Q&A with Lindsay Smith: Sustainability Program Administrator at the Colorado Convention Center

The Colorado Convention Center is committed to helping clients host conference and events that consider the triple bottom line of economics, environment, and community. Helping you juggle all three of those concerns is Lindsay Smith,  the CCC’s Sustainability Program Administrator, who knows the Center’s eco-friendly advantages backwards and forwards. Denver.org caught up with Lindsay, who shared the ways in which Denver is leading the way in green meeting planning.

Denver.org: Why are “green” meetings such a hot commodity these days?

Lindsay Smith: I think it’s something that’s in the collective consciousness right now of the general public. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) named the conventions industry the second most wasteful industry that there is. So there’s a lot of opportunity to reduce waste. When you look at everything being transported here, and everything is disposable, there’s the opportunity to really become more efficient. Overall, the mindset [is] shifting that way.

Denver.org: Why is Denver leading the way in terms of green meeting planning?

LS: It aligns with people’s ideas of Colorado. People have a certain expectation when they come out here. Air quality, outdoor recreation, the mountains – that’s kind of what we’re known for. So planners who are bringing attendees out here know that those attendees are going to be interested in those things. Also, right now, with the Democratic National Convention having such a focus on being the greenest convention in history we’re lucky that a lot of the hotels and restaurants are starting to shift towards more efficient practices. DIA (Denver International Airport) is EMS (Environmental Management Services) certified. And the mayor has made a pledge that all city building will be EMS certified by 2011. Finally, at the CCC, we already have composting and recycling in place. [Planners] don’t have to pay to implement this service. It’s part of our standard operating procedure.

Denver.org: Obviously, the CCC’s sustainable efforts are too numerous to go through here, but what are some of the areas where the Center is a real innovator?

LS: As far as we know, the fact that there is a person dedicated to sustainable practices here – me! – is a pretty unique thing. No other convention center has that, as far we know. So I’m here and available as a resource to clients if they have questions about anything relating to sustainability.

Just this week, we started a back of house composting program, which will really help with our waste diversion program. We have single-stream recycling. We will have solar panels put up on our roof in the near future, a 300 kilowatt-hour system, which will be the biggest solar power system in Denver. We have a xeriscape project that’s happening right now, so we’ll be saving 75 percent of the water we’re using now to keep our grass green. We’re an arid climate, and to have grass in these concrete blocks, it’s hard to keep it green, especially if people are trampling it, and it’s surrounded by hot concrete. It’s just not a very practical thing to have in this environment.

What else? Some other things we do is time our escalators and lights to each event schedule so that they’re not just constantly on. 99 percent of our cleaning products are bio-degradable, bio-renewal, Green Seal-certified products. We’re planning on being a part of the mayor’s Freewheelin Bike Program. For the DNC there will be 1,000 bikes, but for the legacy piece there will be 70 bikes available for attendees at the Center. We recycle all our office supplies. We just retrofit all of our toilets and urinals to be low-flush – that project was just completed last December, and from January to April we saved over 50,000 gallons of water compared to the year before. We’ve got free hybrid parking spots in the parking lots. We’re working with the city on a project called “Engines Off” to reduce idling, because that’s big problem with shipping companies. We’re working on a social marketing piece to get people to want to do it, rather than it being just another thing to enforce.

On the catering side of things, there are opportunities to donate left over food. We’re also looking at re-doing the menu so there are more local and organic options available.

There’s just a lot of stuff going on here!

Denver.org: How does your job fit into the green planning process?

LS: There are the basic things -- we’ve created a checklist on the website that gives some idea of the best practices. We provide them with resources for bio-renewable products, or if they want to offset, we put them in touch with the right vendors. It’s also just letting them know the key elements – why having water stations is better than bottled water, things like that. And also we can help provide them with the tools needed to educate attendees about these practices and programs. A lot of planners don’t even know where to begin a lot of the time. There’s a lot of information to digest. So I help them digest it all.

Denver.org: What’s the biggest misconception about planning a green meeting?

LS: That it’s going to take up more time and more money. And also that it’s going to radically change the way meeting planners do their jobs. In the meeting industry, people have been doing things a certain way for a long time. The biggest challenge is just to get this info out to them, and to show that we can make it easy for them. In many cases you really can save money by being more efficient. We charge for trash hauls, but we don’t charge for recycling hauls. So the more recyclable materials they use, the more money they’re going to save. Water stations are a lot cheaper than providing water bottles for every single client. Using local vendors will reduce your carbon footprint and will reduce costs as well. There are a lot of ways that they can save, or at least come out even. It’s rare that a green meeting is more expensive than a non-green meeting.

Denver.org: What are some of the CCC’s future green projects?

LS: I think we still have a ways to go with our waste diversion still, even with our recycling. A lot of it comes down to better educating people. You can have all the recycling bins in the world and there will still be people who put bottles into the trash bins. Hopefully that education for attendees and even for staff at center, will make it more the norm. We’re really trying to tell people that this green thing isn’t a fad – it’s going to be part of everyday procedure here.

Get the full scoop on the Colorado Convention Center's groundbreaking "Meet Green" program here.  
Find out more about "Greening Your Meeting".
Check out a "Green Denver Top 10".
Contact Lindsay Smith at (303) 228-8123 or lsmith@denverconvention.com.