We have ideals. We want “green meetings” but what does that even mean?
We want to serve food that is local, organic, and sustainable.
We want to meet in venues that compost, donate leftover food, serve sugar in bowls instead of packages.
We want to create signs that can be used over and over again and don’t end up in landfills.
We want sheets and towels that are grown from sustainable plants.
We want all of our supplies to be made from places that treat their employees right.
We want to work with suppliers that treat their employees right.
And we have our ideals that we strive to achieve with each event.
But – it’s really hard to have a nutritious meal in Calgary in the winter from food that is local and organic. We just can’t grow lettuce in the middle of winter.
Not all venues can donate food and many don’t have the ability to set up composting (although many can and do).
We use signs that meet our ideals, but create magnetic headers that we don’t recycle. We need to find a solution to this – and we’re working on it.
We don’t generally insist on organic or sustainable sheets and towels. Maybe we should start.
We often don’t know how employees are treated.
It’s time we took the time to do more research. But we also need to accept some of our compromises along the way. It’s hard to do the “perfect” meeting or event – but we need to keep trying. As event planners – let’s keep trying, asking and insisting. Let’s stop compromising on things we don’t need to compromise on. Our industry has the same economic impact as the auto industry – if we speak up I’m sure we can make a difference. We just need to keep doing it.




