The Savannah International Trade & Convention Center was awarded LEED Gold certification for Existing Buildings by the U.S. Green Building Council, making it the first convention center in Georgia and one of a handful of U.S. convention facilities to attain a gold level rating.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a green building rating system for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of sustainable buildings.

In the ever-evolving journey to take the trade show industry in a more sustainable direction, certain stakeholders appear to be getting creative by experimenting with fun and unique ways to cut down on the massive amounts of waste most events typically produce, including food waste.

Case in point: the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and its exclusive food and beverage provider, Centerplate, which hosted a “Zero Waste Lunch” on May 10 at WasteExpo 2017, held May 8-11 at the New Orleans-based facility.

How many convention centers can boast having their very own farm, not to mention a slew of beehives pumping out delicious honey for in-house menus and catering? And out of those select few, how many facilities also have an enthusiastic young college intern ready and willing to help with beekeeping and farmhand duties?

The Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland is fortunate enough to be such a venue, with a sustainable working farm situated on a quarter acre of land at the north end of the property.

Imagine you’re at a large trade show in a giant convention center among throngs of people and you’re starting to feel tired and stressed.

Instead of just grinning and bearing it, you’ve arranged to take a break and venture to the facility’s green roof, where a sprawling garden of plants and flowers, along with birds, bees and butterflies, awaits you.

The San Diego Convention Center has taken its environmental ambitions to the next level by achieving Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification.

As one of the most popular and well-respected green building certification programs used worldwide, LEED is known as the foremost rating program for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of green buildings, homes and communities.

As one of the greenest convention centers in the country, the Colorado Convention Center couldn’t just let Earth Day come and go without doing something significant. But reserving just one day of the year to honor the environment while bringing awareness to the importance of sustainability doesn’t seem to be enough for the LEED Gold-EB-certified convention venue.

For three years in a row, the Denver-based facility has been taking an entire week to recognize Earth Day, while educating its employees in the process, via its Employee Green Week Challenge, taking place April 17-21.

Cosmoprof North America is set to launch DISCOVER GREEN LEAF, a new curated showfloor area dedicated to green, eco-friendly, organic and natural products, at its upcoming July 9-11 event at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.

The annual trade show and conference for the global beauty industry attracted 10,369 attendees and 1,154 exhibitors to 280,991 square feet of expo space at its 2016 show.

As more sustainably minded shows seek to track, measure and lessen their environmental impact, it makes sense that green event industry organizations would answer the call by providing comprehensive tools that give organizers frameworks for accomplishing those objectives.

In an effort to demonstrate its ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship and attract more sustainably minded events, Detroit’s Cobo Center has achieved APEX/ASTM Venue Standard recertification.

It goes without saying that trade shows and events are incredibly tough on the environment, producing massive amounts of waste and carbon emissions each year. According to MeetGreen, the typical conference attendee creates more than four pounds of waste and just under 400 pounds of CO₂ emissions per day.

As a show organizer, you know you should do your part to help the planet by taking your events in a more sustainable direction, but you’re concerned that going green will not only be more labor intensive, but also more expensive.