Sneegas found that Fort Worth, and to a lesser degree St. Louis, generally they didn’t continue to offer the same level of green services for other conventions.

“Portland is in a class of its own with its green-certified convention center and hotels,” Sneegas says.

One policy UUA introduced is that it paid for front of the house recycling in which attendants were set up at composting and recycling stations to help attendees sort their refuse. The result was 100 percent recycling or reuse of concession food sold.