The Cast
Dave Fellers, CAE, Executive Director,
Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)

Janet M. Cooper, CMP, Director, Convention Operations,
RSNA

Natalie Boden, Director of Marketing & Member Communications,
RSNA

Eugene Hardison, Director, Event Excellence,
McCormick Place

Antonio Smith, Operation Contract Manager,
Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, MPEA (a municipal corporation that owns and manages the McCormick Place complex)

Don Daup, National Account Manager, Exposition Services,
Freeman

Larry Acton, Director of Operations,
Chicago Restaurant Partners (McCormick Place's food service provider)

Kevin Kruis, Recycling & Special Events Manager,
Allied Waste Services of Chicago

Prologue
A little greening here, a little social responsibility there … that philosophy worked for the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) for a while. But when interest to really go green bubbled up at a monthly meeting of the Executive Director's Staff Advisory Committee (EDSAC), it was determined that in 2007, RSNA would become a more visibly good steward of the environment for its 41,000 members in 116 countries. And if it could save money at the same time, all the better.

This would be no small feat for the Oak Brook, Ill.-based organization - especially for its Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, which takes over McCormick Place in late November every year for six days of educational programs and 758 technical exhibits in 535,300 square feet. Last year, more than 62,501 people attended from 100 countries and contributed nearly $128 million to Chicago's economy.

By making eco-friendly improvements to the annual meeting and replicating them at other meetings, RSNA would begin to spread greening efforts to all corners of its operations.

Executive Director Dave Fellers, CAE, greenlighted the project, and it became a centerpiece of RSNA's annual EDSAC retreat in August 2007. There, Fellers, staff executives, and department heads began to identify targets and formalize benchmarks for "greening" RSNA's headquarters building, staff processes, and annual meeting. On the meetings side, the team formulated two lists: practices already in place/in progress, and potential actions with vendors (see box, page 95).

Since so many of the green initiatives were related to the annual meeting, most of the opportunities - and burdens - landed squarely on the shoulders of Janet M. Cooper, CMP, RSNA'S director, convention operations, who also chairs RSNA's internal "green committee."

Act 1: Achievements in 2007
When the RSNA leadership team concluded its work at the retreat, they were just three and a half months away from the 2007 annual meeting kick-off. The easiest starting point was with the meeting vendors. Many had already launched green programs that were expanding rapidly with an explosion of interest from meeting planners. But RSNA had neither quantified nor qualified just what their vendors were delivering or what the society itself was achieving with the upcoming meeting.

McCormick Place already recycled mixed paper, aluminum cans, and plastic bottles in public spaces, but not on the show floor. (A 2004 city of Chicago ordinance required all businesses in the city to recycle.) Instead of bottles, large containers of drinking water were situated in meeting room corridors. Lighting and electrical power usage was reduced for the entire time from move-in to move-out. RSNA arranged for containers to be set out for badge and lanyard collection and recycling.

Freeman. RSNA benefited from Freeman's recycling of carpet and aluminum, as well as recycled content in its carpet padding and plastic carpet covering. (In its first 18 months, Freeman's carpet program recycled more than 25 million square feet of used aisle carpet into drainage pipe for septic systems, and Freeman annually recycles 500,000 pounds of aluminum into new components.)

RSNA considered replacing manual signs with digital signage for its meeting rooms. It would cost approximately $1,500 per room for audiovisual equipment and electrical service/labor, while a meeting room's one-meter sign, produced by Freeman, cost RSNA $300 per room. Because Freeman can reuse the gaterboard base over and over for another event, RSNA felt it would be less harmful to the environment (and more cost-effective) to continue with the printed signage.

Don Daup, national account manager, exposition services, Freeman, pointed out that the savings are lost, however, if a sign has to be remade. "What's important with trade shows is to have the flexibility to make changes on the fly." Digital systems allow for this, plus multiple messages can rotate or scroll on the same plasma screen, replacing 10 one-meter freestanding signs.

Chicago Restaurant Partners started at McCormick Place in the fall of 2007, so RSNA had little time to initiate F&B green options. However, the vendor continued RSNA's program of delivering excess food to a local shelter, and set up healthy snack stations (with fruits and nuts) in meeting room corridors. RSNA "never had these before and they were very popular," Cooper said. As much china as possible was used in meeting and banquet spaces; for public food service, all disposable packaging, flatware, and cups were fully compostable.

RSNA's own initiatives. All exhibitor communications for the 2007 annual meeting were placed exclusively online, including the service kit. For the first time, the annual meeting's Daily Bulletin was printed on recycled paper using soy-based inks; adding just a little more than $1,000 to the cost of producing 15,000 issues per day for five days.

The Pocket Guide was also printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink, and 900 meeting bags that were left over were donated to a downtown Chicago school.

Over the past few years, RSNA has successfully moved almost all of its poster sessions into digital format, with online communities for attendee interaction, 160 terminals throughout McCormick Place for poster viewing, and seating areas with plasma screens and couches, where sub-specialty professionals can meet and discuss posters.

Act 2: Determining Trade-offs
Cooper reviewed articles, information, and research about "meeting green" before and since the 2007 EDSAC retreat. What surprised her was how "overwhelming" it all was. Exactly what were the real benefits and trade-offs of various green options?

"That's what we keep asking ourselves," Cooper said, holding a just-received tonnage analysis report from the 2007 meeting. "This is interesting, but I need more detail about what it means and what is do-able. That's our big project for 2008."

In response to a request by the president of RSNA's board, Cooper and her team are investigating carbon offset programs and the extent to which attendees should participate - possibly enabling them to donate right on site. But first she needed to estimate the annual meeting's carbon footprint, and was just starting that process when she spoke with Convene. That information had to be ready for consideration at the June RSNA board meeting, since a carbon offset initiative requires board approval. Cooper is also researching the possibility of purchasing renewable energy.

For one thorny issue, Cooper turned to Natalie Boden, RSNA's director of marketing & member communications for RSNA: Can it do away with the pre-printed plastic bags it always supplies on the exhibit floor?

"We're providing a nicer, reusable canvas bag to professional attendees, cutting distribution of our plastic bags from 50,000 to 25,000 in 2008, and looking for a bag made from recycled plastic," Boden explained. While she hasn't chosen the final product yet, she expects to choose one with the handle as part of the bag, not one with a heavy plastic bridge handle (not recyclable), which had been used in the past.

Another "touchy subject," according to Cooper, is attendee handouts. The program committee believes attendees should receive handouts at the meeting and not be forced to find them online. Indeed, the committee's chair would provide attending professionals with all handouts bound into a single book, if that were possible.

First, though, RSNA needed to assess actual demand. At the 2007 annual meeting, staff tallied the number of handouts printed per session (for example, 150 for a session preregistered with 200 professionals) and how many were actually taken. RSNA learned that it was printing too many handouts for a number of courses, so cutbacks are planned for 2008.

Cooper, who attended PCMA's 2008 Annual Meeting in January, took a long, hard look at the print-on-demand stations there, set up around the Washington State Convention & Trade Center. She ultimately decided not to go that route. "Part of the reason is the sheer size of our meeting," she explained. "It would be a challenge" for RSNA to set up the number of computers and printers that would be needed to meet the demand of professionals in attendance. And whether RSNA could ever go paperless remains an open question.

Act 3: Where to Go From Here
All the up-front green actions matter little if the issues around back-end waste processing are not fully resolved.

McCormick Place. When exhibitors vacate their space, they leave behind a huge amount of trash (including carpeting and skids of literature). Indeed, RSNA incurred a significant increase in final trash charges from McCormick Place in 2007, Daup noted. That alone is a good reason for show organizers to require that exhibitors return their space to the condition in which they first encountered it. RSNA will be monitoring this in 2008 and may implement additional charges to exhibitors who leave excessive trash behind. "Being green is expensive, so there needs to be a combined effort," Daup noted.

At some point, the more the convention facility takes out of the waste stream and diverts to recycling, the lower the disposal costs will be, especially with greater demand for marketable recycled materials, projected Kevin Kruis, recycling manager for Allied Waste, McCormick Place's waste service provider.

Freeman. The carpet and aluminum recycling programs will continue. In a big move, RSNA wants recycling receptacles placed beyond the facility's public spaces: in meeting rooms, association offices, and even exhibit booths. Since the wastebasket is a rental item for exhibitors, multiple receptacles will mean additional expense for them, noted Daup. Still, the option is very much on the table for 2008.

Additionally, Freeman is researching a green-friendly material for show card signs. "It might not be as rigid as the standard substrate we're using, which is used once and thrown away," said Daup. "The question is, how many times can it be used with another graphic and not affect the product to the customer?"

While it still does not plan to utilize digital signage, RSNA will be able to reduce some of its traditional signage with a 24' X 6' video wall. It will be placed in a high-traffic area in the Grand Concourse at McCormick Place. Freeman's audiovisual team is helping RSNA develop the wall, which will include messages on programming, highlights of the day's events, news and market reports from CNN, and exhibitor advertisements.

Chicago Restaurant Partners. In addition to the food donation program and healthy snack stations, RSNA has requested more organic food and local sourcing. With its large international contingent, RSNA especially wants vegetarian options. Composting has not yet been discussed with the vendor or McCormick Place, but it is something RSNA will encourage.

Hotels. With 71 hotels and 100,000 peak room nights in its block, RSNA needs just about every hotel in downtown Chicago. "We can't say we won't use you if you don't have a linen re-use program," Cooper allows. However, RSNA is letting all hotels know that it wants to go green and encouraging those who are not doing anything at present to do something - even if it's only recycling within the hotels or in the sleeping rooms.

Transportation. Because everyone arrives and leaves within the same hour-and-a-half timeframe, RSNA runs a heavy shuttle schedule morning and evening (170 buses at peak), but just minimal transportation during mid-day hours. It is exploring an emissions control program with shuttle provider CMAC.

RSNA's own actions. This year, all print materials related to or distributed at the annual meeting are being produced on recycled or recyclable, chlorine-free paper using soy-based inks. The first registration brochure has gone fully digital, replaced with a postcard saying, "Here's where to go on the Web to get information." RSNA is considering making the second registration mailing piece, with extensive and detailed course information, available in print by request only for the 2009 meeting. "We haven't yet surveyed members if this piece is important in determining the courses they will attend," said Cooper. However, "that brochure probably costs us $150,000 to print and mail, so not sending it would be a great savings."

At the first of two exhibitor meetings a year, held in Rosemont, RSNA outlined steps exhibitors can take to help the annual meeting "go green." They were asked to minimize the printed materials they bring, print those on recycled paper, and recycle their giveaways at the end of the meeting.

The Savings From Recycling

PAPER

• Producing recycled paper requires about 60 percent of the energy used to make paper from virgin wood pulp.
• One ton of recycled paper saves 17 mature trees; two barrels of oil; 4,100-kilowatt hours of electricity; three cubic yards of landfill space; 7,000 gallons of water - enough to power the average American home for five months.
• Each person uses approximately one 100-foot-tall Douglas fir tree in paper and wood products per year.

ALUMINUM

• Recycling aluminum uses less than 5 percent of the energy used to make the original product.
•  One recycled aluminum beverage saves enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for three hours, or a TV for two hours.
• Recycling one pound of aluminum (about 16 soda cans) saves 7.5 kilowatt hours of electricity.

PLASTIC

• Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds of the energy required to manufacture it from virgin raw materials.
• Five two-liter recycled PET bottles produce enough fiberfill to make a ski jacket; 36 recycled bottles can make one square yard of carpet.

GLASS

• Producing glass from virgin materials requires 30 percent more energy than producing it from crushed, used glass.
• Recycling one ton of glass saves the equivalent of 10 gallons of oil.

STEEL

• Recycling steel cans uses between 60 percent and 74 percent less energy than producing them from raw materials.
• Using recycled steel to make new steel saves enough energy in one year to electrically power 18 million homes for one year.
• One ton of recycled steel saves the energy equivalent of 3.6 barrels of oil and 1.49 tons of iron ore.

Identifying Actions to Take

When RSNA's chief executive and staff leaders met at their annual retreat in August 2007, the issues of "greening" and "sustainability" played a pivotal role. After working through the association's building and staff processes, they grappled with the huge annual meeting. Here's how the picture looked at that point:

Already in place/in progress

• Recycling program: mixed paper, aluminum cans, plastic bottles in public spaces at McCormick Place
• Drinking water: large containers in meeting room corridors
• Lighting, power, and HVAC: reduction during move-in, move-out, and show days
• Exhibitor communications: online
• Aisle carpet: recycling by Freeman
• Food donations: to local shelter
• Packaging and flatware for boxed lunches, beverage cold cups: 100 percent compostable

To be done in partnership with vendors

• Nametags and lanyards: recycling in clearly marked bins
• Paper waste collection: for programs and pocket guides in clearly marked bins
• Promotion of recycling efforts: in Daily Bulletin
• Printing marketing materials: on recycled, chlorine-free paper, with use of soy- or water-based ink when possible
• Printing speaker handouts: on double-sided recycled paper
• Locally grown food: increase purchases

Editor's Note: It is difficult to get an accurate weight for each type of waste when everything is mixed in boxes. So waste haulers visually estimate percentages and weight measures of waste when a box is dumped at a sorting facility. At McCormick Place, Allied Waste Services designates containers for specific recyclable materials, whenever possible. Source: Allied Waste Services

Contributing Editor Maxine Golding is an award-winning writer, editor, and publishing consultant.