Guest Post by Dave Rochlin, CEO of ClimatePath

When Wal Mart announced last year that they would be introducing a comprehensive sustainability scorecard into their vendor evaluation process, it sent quite a shockwave through their supplier community. They now ask for information in 15 key areas – from Greenhouse gas reduction targets to water usage and supplier traceability.  (The summary supplier sustainability assessment is available here: http://walmartstores.com/download/3863.pdf)

Others are now starting to emulate Wal Mart, including recent announcements from Kaiser, P & G, IBM and others.  A sea change is clearly underway. If you are a supplier to the events and meetings industry, sustainability questions will become a more common RFP criteria. If you are a meeting/event manager, your customers - whether internal or external - are going to be expecting a lot more out of you in terms of due diligence, sustainability initiatives, and disclosure. The Eventview 2009 study revealed that almost 2/3 of executives are implementing greening initiatives within the event function, in order  to meet corporate sustainability mandates and connect with their audiences and customers.

Perhaps it is time to start developing a scorecard of your own. Both changing internal policies and asking your suppliers to follow more sustainable practices can yield surprising results, as well as cost savings. Whether you are introducing ride sharing, paperless processes, or eliminating bottled water, you need to push for progress and keep score.

Certain and ClimatePath’s Greener Events white paper (available here) identifies many of the areas that offer opportunities for reduction. If you want to develop a formal scorecard, ClimatePath can help you do so. More information is available here http://www.climatepath.org/themes/climate/downloads/meetingandeventsscorecard.pdf