How to Make a Meeting Green

What is a Green Meeting? A green meeting ensures that all aspects of an event, including its location, food services, transportation and the provision of materials are approached with pollution prevention in mind in order to reduce its environmental impact.

Meetings, conferences, conventions and other events are sources of significant greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity, heating and air conditioning, ground transportation, air travel, paper and other materials are just some of the ways that our clients’ events are contributing to climate change.

Today, many meeting planners and program organizers are recognizing that their events do not have to have a huge climate impact and, in fact, can play a positive role by becoming carbon neutral.

The Plan-It Green program allows event organizers to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from meeting activities, travel and accommodations where possible, and to offset any emissions that cannot be reduced through other means. Creating a carbon neutral event involves the following steps:

• Apply a green meeting strategy to minimize the meeting's overall environmental impacts
• Estimate event emissions based the meeting functions required as well as participants' travel and accommodation
• Offset remaining emissions by purchasing verified carbon offsets

Plan-It Green events highlight organizational leadership in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction and offsetting. They also help to educate, influence and engage your audiences. The process of hosting Plan-It Green events can help organizations understand more about their operational GHG emissions, and how to deal with them.

The Plan-It Green program gives meeting planners, program organizers and guests the tools necessary to create a carbon neutral event. Using our Event Carbon Calculator, you can determine the amount of carbon dioxide your meetings and conferences are creating. You can then calculate the dollar amount needed to offset your emissions. Your offset dollars will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions through verified carbon offset projects.

CALCULATE EVENT EMISSIONS

Plan-It Green is an opt-in program that enables you to green” your events and make a positive difference for the environment with every program. First, we use a series of calculations to determine the amount of CO2 that your meeting, workshop, or conference emits, then we offset that CO2 by contributing to emission reduction programs through the Environment Resources Trust, Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) and other verifiable, certified providers.

Through stringent oversight and auditing, these projects accumulate exchangeable carbon credits, based on the amount of greenhouse gas they reduce or prevent. These credits are then sold as carbon credits that represent the amount of CO2 that was removed, or prevented from entering into the atmosphere.

Plan-It Green provides you with the tools to calculate and offset the CO2 that an event produces. You can monitor those offsets with the Plan-It Green certificates that are issued with every offset purchase.

For every ton of CO2 your events produce, another ton is taken away or prevented—permanently and transparently. That's the Plan-it Green promise!

GUEST CALCULATOR (for individuals)
EVENT CALCULATOR (for planners)