Inside the GMIC

Leading the charge:
GMIC founders
Nancy J. Wilson (left)
and Amy Spatrisano

Back in 1998, Dallas-based Meeting Professionals International convened a green meetings task force, headed by former president of the board Kathleen Ratcliffe, who was then president of the Jacksonville (Fla.) and the Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau. But when the committee sent the first draft of its report and recommendations to the association’s board in April 1999, the organization began backing away from the findings, finally releasing a watered-down white paper in December of that year, largely written by MPI’s then president and CEO, Edward L. Griffin Jr., CAE.

Apparently, the meetings industry was not ready to begin incorporating green practices, but the cause was taken up by a new organization, the Green Meetings Industry Council. Founded in 2003 by Amy Spatrisano, CMP, and Nancy J. Wilson, CMP, of Portland, Ore.-based Meeting Strategies Worldwide (MSWW), GMIC dedicated itself to improving the environmental, social and community performance of meetings and events through education and advocacy.

Today, the council is gaining a reputation as a font of information for the green meetings market, working with the Environmental Protection Agency to set government meeting standards and being asked to support a green meetings bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.). The language of the bill was included as part of the House’s New Direction for Energy Independence, National Security and Consumer Protection Act, which was passed on Aug. 4. At press time, the House and Senate were working to reconcile their versions of the act.

Solid pedigree

Spatrisano and Wilson come by their expertise organically. From the inception of their 12-year-old planning firm, environmental responsibility has been one of its tenets. “We always asked for recycling; we didn’t know it was green,” says Spatrisano.

About seven years ago, MSWW became more aggressive with its clients and events, pushing facilities and suppliers to provide environmentally friendly products and services. “We went to an event, and everything served at the breaks was in Styrofoam. We felt we couldn’t do this anymore,” says Spatrisano.

The cup order alone for that event was 75,000 items. “We were stunned by that number,” says Wilson. Realizing the huge impact made by the switch to biodegradable paper cups, MSWW’s two principals began researching the footprint of a meeting. “We wanted to see if there was any turnkey information online for green meetings, but there was no one source for that,” Wilson adds.

One of the reasons the two women wanted to offer meeting planners help in going green, Wilson says, was to make it easy for them, “because the easier it is, the more likely they are to do it.”

They started building business cases for going green, working out the cost savings. This work eventually morphed into GMIC, when the two realized none of the established meetings organizations -- such as MPI, the Professional Convention Management Association or the industry’s umbrella organization, the Convention Industry Council -- were ready to support their ideals.

“There hasn’t been any real leadership by any one particular industry organization on this issue, because each of those organizations has broader interests,” says Ratcliffe, right, now president of the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission, who adds that she applauds MPI for making an effort in 1999. “I’m sorry they weren’t able to see that leadership through. But I’m glad somebody was willing to carry on this message.”

Staffing up

In the beginning of this year, GMIC hired its first official employee, executive director Shawna McKinley, who works out of Vancouver, British Columbia. She came to the organization from the now-defunct Oceans Blue Foundation, where she helped create the green meetings tool kit found at www.bluegreenmeetings.org (a site now owned by GMIC). Along with Spatrisano, who served as chair, McKinley was part of the Convention Industry Council’s Green Meetings Task Force and helped create the IMEX Green Meetings Award, given out at the exhibition for meetings and incentive travel held in Frankfurt, Germany, each spring.

“I’ve been involved with the organization since it was first founded,” says McKinley. “Back then, we were knocking on a lot of doors but not getting a lot of response. Green meetings were something people were kind of interested in, but they couldn’t see the business value in addition to the environmental value. It’s really been within the last year or so that these issues have exploded. Within the industry itself, we’re starting to see that doing things for the sake of the environment also makes sense from the business end.”

Gatherings of the green

GMIC’s entry into hosting its own educational events came in 2005, when the organization took over an EPA conference called Greening the Hospitality Industry and turned it into the group’s own major annual meeting. “We were asked to speak at [the event] in 2004,” says Spatrisano. “The people running it at the time wanted to keep it going, but the EPA wasn’t supporting it.” (For details about the EPA’s current green meetings initiative, see the cover story.)

GMIC’s first conference in October 2005 was planned in just four months. Spatrisano says, “For an organization that was unknown, we felt that recruiting 80 attendees was pretty successful. The people who attended were very passionate about what they do. A lot of planners felt they were out in the world doing this by themselves. Now they had someone to talk to and tell war stories to.” There was no need for creative ice-breakers: Everybody had information or a story they wanted to share.

The second meeting run by GMIC, the 2007 Greening the Hospitality Industry Conference, was held in February of this year, at the very green Doubletree Hotel and Executive Meeting Center in Portland, Ore., attracting about 100 attendees. During the final session, a facilitator guided the group in a discussion of what issues they felt were most prevalent and what kinds of actions were needed.

The result was released in April, a report called “The Future is Green: Charting a Sustainable Future for Meetings,” available for download at the organization’s website, www.greenmeetings.info.

The next conference is planned for Feb. 19-21, 2008, at the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver in British Columbia. The growing event is expected to host at least 150 attendees. The conference committee’s theme for the program is “Integrity, Impact and Innovation: Beyond the Four Walls,” and sessions will take the definition of a meeting beyond the conference room. “We want to explore what the trickle-down effect [of greening a meeting] is,” says McKinley. The program also will touch on how to reduce costs and risks, sustainable-catering ethics and carbon-neutral programs.

A new preconference session recently was added, to be held Feb. 19, called “Green Meetings 101.”

HOW GREEN IS IT?

To gauge the environmental impact of your events, go to www.bluegreen
meetings.org and take the quiz. Questions are grouped in eight categories, including transportation (getting there and getting around), destination selection, accommodations, venues, and food and beverage.

Conduct a comprehensive event evaluation using the MeetGreen calculator, available for $250 from Meeting Strategies Worldwide (www.meetingstrategiesworldwide.com). For more help making events environmentally friendly, the MeetGreen Toolbox ($175) offers checklists, guidelines and more. -- S.B.

Portrait of a member

While GMIC’s reputation is growing outside the meetings industry, recognition within is a bit slower. As of August, the organization comprised 69 planners and suppliers, although membership is not broken down by category. Counted among them is Fiona Pelham, managing director of Organise This Ltd., based in Manchester, England. She learned of GMIC through a session at MPI’s Professional Education Congress - North America, held in Charlotte, N.C., in January 2006.

“Organise This started in June 2004, planning events in a way that is environmentally friendly and community involved,” says Pelham, who, at the time, found there were not many planners or suppliers who were interested in considering the environment in connection with meetings. “We focus on sustainability for every event we do, and our client base is a mixture of people who believe this is important for their reputation and those who, at the start, did not find sustainability that important.”

Pelham joined GMIC more than a year ago to meet like-minded people, to share resources and to share ideas. She found a passionate audience and great education at the 2007 Greening the Hospitality Industry Conference in Portland. “My experience at the conference is the reason that I have chosen to renew my membership” she says, “and the reason I am confident the organization will survive and make a difference.”

Finding support

Like all such associations, the Green Meetings Industry Council needs funding sources to stay afloat, and membership dollars only go so far. Certainly, sponsorships and partnerships with industry suppliers are encouraged, but only if the companies have proven their long-term commitment to the environment.

“We have had a number of organizations come our way that are quite interested in giving us financial support,” notes McKinley. “But we’re very conscious of how we partner with them. It’s really important to us that our sponsors have a credible, authentic goal to be sustainable. I realize there are a lot of people who are interested in being green, but they’re not quite far enough along in the process to support an organization like ours. I’m optimistic they will come.”

Among supporters that have passed the test are Aptos, Calif.-based planning firm Genesis Creative Group; MCI Group, a France-based event management company; and Philadelphia-based StarCite, providers of online meetings management tools, which gives its customers MSWW’s MeetGreen tools.

Where to now

Spatrisano has big dreams for her nascent organization. “I want the GMIC to be the conduit and the convener of all the associations in moving toward the bigger picture, combining sustainability and corporate social responsibility,”
she says.

McKinley adds the council will focus more on producing research to support planners in their efforts to go green. Also on the docket is the creation of green standards for the meetings industry. “Some businesses already have standards, such as the LEED certification for buildings and hotels,” McKinley notes. “But as far as what the green meeting is and the guidelines needed, there’s a real gap.”

The GMIC is poised to have a big role in setting that policy.