A guide to aligning meeting and event planning practices with what is described as the scientific principles of sustainable development has been published by the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC) and nonprofit environmental education organization The Natural Step (TNS).
Meeting the Future, available for free at www.greenmeetings.info, was launched on the GMIC’s website in May after the organizations combined in an effort to explain sustainability in a set of simple terms and clear examples for meeting professionals.
“The meetings industry has been clamoring for a practical approach to creating better events through sustainability,” said GMIC President Paul Salinger, vice-president of marketing for Oracle Corporation. “Usually, the resulting resources are either too technical to easily implement, or too basic to really move the needle on sustainable practices. It took The Natural Step’s scientific framework and GMIC hands-on experience to bring the two worlds together.”
The publication can be used as an international resource.
“This guide can be applied anywhere worldwide to spark innovative solutions and improve event ROI,” said co-author Jan Peter Bergkvist, a 20-year TNS veteran and principal of Stockholm-based Sleepwell AB, and who is also on the GMIC’s global board of directors.