Lindsay Coulter |

Last week, Lindsay Coulter, the “Queen of Green” at The David Suzuki Foundation, talked with WTTC.com’s Janet Latremouille about what her role at the foundation and what actions planners could take to decrease the environmental footprint of their meetings and events.

After the interview, Lindsay was kind enough to provide us with a list of links and resources compiled by the foundation especially for the meetings, incentives, conventions and events industry. For more information, visit The David Suzuki Foundation Website or use the site’s search engine to find additional resources and comments helpful to the industry. You can also contact the foundation with your specific questions by emailing contact@davidsuzuki.org. There is also the option to sign your company up for the David Suzuki “At Work” Program. Follow the link to read some of the program’s success stories.

Resources Links:

How-to Guide To Doing Business in a New Climate (Book, PDF)

How to Host a Sustainable, Carbon Neutral Conference of Other Events

Other Ways To Make Your Event More Sustainable

Guide To Making Sense of Paper Labels (PDF)

Guide To Offset Vendors (PDF)

Stay tuned for this month’s e-newsletter when we’ll feature a list of green tools and resources compiled by The David Suzuki Foundation’s “Queen of Green” — Lindsay Coulter.

Janet Latremouille, WTTC’s own “Queen of Green”, talked with Lindsay about her role at the foundation. Here are some excerpts from that conversation:

WTTC: Lindsay, you’re known as the David Suzuki Foundation’s “Queen of Green”. Why is that?

LC: After my own environment-friendly wedding in 2006, I quickly found myself doing media commentary on how to have a “green” Christmas and how to plan a “green” vacation. The solutions I was cooking up at home also proved to be of great interest to people … like how to detox your home and make your own cheap and effective home cleaning supplies. At queenofgreen.ca, you can find over a dozen how-to video’s that we shot on set, aka my kitchen.

WTTC: We hear a lot about “decreasing the environmental footprint” of meetings and events. What exactly does this mean?

LC: Large events such as conferences, sports competitions, concerts, festivals, and conventions can be major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity, heating and air conditioning, ground transportation, air travel, paper and other materials are just some of the ways that large events contribute to climate change. However, many event organizers are recognizing that large events do not have to have a huge climate impact and, in fact, can play a positive role by becoming low-carbon or even carbon neutral.

WTTC: A big part of a planner’s job is to arrange air and land transportation for their delegates. Do you have any tips and ideas that will help the planners minimize the impact of moving literally thousands of people around their events?

LC: From the Rolling Stones to the Olympic Organizing Committee, individuals, organizations and cities are purchasing carbon offsets. First, know your carbon footprint and understand what your largest sources of emissions are. Ensure that you include all of your major emission sources, such as electricity consumption, fuel use, and travel (vehicles and air travel). Use carbon calculators from the Websites of reputable offset vendors. Look for calculators that allow you to enter detailed information, such as the make and model of your vehicle, as this will produce more accurate results. For example, check out the list of carbon calculators found on our Website.

The carbon offset market for voluntary purchases is not regulated and does not have universal standards. We hope that a strong offset standard will be developed and implemented as soon as possible. This will help ensure that the voluntary carbon market flourishes, and allow people to use carbon offsets with confidence to help reduce their climate impact.

Offsets are not a replacement for direct action by individuals, businesses or organizations to reduce their own carbon footprints, but if used as a complementary measure, they can offer a number of benefits. These include promoting innovation, helping to make clean energy projects more economically viable, and allowing people to take responsibility for their entire carbon footprint, including emissions that can’t be effectively reduced. Carbon offsets can also allow individuals, businesses, and organizations to demonstrate leadership on climate change by going beyond existing government regulations.

Most major carriers also allow you to purchase offsets when you buy your flight. You can even buy offsets with your frequent flyer points.

To get you started, here are some tips on how to buy carbon offsets:

* Put climate protection first. Carbon offsets need to be high quality in order to have any benefit for the climate. It’s better to buy fewer, higher-quality offsets, rather than a greater number of lower-quality ones. Look for offsets that are accredited by relatively strong, independent standards, such as the CDM or The Gold Standard, which can help ensure that key quality criteria are met.

* Be an informed purchaser. Consider vendor claims of offset quality carefully. Look for vendors that have detailed information about their offsets on their Website, so you know what you are purchasing. Don’t hesitate to ask for any information that is not publicly available on the vendor’s Website.

* Seek independent information. You can consult other expert reviews and analyses of carbon offsets, vendors, and the voluntary carbon market, and/or seek advice from a reputable environmental organization or greenhouse gas consultant.

* To ensure any offsets you purchase are only sold once, choose vendors who guarantee to “retire” the offset from the market on your behalf, and who use a third-party, publicly accessible registry that tracks ownership of the offset over its lifetime.

Photo of Lindsay Coulter by Brooke MacDonald