More and more these days, we see event planners and companies moving towards incorporating green initiatives into their events. While there are many benefits to planning a green event such as building on corporate reputation and social responsibility, being more eco-friendly in planning can minimize a group’s environmental impact and also save you money. Thankfully, Whistler has quite a number of green initiatives already in place, making adding some more green to your next meeting easy.
In Whistler, we care deeply for the environment and especially about protecting and preserving our beautiful mountains, ancient forests, crystal clear lakes and rivers, and fresh clean air. While the resort works hard to educate guests on our green practices, our event venues, vendors, and caterers have also taken innovated and meaningful steps towards offering groups multiple ways to host meetings and events with sustainability in mind.
Here are a few sustainable practices that can help make your next event in Whistler a little greener:
Transportation & Accommodation
Located within the Coast Mountain range, meeting in Whistler starts with a journey up the stunningly-scenic Sea to Sky Highway. Only a short trip from Vancouver International Airport, we recommend booking a charter to get your delegates from the airport to the village. A perfect way to make sure everyone arrives on time and together while eliminating multiple trips, using less vehicles and ultimately decreasing the group’s environmental impact.
Once in Whistler, group transportation logistics are a thing of the past. Whistler’s pedestrian-only village provides convenience with its campus-like setting. No matter what hotel your delegates are staying in, their event venue is a short walk away from their room. As an after-meet treat, many of Whistler’s world-class restaurants and vibrant arts and culture scene can be easily found right in the Village, all within walking distance.
Source Food & Beverage Locally
When choosing an event menu, event planners can easily opt for more sustainable, locally-sourced options, while still staying under budget. Simple beverage items such as fair-trade coffee can be chosen and accompanied by water and juices served in pitchers rather than bottled individually. For celebration events, try requesting wines or ales brewed locally. Whistler is luckily located in beautiful British Columbia, where world-renowned wines come from its Okanagan region and an abundance of craft breweries can be found close by.
If possible, it’s best to request that food and beverage options be sourced locally. Thankfully, when holding an event in Whistler sourcing local food and beverage is easy. For example, at the Whistler Conference Centre the in-house food and beverage team, Centerplate, is committed to producing successful and sustainable events. Centerplate makes it a priority to acquire all produce, meat, eggs and dairy products locally when possible.
Event Communication
Save paper at your next event by creating an online event space where delegates can access schedules and notes as well as book transportation, accommodation, and activities. Thankfully, event planners can leave all this to our incredible conference sales and services team, who can create a personalized webpage for your delegates to use as their one-stop-shop for everything in Whistler. Not only will this option minimize the logistics of coordinating all your group activities, accommodation, and transportation, but it also reduced your group’s environmental impact by using less printable collateral. Go a step further by also adding the event schedule and any notes or information delegates need to have access to.
Sustainable Venues
Many of Whistler’s event venues and hotels have a number of sustainability initiatives in place from waste management practices to ethically and locally sourcing of food products wherever possible. Whistler places high importance on preserving itself as a sustainable meetings destination as it was the first Canadian destination to achieve the prestigious APEX/ASTM sustainability certification, recognized in four areas. Notably the Whistler Conference Centre led these recognitions by receiving three of the certifications on the following standards: Meeting Venue, Food and Beverage and Destination.
So there you have it! A few simple ways to help green up your next meeting. With so many green initiatives already in place, choosing Whistler as a meeting destination is a simple choice. Learn more about meeting green in Whistler at www.meetings.whistler.com/wcc/sustainability/.
Meeting planners can visit www.whistler.com/meetings to learn more about the variety of meeting opportunities in Whistler.