Newsletter
March 6, 2012
 
Dear Boston Green Tourism Members,

 

Our next meeting will be Thursday at The Lenox Hotel in their City Table restaurant on floor 1 from 2:30 to 4:00.

 

Thank you Tedd Saunders, Scot Hopps and Ashley Grupillion for hosting us!  

 

MEETING AGENDA

Boston Green Tourism Meeting Agenda

 

March 8, 2012

 

Location: The Lenox Hotel, City Table restaurant. www.lenoxhotel.com/boston-airport-hotels.html.

Hosts: Tedd Saunders, Scot Hopps, Ashley Grupillion

2:30 to 2:40
Introductions

2:40 to 2:45
Update, Dan Ruben

2:45 to 3:15
Strengthening Your Hotel's Sustainability Program: Tools for Success
Tedd Saunders, President, EcoLogical Solutions Inc. and Chief Sustainability Officer, The Saunders Hotel Group (SHG)

3:15 to 3:30
Environmentally Friendly, Sustainable Care, Repair, Installation, and Restoration of Natural Stone and Terrazzo in Resorts & Hotels
Mike Burke, Vice President and Owner of the New England Division of Boylan Marble & Terrazzo

3:30 to 3:50
Warewashing and Energy Savings
Jerry Perkins, President, Hatch-Jennings, Inc.

3:50 to 4:00
NSTAR's Stairwell Lighting Promotion for 2012
Misha Glazomitsky, Training Coordinator, Munro Distributing

The Mass Save Financial Incentives for Energy Efficiency Investments in 2012
The NSTAR Team

 4:00
Tedd Saunders and Scot Hopps will take us to see one or more of the green features mentioned in their presentation. Attendees can ask to see which features they wish to see.
IDEAS

International Green Meeting Standards Developed by ASTM--How will they Impact Hotels? As you can see in the Articles and Information section below, ASTM has developed green standards for the meeting industry. They developed them over five years, with the help of the Green Meeting Industry Council, the U.S. EPA and many others.

 

The very detailed standards cover destinations, exhibits, transportation, audio visual (A/V) and production, communication and marketing materials, onsite offices, food and beverage and meeting venues. Instructions for purchasing the standards are in the article.

 

It's important to note that the ASTM standard on accommodations is not ready, and will be published at a later date.

 

Will the ASTM standards have an immediate impact on the hotel meeting industry? I think they that it will take a few years before the standards are commonly used. Perhaps a few convention planners will begin to use them soon to select a host city and hotels and specify their meeting requirements. Also, the standards might start appearing in RFP's.

 

The reason that more will not use the standards soon, in my opinion, is that they are so long and detailed that most meeting planners would find it daunting to use them.  

 

Having said that, I do recommend that hotels purchase the standards and review them. Doing so will prepare you for the first time that meeting planners use them; and because the standards contain good ideas that you can incorporate.

 

ARTICLES AND INFORMATION
credit: gme_allg




New Green Meeting Standards Available from ASTM International: Standards Cover Planning and Management of Environmentally Sustainable Events, Press Release, ASTM International, February 17.    

 

This is the announcement referenced above, including directions for purchasing the standards. 

 

Welcome to the HSPC: Alan Benjamin and JoAnna Abrams are helping establish an entity intent on the environmental overhaul of hospitality's billion-dollar supply chain, Tina Vasquez, Green Building and Design, Jan/Feb/Mar 2012.   

 

The Hospitality Sustainable Purchasing Consortium, "aims to provide the industry with a unified approach to greening its global supply chain by creating a Hospitality Sustainable Purchasing Index (HSPI). In the same way other indexes gauge suppliers on design, quality, price, availability, and service, the HSPI will evaluate them on their overall sustainability."

 

2012 MEETINGS  

March 8: The Lenox Hotel

April 26

June 7

August 2

September 20

November 1: Hostelling International Boston

December 6

 

 

See you Thursday at The Lenox!