Still a Little Time to Save the World

As I write this, it's April in Las Vegas. The sputter of sprinklers watering miles of lawns and gardens that have no business growing in the desert turns my thoughts to conservation.

It was this time last year that I wrote, in this space, "If the tradeshow industry wants to be taken seriously, it has to catch up with others, like architecture and automotive, which have dedicated institutions to researching sustainable options."

So, what has happened since then?

Not so much as one commission formed to look into the topic.

Suppliers continue to blaze the trail toward more sustainable meetings and exhibitions, as our news story on p. 4 of this issue demonstrates.

But meeting, convention and exhibition organizers don't seem to care.

My editor in chief tells me that the green event management discussion at the recent Society of Independent Show Organizers CEO Summit was practically empty, bypassed in favor of topics on international activities, and buying and selling smaller events.

A handful of organizers, when asked, have told me of their efforts to cut down on paper waste through digital press and exhibitor kits. Is that really the best they can do?

During the latest round of debate about attendance auditing, I frequently heard organizers argue that show management wouldn't get behind auditing until it was demanded by exhibitors.

The same supply-and-demand argument could apply to industry sustainability. A substantial number of facilities and other suppliers won't offer recycling and conservation options until show managers start asking for them.

It's great that Pittsburgh's David L. Lawrence Convention Center recycles 6,000 pounds of cans and bottles, and 124,000 pounds of paper and cardboard per year. But that's one center out of thousands. Throughout presentations of initial concepts, the project management team working on the Las Vegas Convention Center has said nothing about any sustainable practices it plans to adopt.

And that team is paying closer attention than most to what its customers want from the new building. Apparently, minimizing environmental impact is not at the top of the list.

It should be.

Climate researchers recently found that global dimming, caused by air pollution, probably has masked the full effect of global warming.

Humans have already increased the Earth's temperature by about 0.6 degrees Celsius in the last 100 years, according to the Encyclopedia of the Atmospheric Environment. The enhanced greenhouse effect, caused by deforestation and noxious emissions, will accelerate that to between 1.4 degrees and 5.8 degrees by the century's end, decimating agriculture, forestry, dry lands, water resources and human health – not to mention ecosystems.

This is just the most recent in a long line of environmental research ignored by governments and corporations more interested in turning a profit than in preserving a world where their grandchildren will be able to breathe – let alone turn a profit themselves.

After Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, many in the industry were eager to show their support for the region. If organizers really wanted to help New Orleans – and all the other cities in fragile ecosystems, such as deserts – they'd find a way to reduce the waste and pollution their shows create. Right now, they're making too large an impact for our environment to withstand much longer.