Meeting Revolution – Blog

Last Friday, I sent an e-mail out to local hotels to find out what they were doing to be “green”.  I got many different responses but two responses got me thinking.  Both hotels said that they were or were going to participate their states green certification program.  I went to those states particular web site and to my surprise each state has their own green program.

I’ll pick on NH because that is where I live.  The New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association (NHLRA) started a program called New Hampshire Sustainable Lodging & Restaurant Program (NHSLRP).  Now as I told one of these hotels, this is a great start to be green but why stop there.  As much as I love each state for trying to good…there is no standards between NH’s program and let’s say MA or RI.

I would check out Energy Star’s certification and the US Green Building Council LEED certification.  These certifications are regulated by the government and there are checklist and standards that have to be up kept in order to keep the certification.  As a meeting professional, I will only do a meeting at a hotel that has either a LEED or Energy Star certification.  On both the Energy Star and U.S Green Building Council web sites have hotels and other facilities that have the certifications.

http://www.energystar.gov

https://www.usgbc.org

We are going to touch upon certification many times in these blogs but if there are an specific questions about the certification process let me know!  I want to end this blog with a great story about a company in Boston, MA who is LEED Certified…(All of the following information was taken from the Harvard Business Review on Green Business Strategy).  When I was reading this information, all I could think was, “This information needs to go into my blog!”  It is THAT good!

“In its first year of operation, Genzyme Center – Genzyme Corporation’s 12-story LEED-Platinum headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts-used 42% less energy and 34% less water than standard buildings of comparable size.  Green buildings can also boost employee productivity by approximately 15% in part because they use alternative building materials that don’t emit toxins, like formaldehyde, that are commonly found in standard building materials and workplaces.  At Genzyme Center, 58% of the 920 employees report that they’re more productive there than they were in Genzyme’s former headquarters building.  Employee sick time in the new headquarters is 5% lower than for all of Genzyme’s other Massachusetts facilities combined.  Moveover, green design criteria-including abundant daylighting, individual climate controls, and outdoor views-raise morale and employee satisfaction, which also improves productivity.

Genzyme Center earned its LEED-Platinum rating in part because of its location.  The building stands on a remediated brownfield site (where a cold gasification plant once stood).  It is adjacent to a power plant-something that might typically be considered a challenge because it means unattractive views for workers and visitors.  Genzyme, however, turned the plant’s proximity into an opportunity by piping the plant’s “waste” stream into the center’s HVAC system to warm the building in the winter and cool it (with two steam absorption chillers) in the summer.  Adopting this steam system reduced the building’s electrical requirements and energy costs, and those saving are reimbursing the company for the system’s higher up-front capital costs.

The LEED rating program gives points to properties located within a quarter mile of bus lines and within half a mile of rail and subway lines.  Genzyme Center is a five-minute walk from a mass-transit station.  Approximately 25% of the building’s 920 employees leave their cars at home.”