How Green Are Your Meetings?
Free Meeting Planner's Questionnaire
Press Release - Houston, Texas - "Green" Hotels Association® is offering a free Meeting Planner's Questionnaire to all meeting planners, convention coordinators, tour guides, travel agents and individuals who are interested in saving water, saving energy, reducing solid waste and SAVING MONEY. Anyone who is interested in our environment and spends money with hotels can do more by choosing green hotels for guest stays, meetings, conventions and family events.
The Meeting Planner's Questionnaire for "Green" Lodging Establishments asks 43 pertinent questions which will reveal the greenness of a hotel, lodging establishment or convention center. Areas covered by the questionnaire include recycling, purchasing of recycled or recyclable items, food and beverage service, bottle deposits, leftover food, meeting materials, guestroom amenities, guestroom linens, water and energy conservation. Each question may be answered Yes or No and examples or further information may be inserted.
"When planning meetings or conventions", "Green" Hotels Association®'s President Patricia Griffin suggests, the questionnaire can be faxed to four or five hotels. When the planner is making a final decision between perhaps two hotels, the planner should call or fax again to ask management if there is one further green accomplishment the hotel will offer to obtain this business. The hotel can perhaps install low-flow aerators on one floor of rooms, add a recycling bin for aluminum by the pool or in a public area, stop using paper doilies on serving trays, delamp vending machines or even contact "Green" Hotels Association® for further information."
Any environmentally-interested group can walk their talk by choosing a green hotel for meeting and convention sites. Meeting planners heavily impact hotels' bottom lines by spending millions of dollars each year with hotels. These meeting planners can very easily and simply influence the environmental awareness of the whole lodging industry by the careful placement of their meeting dollars with hotels that are green. Demands by environmentally-aware meeting planners will help green the lodging industry by making lodging management aware that conservation by hotels is required and appreciated.
Individuals interested in our environment can have an impact by choosing green properties when planning weddings, family reunions, church events, bar mitzvahs, association meetings, etc.
Patricia Griffin further suggests that hoteliers use the form to their benefit in order to obtain environmental organizations' meeting and convention business. Hoteliers should fill out the form, keep it updated and make the "green" information a part of their meeting-planner package so that all environmentally-interested groups will be immediately aware of the property's "greenness".
This questionnaire was adapted from one developed by the National Recycling Coalition, Alexandria, Virginia, with their generous permission.
A free Meeting Planners' Questionnaire for "Green" Lodging Establishments along with a list of "Green" Hotels Association® members--hoteliers who are committed to helping save our planet--may be obtained by contacting "Green" Hotels Association® (please see questionnaire below).
"Green" Hotels Association® encourages, supports and promotes ecological consciousness in the hospitality industry through its trade association and its Catalog of Environmental Products for the Lodging Industry. Because general managers, chief engineers and executive housekeepers generally do not have time to seek out all the ideas and suggestions for conserving water and energy and reducing solid waste, "Green" Hotels Association® has devoted itself to that task. For further information, contact "Green" Hotels Association® at P. O. Box 420212, Houston, TX 77242-0212, 713/789-8889, Fax 713/789-9786 or green@greenhotels.com.