Green Planning: Links

Additional Green Guides

• Blue Green Meetings (a project of the Oceans Blue Foundation)

• Convention Industry Council

• Environment Canada

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Meetings Initiative

• Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) Green Hotel Initiative

• GreenBiz.com’s “It’s Easy Being Green! A Guide to Planning And Conducting Environmentally Aware Meetings and Events”

• Green Seal’s Standard for Lodging Properties

• Meeting Professionals International’s Reference and Resource Guide for Activities Supporting a Green Meetings Philosophy

• National Recycling Coalition ( pdf)

• Green Guardian (from the twin cities)

Additional Sources

• Campus Climate Neutral

• Cleaner and Greener

• Climate Institute

• Co-op America Business Network — "Greening Your Purchasing”

• Food First, Institute for Food and Development Policy

• Meeting Professionals International — "How Green are You?”

• New American Dream: a nonprofit that has a plethora of information on wise purchasing and living consciously.

• Treecycle Recycled Paper

• Waste online

Green hotel resources:

• Green Hotels Association: database of green hotels in each state.

• Green Globe 21 - Sustainable 21st Century Tourism

• GreenLeaf Hotel Eco-Rating Program (under "Certification")

• Environmentally Sound Hotel Management Links

• Energy Star for Hospitality

• Green Hotelier

Paper Resources:

• Forest Ethics — Green Purchasing

• Union of Concerned Scientists — "Tree-free Paper"

Some biodegradable/composable utensil websites

• Simply Biodegradable: offers cornstarch, sugar cane, and heat tolerant ware.

• Eco-Products: corn plastic, compostable, coffee cups, and everything you’ll need.

• NAT-UR Store: straws, biodegradable trash bags, plates and cutlery.

Food resources:

• Where Does Your Food Come From?

• Seafood Selection — "Seafood Solutions: The Questions Chefs Need to Ask When Purchasing Seafood"

• Organic food — "What is Organic?"

Carbon Calculators & Offset Organizations:

• carbonfund.org
• a nonprofit that lets you choose what project-type you want your offsets used for. This site only factors carbon emissions (so doesn’t include other GHGs)
• Methods: sequestration, renewable energy, and efficiency
• carboncounter.org
• a joint project of The Climate Trust and the Mercy Corps (an text10 relief organization), this nonprofit focuses on funding energy projects to reduce effects from humanitarian disasters.
• Methods: cogeneration, energy efficiency, transportation efficiency and reforestation.
• climatecare.org
• a nonprofit company that invests offsets into sustainable projects around the world.
• Methods: renewable energy, efficiency, sequestration, cogeneration, and transportation efficiency.
• coolplanet.org
• a nonprofit that partners with companies, campuses, communities and science centers throughout the Northeast to help reduce their carbon emissions.
• nativeenergy.com
• a private Native American company that helps build wind farms and biomass generators owned by Native Americans and/or farmers. This site offers many calculators, especially for all types of transportation.
• Methods: renewable energy investments
• cooldriver.org
• a partnership with Cool Planet and Native Energy that compensates for car emissions.
• b-e-f.org/index.shtm
• a non-profit Northwestern organization that sells renewable energy credits to offset emissions and promotes sustainable fish and wildlife habitat within the Pacific Northwest. This site has calculators for special events, car and air travel, and general emissions.
• Methods: funds activities and projects that lead to greater reliance on clean, environmentally preferred renewable power.
• sustainabletravelinternational.org
• a nonprofit with great carbon calculators for plane, car, gifts, home, and lodging.
• Methods: only does projects promoting renewable energy that comply with WWF Gold Standard (an independent, NGO-founded best practice standard for CDM & JI projects) and is sustainability-oriented. Also does energy efficiency projects.
• terrapass.org
• has a carbon calculator for flights & cars
• Methods: invests in biomass and wind energy as well as industrial efficiency projects (through the Chicago Climate Exchange CCX—a voluntary cap and trade program)
• betterworldtravel.org
• can offset your flights: $11 for domestic, $22 international. You can also book a flight through Better World Travel, which pays your roundtrip offsets for free.

References:

• "The National Recycling Coalitions Green Meetings Policy"
• "Making your Conference Sustainable & Climate Neutral"
  by Marie-Claire Munnelly, 2007
• "EECOM Green Conference Guidelines"
• Convention Industry Council's Green Meetings Report

Contact Information

If you have general questions or comments, contact:
Shalini Suryanarayana (shalini@mtu.edu) and please put
"ESC Question/Comment" in the subject line.

Electronic mail

If you have any questions on the recycling program at Michigan Tech: recyclinginfo-l@mtu.edu

General Information: shalini@mtu.edu