Green Giants

The tradeshow industry is one of the most wasteful in the world, but it doesn't have to be. From recycling materials to minimizing printed materials, there are plenty of options when it comes to reducing the footprint a tradeshow leaves on the environment. Over the next few pages are companies, shows, venues, cities and individuals — many of which you may not have been aware of before — that are working to provide a place for the green show.

Of course, we couldn't put out a green issue without mentioning trailblazing facilities such as San Francisco's Moscone Center, Pittsburgh's David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Portland's Oregon Convention Center, Toronto's Direct Energy Centre and Washington's Spokane Convention Center, all venues that have long been known for their efforts to become sustainable. However, we also chose to highlight the pioneers who aren't in the limelight yet, but who have made being environmentally sensitive a major part of their business plans.

Green buildings are healthier for people, better for the environment and cheaper to operate, according to the U.S. Green Building Council, which administers the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design accreditation program (better known simply as LEED). That's why the USGBC promotes sustainability through its LEED Green Building Rating System, which provides independent third-party verification of building design and performance.

A good many convention centers and hotels are beginning to get on board. Of the 771 LEED-certified buildings in the United States, three are convention centers and five are hotels, but those numbers are growing. On the list of projects working their way through the certification process are at least a dozen convention center projects.

On average, LEED buildings cut energy use by 30 to 50 percent, use 40 percent less water and generate 70 percent less solid waste.

If you're curious about the American Institute of Architects' commitment to sustainability, just consider the tagline for its annual tradeshow, the AIA Natl. Convention & Design Exposition: "Growing Beyond Green."

On the second page of the AIA Convention exhibitor kit — just after reminders about noise levels and move-in times — are instructions for making the show environmentally friendly. They direct exhibitors to minimize packing and printed materials; leave collateral at home and opt for green booth giveaways; use recycled materials, efficient lighting and other green elements in booth design; participate in the convention center's recycling program; minimize and train staff; walk wherever possible; and simply turn out the lights when they leave the booth for the day.

The AIA has been working to educate its exhibitors for the last few years — all while growing the tradeshow at a pace that has earned it a spot among the TSW Fastest 50 for three years running. The 2006 event drew 842 exhibiting firms and 17,919 professional attendees — all targets of the AIA's mission for a greener showfloor.

The Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions started in November 20002. Many of the CERC members helped to promote environmental practices during the 2004 national political conventions in Boston and New York.

Now, CERC has morphed into Boston Green Tourism, an organization that is helping to green the city's tourism industry, said Dan Ruben, executive director of CERC and Boston Green Tourism.

Sixteen hotels in the Boston area are now Energy Star-certified, meaning they're in the top 25 percent of their class of hotels for energy use based on square footage and other factors. Boston Green Tourism helped encourage the certification with energy efficiency seminars and information about utility incentive tax credits.

The organization also helped convention centers by suggesting they show examples of their environmental achievements to potential customers, Ruben said. The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center took the group's advice and, as a result, it caught the eye of the U.S. Green Building Council, which decided to hold its Greenbuild Intl. Conference & Expo at the facility next year.

Show managers at Construct Canada/PM Expo/Homebuilder & Renovator Expo/Design Trends/Concrete Canada/EcoBuild Canada wanted to save a little water, a few trees and some space at the landfill.

That's why the 2005 edition was the first show held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to not produce any waste whatsoever.

"It was our zero-waste challenge," added George Przybylowski, the show's principal manager.

Everyone — about 700 exhibitors, food and beverage staff and janitors — recycled 28.7 tons of waste (including almost 13.2 tons of paper products) and, in the process, saved 238 trees, close to 4,300 gallons of water and nearly 30 cubic yards of landfill space.

Plastic cups and plates replaced Styrofoam, which can't be recycled; trash cans were swapped for separate recycling bins; and Turtle Island Recycling supervised the exhibitors' move-out to ensure materials were properly sorted.

"It took a significant amount of work," Przybylowski said. And it's not a one-shot deal — this year's show, Nov. 28–30 at Metro Toronto Convention Centre, will also be zero-waste.

Gary Saulson, director of corporate real estate for Pittsburgh-based PNC, started his first green building in 1998. Almost a decade later, the company has built more than 30 buildings certified under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program.

Saulson's latest green endeavor is Three PNC Plaza, a 780,000 square foot building that will include 326,000 sq. ft. of office space and a hotel. The Fairmont Pittsburgh will feature 185 guest rooms, 12,000 sq. ft. of meeting space and a 6,000 sq. ft. ballroom.

"One thing that attracted us to Fairmont was its green practices," Saulson said.

The hotel's parent company, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, created Eco-Meet, a program designed to minimize meetings' ecological footprint. Fairmont provides a range of environmental options, including waste management, water conservation, air quality, energy efficiency, non-disposable items and environmental education.

The new hotel will be made from recycled and recyclable materials. Contractors are using green fabrics and paints made with limited toxins, and installing energy-efficient glass in the windows and high-efficiency heating and cooling.

The company began deconstructing the 14 buildings previously on the site last summer and donated much of the reusable or recyclable materials to nonprofits that resold it. The hotel is expected to open by summer 2009.

Every publication the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau produces — its Official Visitors Guide, Meeting Planners Guide, Fact Finder and Membership Directory — is printed on recycled paper.

Still, Holly Clapham-Rosenow, bureau vice president of marketing, said, "There's been no sacrifice of quality and only a negligible increase in cost."

The change came about when she and others realized just how much paper the CVB was going through every year. Now, much of its marketing is done electronically (which cut the CVB's annual paper order by 60 percent right off the bat).

Plus, by using 10-percent post-consumer waste (the guideline GHCVB and many other organizations use to define recycled paper), Clapham-Rosenow estimates 72 trees alone will be saved on the spring issue of the Houston Visitors Guide.

Next on the GHCVB's green agenda: recycled business cards, letterhead paper, copy paper and direct mail postcards.

Exhibit Design Consultants was introduced to sustainability about a year and a half ago, when client Turion Bamboo Traders asked for an environmentally friendly booth.

Soon after, President Tim Morris went to work developing this single request into a product that would give an option to customers concerned about the environment.

Now the product is ready for production on a larger scale. The company unveiled its Eco-Systems Sustainable Exhibit at Exhibitor2007 last month in Las Vegas. The module is made from rapidly renewable materials such as sorghum, bamboo and cork, as well as recyclable materials. The company chose materials certified as environmentally friendly by the U.S. Green Building Council.

"We needed something firm and proven as a benchmark that we're putting out truly environmentally friendly products," Morris said.

In addition, the booth's metal halide track fixture emits 10 times the light of the usual fixture, while using an eighth of the power.

The company also implemented a reincarnation exhibit recycling program in which retired exhibits are broken down into recyclable categories and used again.

Timing is everything, at least when it came to the launch of the GreenStyle Pavilion at High Point Market, held March 26–April 1.

Merchandise Mart Properties, which manages more than 2 million square feet of the home furnishings show, had talked about creating a section for sustainable products for about a year. Then, just weeks before the start of the show, the nonprofit Sustainable Furniture Council was formed, and Merchandise Mart saw a way to make its green dream a green reality.

The pavilion, located on the top floor of the Suites at Market Square, included a furniture maker who uses repurposed wood, another one who uses only farmed wood (not from a rain forest either) and, of course, the Rainforest Alliance. Though there weren't many exhibitors, Karen Olson, vice president of Merchandise Mart Properties, said she expected the pavilion to grow.

"The whole (green) movement in the industry is based on consumer demand," she added.

You might've thought Frankfurt's annual IMEX was merely one of the largest exhibitions in the world for meetings and incentive travel, but it's also one of the industry's most environmentally conscious meetings.

It starts behind the scenes with the IMEX organization, which reduces materials consumption and recycles everything possible, both in its offices and on show site (going so far as to donate flowers to local hospitals). But it doesn't stop there.

The centerpiece of these efforts is the IMEX Green Awards, presented during the gala dinner the second night of the event. Working with the Green Meetings Industry Council, IMEX developed the awards to recognize excellence in environmentally sensitive meeting planning, as well as exhibiting. Last year's winners were the Greenbuild Intl. Conference & Expo (gold award) and the Sierra Club's Natl. Convention & Expo (silver).

Tired of handing out pens, key chains and pocket flashlights to drive attendance traffic to your tradeshow booth? Well, look no further for the latest original giveaway: the gift tree.

"We inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees," is the Natl. Arbor Day Foundation's motto. One way to do that is to offer them as gifts. Trees are most commonly used as employee incentives, but the foundation's gift tree manager, Jo McElwain, encourages companies to hand out baby trees while exhibiting in tradeshows.

Her suggestion to tradeshow exhibitors: Let potential attendees know in advance what they'll get if they stop by the booth. Then, the foundation will deliver the trees to the venue per the customer's preferences, and companies can customize the label with their logo or message. Customers can choose from a variety of redwoods, pines and spruces, all of which survive in multiple climates.

Once attendees get home, they can plant the trees outside, store them in refrigerators or grow them indoors — keeping the exhibiting company in mind, potentially, for years to come.

Talk about the little convention center that could. Start with a brown field site that was the location of a coal-processing plant for more than 50 years, with yards and yards of contaminated soil that had to be hauled away.

"We literally brought the environment back from the pits," said Mark Roe, construction manager for the city of Raleigh, N.C., which is building the Raleigh Convention Center. The facility will have 150,000 square feet of exhibit space and is expected to open next year.

Next, demolish a couple of streets to make room for the venue — and recycle all the old asphalt into new asphalt for streets. Now, design it to not only be energy efficient, but also to be built with lots and lots of stone from nearby granite mines and limestone quarries so you don't have to ship heavy, expensive materials from long distances.

Finally, get the Raleigh City Council, which runs a city in the heart of tobacco country, to pass an ordinance forbidding smoking in the convention center-to-be.

It's one thing to know you're holding your meeting in a green building, but what about in an entirely green city? Let's not get ahead of ourselves, but it could happen in the near future in — where else? — San Francisco.

Last fall, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom changed city policy and declared that anybody willing to build a green building (that is, according to LEED standards) would jump to the head of the line when it comes to getting building permits. Deciding that wasn't good enough, the city is now waiting for final approval of a plan that would require all new municipal buildings to attain the LEED silver standard of environmental friendliness.

So, get used to the meeting venue of tomorrow in green San Francisco: The Orchard Garden Hotel, now under construction, will have low gas emissions from carpets and varnishes, recycled interior finishes and low-flow faucets. It also promises to use chemical-free cleaning products and soy-based inks once it opens.

The 8-year-old, Ashville, N.C.-based Seven-Star's specialty is planning, producing and consulting for green events.

Green Festival, a series of consumer sustainability events held in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, is an example of a series of shows the company produces. In 2006, the San Francisco event had a 96-percent waste diversion rate and was 100-percent carbon-neutral, including offsetting the travel, transportation and hotel energy consumed by purchasing renewable energy.

Company President Georgia Malki described the four-fold process that leads to such a substantial waste diversion rate:

• "You pack it in; you pack it out," she said of restrictions placed on exhibitors. Everything associated with food and beverage has to be compostable and biodegradable, including plates, napkins, silverware and cups.
• It only produces events with no-meat menus, so all the leftover food is compost.
• "We never allow a trash can," Malki said. The events have resource recycling stations staffed by people who can direct consumers on how to sort the waste.
• A team of sorters combs through the sorted trash to make sure everything that could be composted or recycled is directed that way.

SkySite is helping the Intl. Council of Shopping Centers green its 2007 tradeshow, in a big way.

It makes sense. The Chicago-based SkySite is a real estate acquisition and development firm specializing in projects whose goal is sustainability.

The May 20–23 ICSC Spring Convention, Leasing Mall & Trade Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center will be the first to actively promote energy-efficient, sustainable products and practices through two additions to the show: a Green Zone for exhibitors in the Leasing Mall section of the exhibition and a Green Pavilion in the lobby.

SkySite is helping identify exhibitors for the Green Zone and is lining up speakers (including one from the U.S. Green Building Council) and informational sessions for the Green Pavilion.

Rudy Milian, ICSC senior staff vice president and director of professional development services, said the organization had been looking for a way to integrate its belief in sustainability into the show for some time.

This year, ICSC is expanding into the LVCC's South Hall, giving it more space for this and other initiatives.

The 40-year-old Pittsburgh-based company bills itself as an environmentally responsible general service contractor and proves it by making itself the go-to decorator for shows that care about the planet.

At West Coast Green Conference & Expo, a green residential building show held Sept. 28–30 in San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, Stetson used 25-percent recycled content on 400,000 square feet of exhibit space, biodegradable trash can liners and 100-percent post-consumer recycled content in signage materials.

Greening a show is one thing; greening a company is another. Since 2003, Stetson has generated all the electricity needed to run its offices and warehouse using alternative energy sources, among them wind power.

Furthering its green reach is a primary goal, so Stetson also works with other organizations that are on the same page: Green Building Alliance, U.S. Green Building Council and Green Meetings Industry Council.

The existing Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre already recycles 180,000 kilograms (396,832 pounds) of materials each year and uses chemical-free cleaning products. Centre chefs prepare meals with fresh, locally produced products and leftovers go to local charities. Event managers avoid disposable utensils and pre-packaged goods, favoring biodegradable cups, and the center purchases Green Power certificates.

But once the 340,849 square foot expansion of the center is complete, the VCEC will leave even less of a footprint on the environment. Its 6-acre living roof will contain 400,000 indigenous plants. A recycling system will treat the grey and black water for reuse. Ocean water will both heat and cool the building, while its glass exterior allows natural day lighting. And finally, to replace the shoreline the center was built on, it will provide a fish habitat.

The average tradeshow produces hundreds of cubic yards of landfill waste in a matter of days. Meanwhile, West Coast Green Conference & Expo, a green residential building show that launched last year in San Francisco, produced just 6 cubic yards, meaning 96 percent of all the show's garbage was diverted to compost and recycling.

Dedicated to green, the organizers of the show obviously don't merely talk the talk — they take action.

Besides limiting trash in the first place, they had all vendor food served with biodegradable plates, knives, forks, cups and spoons. In addition, hundreds of volunteers helped sort waste into appropriate recycling receptacles and, finally, organizers prohibited exhibitors from using vinyl and other known offgassing materials.