orca

Green Meetings

Here are some tips on hosting a more sustainable meeting.
Thanks to the participants of PowerQuest who suggested and advocated for this page!

Pre-Event Preparation

  • Email agendas/minutes 
  • Ask attendees to bring their own mugs
  • Remind attendees to turn off monitors and other peripherals (like label makers, speakers….) before coming to the meeting

Venue

  • Hold your meeting outdoors if appropriate/possible.
  • Only turn on lights as needed

Transportation

  • Use Skype, Zoom or other web conferencing to include attendees from out of town instead of driving
  • Avoid single-occupancy vehicles to travel to meetings when you can

Materials Reduction Strategies

  • Use recycled paper or electronic devices to make notes
  • Make use of cloud computing (like Google docs, shared drives) to edit notes/reports
  • Make notes on a whiteboard, photograph, then share with meeting attendees via email or other electronic method
  • Replace hard-copy questionnaires with online polls and surveys

Catering

Food

  • Inquire about which items may be local, and/or in-season.

Waste

  • Request cutlery as appropriate 
    DYK? Food Services single-use cutlery is compostable. Please use compost bins for paper plates and single-use cutlery
  • Bring your own mug, and if that's not possible, remember that paper cups can be composted

Zero Waste (or close!)

  • Remind your guests to sort their waste appropriately—or better yet—show them what items go where
  • At a large event, consider having volunteers assist guests in composting/recycling
  • Offer any food leftovers to others

Got another idea? 

Send it to us at Sustainability@viu.ca. We’ll add it to the list.