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Green Venue Report Grows to 30 Convention Centers

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WASHINGTON, D.C.—In its second iteration, the Green Venue Report (GVR) doubles its data set to highlight the state of sustainability in the meetings and events industry. With the motto, “Green Events Happen in Green Venues,” GVR invites convention centers from around the world to participate in an in-depth survey. The survey is made up of 158 questions covering topics of venue space, events, energy, waste, water, accessibility, food and beverage, staff involvement, and communications. The survey was conducted in the spring of 2015 and is based on 2014 operational information.

The 2015 Data set includes: 30 Convention Centers from six countries and four continents. A total of 9,900 events were held in the reporting convention centers in 2014, hosting 35,740,600 attendees.

The GVR attempts to capture sustainable practices and impact of convention centers around the world. The 2015 key findings are:

•    Seventy percent of centers have a dedicated Sustainability Manager or Coordinator on staff. Having a dedicated staff member is a key performance indicator for the environmental operations of the venue.
•    Seventy-seven percent of centers have a Green Team with an average of 11 cross-departmental members engaged in sustainability programs and employee engagement.
•    Eighty-five percent of centers participate in sustainability programs lead by their local governments. Municipalities are key partners in a convention center’s sustainable operations. This is evident in 93 percent of centers that are accessible by public train, light rail, or subway/metro system.
•    Eighty percent of centers have year round food donation programs for local charities. A total of 630 metric tons of food was donated by participating centers. This is approximately 1.4 million meals donated to local communities.
•    Ninety percent of centers have achieved or are working towards green building certifications such as LEED.
•    Twenty-seven percent of centers reported planners are asking for sustainability initiatives, up from 20 percent from the 2014 report. Eighty-six percent of the centers have trained sales and operational staff to be versed in sustainable operations, ready for when a planner or show management asks.
•    Thirty-three percent of centers have green roofs. These include innovations such as beekeeping and producing food on-site.
•    Eighty-seven percent have secure bike parking for employees and two-thirds have electric vehicle charging stations promoting alternative transportation.
•    Fifty-two percent is the average waste diversion ratio. Carpet and construction debris have lower recycling rates. Increasing carpet recycling opportunities can have a big impact on increasing the average waste diversion ratio.
•    Forty-two percent of centers are producing renewable energy on-site, most commonly solar. Fifty-nine percent are procuring renewable energy off-site, most commonly wind.
•    Seventy-six percent of cleaning products (by dollar spend) used in centers are third party certified green cleaning products.
•    Seventy-two percent of centers can track event specific waste, forty-eight percent of centers can track event specific energy usage, and 34 percent can track event specific water consumption.

The Green Venue Report and Survey is done in partnership between Washington D.C.-based sustainability consulting firm Greenview and Oakland-based event planning company Twirl Management. The project is sponsored by Bandwagon Rideshare, Covanta, and United Service Companies. The project was founded in 2012 with a desire to report, highlight and benchmark environmental operations in the meetings and events industry.

Go to the Green Venue Report.

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