Green Scene Series: Limos, Leftover Food, Packaging

More ideas on how to have a more eco-friendly event:

Transportation: There are so simple ways to get your guests/attendees to and from your venues in an eco-friendly manner.
- Choose only one venue. This eliminates the need to travel between locations and eliminates car trips.
- If you need to hold your event at more than one location, consider locations that are Metro accessible. Provide Metro maps and detail directions to your guests to make their mass transit experience more pleasant.
- If you are not able to choose mass transit accessible locations, encourage your guests to carpool (always great as an end-of-evening option for safety reasons). Or, provide buses to transport your guests.
- If you are hiring a transportation company, consider ones that provide alternative-fuel vehicles. EcoLimo, a car service company based in California, just opened a new branch in DC. Among its fleet of cars is a bio-diesel fueld Ford Excursion that seats up to 9 people.

Donate Leftovers: If there is a lot of leftover food, please ask your caterer if you can donate the food to DC Central Kitchen who will also come and pick up the food.
You can also donate floral arrangements to a local hospital or nursing home. I'm sure the recipients would love them!

Reduce Packaging: One of the biggest contributor to waste is packaging so think about ways to reduce the use of packaging. For example, serve water in pitchers or in pretty glass dispensers instead of individual bottles. You can have some bottles on hand so you can give them out upon request. Buy larger bottles of sodas and mixers instead of individual small cans. If you are doing a snack bar, you can serve popcorn or pretzels in big bowls instead of individual bags.

Green Scene Series: Events Industry is going Green

I recently attended the International Special Events Society's (ISES) holiday party at the newly renovated Sheraton National. The penthouse Galaxy Ballroom has a great view of the Air Force Memorial and towards DC.

The theme of the meeting was "Ring in the Green Year." The keynote speaker addressed how the special events industry is going green with lots of great ideas, some of which were demonstrated at the meeting itself!

1. Entertainment - Carolers ... no electricity required!
   
2. Lighting - LEDs ... produces virtually no heat which would otherwise increase the temperature of a room.
   
3. Candles - beeswax tealights ... instead of petroleum based ones
   
4. Virginia beer and wine ... buy local
   
5. Honest Tea 100% USDA organic ... my personal favorite for years (it actually tastes like tea)
   
6. Old Dominion root beer .... buy local
   
7. Pitchers of water ... less packaging used from bottles
   
8. Hors d’oeuvres – some organic, Maryland crab cakes, Virginia cheddar cheese sandwiches ... buy local
   
9. Virginia ham and turkey .... buy local
   
10. Bay shrimp, free range chicken ... buy local & organic
    
11. Risotto with wild local mushrooms
12. Linen napkins ... less waste
    
13. Handouts on recycled paper ... reuse/ also the PowerPoint presentation was distributed electronically to avoid killing more trees
    
14. Recycling name badges ... reuse (especially for large conferences ... can you image!)
    
15. Encouraged carpooling and public transportation

Finally, even the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is going green.
For more about what the show did, click here. Below are some of their efforts:

• Recycling bins will be placed across the show floor this year to divert cans, cups, glass products and paper
• All CES flyers are printed on recycled paper using soy inks
• Remaining show publications and flyers will be recycled at the close of the event
• Attendee food containers and utensils are biodegradable, made from hemp, corn byproduct or other organic materials
• Environmentally friendly chemicals are used in maintaining over 100 restrooms daily, replacing more than 15,000 gallons of non-sustainable products
• The Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) has switched to recycled paper products including toilet paper, facial tissue and paper towels
• All light bulbs and batteries used by the show are recycled and diverted from landfills
• Hazardous waste disposal programs are in affect for waste oil, paints and solvents
• Recycled carpet will be used in some convention spaces at the LVCC

Many of these ideas can be incorporated into your events! Ask us for more ideas.

Yours truly in the green short-sleeved sweater in the background. Photo courtesy of Roman Grinev Photography, who shot one of our September 2006 weddings. I was manning the ginger bread men station. Donated by Design Cuisine, members decorated gingerbread men and the finished products were given to the children's hospital at NIH for the holidays.

Green Scene Series: Reuse and buy local

Another in the Green Scene Series
Sometimes it feels like wedding decor are full of one-use items. Try thinking eco-friendly and it can not only help the environment but also help your wallet! Here are some ideas we've tried/seen:

• Use potted plants or a cluster of smaller potted plants as centerpieces. These can be given to guests and can be planted in the ground or kept as potted plants for years to come.
  
• Reuse whatever decor items you can from the wedding for the day-after get-togethers. Floral arrangements can definitely be kept in good shape overnight.
• Reuse ceremony decorations at the reception. I've used chair posies from the ceremony and rearranged them to decorate the bars, escort card tables, bathrooms, etc.
• Especially in the fall, I love to do a farmers market food station where the chef would serve whatever vegetables were in season from local farms. We've done this a few times and we acknowledge such either on a menu card or on little signs by the stations. Local farms = less transportation.
  
• How about supporting the local economies by serving Maryland or Virginia wines?
  

Green Scene Series: Biodegradable Confetti

We are starting a new series of blog entries on "green" wedding ideas called the Green Scene.
I found out late in the game that we were not allowed to use sparklers to send the bride and groom off to their wedding night. So we decided to use white confetti (something that would show up on film at night). Along came Ecofetti from Ecoparti. It is biodegradable and water soluble! There are lots of colors and each bag comes with a spoon. Liz at Ecoparti really helped me out since I only had 3 days to get the product before the wedding!

Wedded to Green - Post Article

There was an article in today's Washington Post Home section on 'Green' weddings.
Click here to read more.
Some great ideas on how to be environmentally sensitive for your big day.

Ideas for a 'Green' Wedding on GMA

Good Morning America did a segment this morning on having an eco-friendly wedding.

Eco-Savvy Couples

A new website/magazine - Portovert - "offers beautiful, inspired, smart wedding ideas that support an environmentally and socially conscious lifestyle." Check it out!