Newswise — The UN Climate Change Conference, known as “COP15,” currently taking place in Copenhagen faced a simple problem – how do you hold a global conference on the environment without increasing greenhouse gas emissions, wasting paper and otherwise being un-green?
Not surprisingly, the Climate Change Conference answered all these questions correctly and more, producing a successfully green conference of an enormous magnitude. What can we take away from the UN’s success? The knowledge that if a large scale operation can be green, there is no reason that businesses can’t act similarly on a smaller scale.
First, start with a green city for the summit. The Economist Intelligence Unit just completed a survey of 30 European cities and found Copenhagen was the greenest based on: CO2 emissions; energy; buildings; transportation; water; air quality; waste and land use; and environmental governance.
Second, plan it to be green. The Danish Foreign Ministry said, “COP15 is organized following BS8901, a sustainable management standard. BS8901 was developed for the sustainable organization of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.” What was done and what effects it had will be published in March 2010 as the Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Protocol. This will be a case study that future meetings can use as a guide.
Third, invest in some carbon offsets. The Danish government has invested €700,000 in offsetting carbon emissions from transport to COP15. "We were only required to compensate for local emissions, but Denmark voluntarily decided to compensate for all emissions to showcase our commitment to sustainability," said Jan-Christoph Napierski, head of section at the COP15 logistic unit of the Denmark Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "We're also not only compensating for CO2 but other harmful greenhouse gases as well."
"This is probably one of the largest offsetting programs that has ever been done for an event," added Guy Bigwood, group sustainability director at MCI, which was involved in organizing and greening the event.
Fourth, make sure that the office supplies for the 180 member countries’ delegations are as green as possible. For example, UPM is supplying nine million sheets of copy paper that relies on sustainable sourcing of wood raw material and carries the EU Eco-label, the official EU mark awarded to greener products. Konica Minolta’s copiers will use up to the 60% less energy than the latest Energy Star requirements, and most if not all of the toner cartridges are recycled. How important is that? Over 375 million gallons of oil are consumed every year to make new OEM cartridges.
“Every compatible toner cartridge sold keeps one half-pound of waste out of landfills,” says Chuck Mache, CEO and President of American TonerServ. “The recovery and use of empty printer cartridges,” he explains, “reduces millions of cubic feet of material from waste disposal sites. In addition, each cartridge sold by American TonerServ is made out of approximately 97 percent recycled parts and winds up consuming 80 percent less energy than it would to manufacture a cartridge from scratch.”
Fifth, get local business involved. The number of hotels in Copenhagen with green certification has grown from 9% to 53% over the past 18 months in the run-up to COP15. For example, hotels that had green accreditation, such as the Green Key, Green Globe Certificate or Nordic Swan Label, were placed higher on the online reservation page for the conference. What business wouldn’t want to be at the top of that list?
RSS