ShareThisHow do you turn a meeting green? Here are some ways that meeting planners can lower the impact of an event on the environment. Many of these are applicable to private events such as weddings as well as business events.-- Choose a location that's close to where most participants live to minimize fuel consumption during travel.-- Choose meeting rooms, hotels and restaurants that are within walking distance of each other, or provide shuttle services to minimize car trips if walking isn't feasible.-- Choose hotels that have detailed environmental policies such as energy-conservation programs, low-flow bathroom fixtures, on-site recycling, and that give guests the option of reusing their sheets and towels.-- Request reusable dishes, glasses and linens for food service. If reusable isn't an option, ask for compostable items such as paper plates and utensils made out of corn starch.-- Request locally grown and organic food.-- Purchase and serve condiments in bulk containers rather than individual packets. Avoid boxed lunches unless the boxes are made from compostable materials.-- Provide drinking water in pitchers or water coolers rather than plastic bottles.-- Provide well-labeled bins for recycling and composting, as well as for trash.-- Provide program guides and handouts electronically rather than on paper.-- Choose reusable or recyclable signs.-- Ask exhibitors to minimize packing materials, and use recycled and reusable materials in their booths. If you need to hand out promotional products, consider items made from recycled or sustainable materials. Some ideas are at links.sfgate.com/ZCJT -- Collect and recycle plastic name badges as people leave the event.-- Arrange for exhibitors to donate leftover flowers, giveaways or booth decorations to local schools or nonprofit organizations. Donate leftover food to soup kitchens.-- Consider using carbon-offset programs to make up for the fuel burned by people traveling to the event. There are a number of companies that can estimate the amount of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming) created by travel to your event and will let you or participants donate a corresponding amount of money to plant trees, buy wind energy etc.Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Green Meeting Industry Council ( www.bluegreenmeetings.org).(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
How do you turn a convention green?
Paying taxes unites us. It also divides us. People can pay five and even six times more in state and local taxes than other folks in similar circumstances making similar incomes.
Who's got your number?
In one of the fastest-growing forms of identity theft, crooks are stealing tax refunds by swiping personal information and using it to trick the Internal Revenue Service.
