Lots of hotels are using a mix of strategies to cut down on waste, and no area of the hotel is exempt. Take meeting planners: They are under the gun to produce sustainable conventions and trade shows, and many have responded with new approaches to F&B, activities and amenities.
Here’s what Brittany Price, director of sustainable operations at MGM Resorts, has learned in the process of aiming for less waste:
Plan ahead: Trade show exhibitors often leave behind products like furniture that need to go … somewhere when the show ends. (One client hauled in a whole barn.) Rather than sending them to the dump, MGM’s resorts can place these items with local nonprofits, provided they have some advance notice. Suddenly needing to find a new home for hundreds of chairs, on the other hand, is not an ideal, so knowing what to expect is key.
Know your compostables: “One group needed disposables but wanted them to be compostable, so we found some BPI-certified plastic products that were supposed to be compostable,” Price says. “But not all compostable products will break down in a desert environment. Just because something says it’s compostable doesn’t mean it will break down the way you would expect.”
Be a resource for groups: MGM offers meeting planners a deck of cards with 52 sustainable event ideas that could apply to any location. It helps meeting planners and their clients decide exactly how green they want their event to be.