Simple Steps to Green Meetings and Events: The Professional's Guide to Saving Money and the Earth - Softcover

Based in Portland, Oregon, Meeting Strategies Worldwide provides conference management, consulting and training services to a diverse clientele. Recognized internationally as the leaders in developing and implementing innovative, state-of-the-art green meeting strategies, we have created the premier line of green meeting resources known as Meet Green SM. This suite of resources and tools includes the Meet Green Calculator, the industry program for validating green meeting practices and outcomes. As a result of our commitment to the environment, Meeting Strategies Worldwide and its clients have been awarded the prestigious IMEX Green Meetings Award four times since inception. This award is the highest international accolade of its kind. Business principals Amy Spatrisano, CMP, and Nancy J. Wilson, CMP, are founding board members of the Green Meeting Industry Council, a nonprofit group that promotes environmental stewardship and green meeting practices in the meetings and hospitality industries. Amy and Nancy wrote the Green Guidelines for the Live Earth concert series and served on the Live Earth Green Team, charged with greening Giants Stadium. Amy spearheaded and chaired the Green Task Force for the Convention Industry Council (CIC), which produced the Green Meetings Report. Together Nancy and Amy authored the first-ever chapter on green meetings for Professional Convention Management Association Book, Professional Meeting Management: Comprehensive Strategies for Meetings, Conventions, and Events (5th edition). Both Nancy and Amy have spoken at numerous local, national, and international hospitality meetings and conferences on the topic of green meetings, helping educate hundreds of meeting planners and suppliers on practices that reduce waste, support local economies and minimize environmental impact.

Finally, the definitive word on green meetings from the industry pioneers. Nancy and Amy provide a clear, compelling business case to mainstream organizations for integrating environmental thinking into event planning, and offer cost-saving tools and advice to enable every meeting to become not just greener, but better. --Joel Makower, Executive Editor, GreenBiz.com

Green meetings are one way that the planners can contribute to solving the serious environmental challenges of our time and meet the new strategic imperative for businesses to be socially responsible. Amy and Nancy have de-mystified high-impact green actions with their practical and flexible approach in this user-friendly book. --Marge Anderson, Associate Director, Energy Center of Wisconsin

Amy Spatrisano and Nancy Wilson, acknowledged leaders in the greening of the meeting industry, have put together a highly useful, practical guidance document for meeting planners to make their events more environmentally responsible. Simple Steps to Green Meetings and Events describes actionable steps that organizations at any level of commitment can implement. One of the most valuable themes in this work is that you don't have to be an expert, or try to do everything at once, to make a difference. The authors sprinkle the text with real examples and data to support their assertion that these actions result in benefits to the environment as well as to the bottom line of all involved. --Arthur B. Weissman, Ph.D., President & CEO, Green Seal, Inc.