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First Canadian-Organized Cleaner and Greener Certified Event
First Canadian-Organized Cleaner and Greener Certified Event
Published 08-24-05
Submitted by Tremblant Forum
To achieve certification, the Leonardo Academy calculated all greenhouse gas emissions caused by energy use associated with the event, including those created by travel to/from the event, hotel room use, event space and meals.
To offset these emissions, the Tremblant Forum purchased renewable energy certificates (equivalent to 30,000 kWh) from NativeEnergy, which is building one of the largest Native-run wind farms in North America. In addition, the Leonardo Academy donated emission credits to offset the sulphur dioxide emissions for this event by 200%, making the event carbon neutral and Cleaner and Greener certified.
"The Tremblant Forum wants to help eliminate confusion around sustainability practices like emission credits and offsets, as well as show companies how easy it can be to implement these initiatives in their day-to-day operations," says Rick Petersen, Senior Vice-President, Corporate Communications at NATIONAL-Montreal and head of the firm's corporate responsibility practice across Canada. "We believe the Tremblant Forum can make an inspiring and practical contribution to an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable future."
Environmental Initiatives
Other environmental initiatives to be implemented at Tremblant Forum 05 include the use of a Diesel bus and vans for speaker and participant transportation; the preference for e-mail communications; the use of vegetable-based ink and 100% post-consumer recycled content paper for the official program (courtesy of Compuset Printing); elimination of individually-wrapped food items (e.g. sugar packets, creamers, butter containers, etc.); minimal gift packaging and towel re-use.
Social Initiatives
To produce participant bags, NATIONAL is working with Petites-Mains, a Montreal-based non-profit organization that promotes social reinsertion of women. Charitable contributions are also part of the culture of NATIONAL, which donates 1% of its pre-tax income to charitable causes and is therefore recognized as an Imagine Caring Company.
"In addition to the social initiatives of the Tremblant Forum, NATIONAL is proud to work closely with sponsors that have taken CSR concerns to heart," said Rick Petersen. "These sponsors are actively promoting and integrating improved corporate responsibility practices into their operational decision-making and stakeholder relations."
Economic Initiatives
Tremblant Forum 05 will contribute to local wealth creation by hiring local suppliers and maximizing the use of local produce. The lunch menu will also highlight sustainable companies, such as fair-trade organic coffee from Green Mountain and Phish Food ice cream from Ben & Jerry's, some of the proceeds of which go towards the clean-up of Lake Champlain in Vermont.
"Our official program will detail all the initiatives of the conference's sustainability plan and their positive impact," said Rick Petersen. "We hope our delegates appreciate the efforts we've made and try to implement and promote these concepts within their own companies."
The Tremblant Forum is an annual conference that brings together leading thinkers and practitioners from the private sector, government and NGOs to discuss, in an intimate setting, their roles and responsibilities in creating a society characterized by economic opportunity, environmental protection and social justice. Attendees have a unique opportunity to exchange with speakers on best practices in stakeholder engagement and accountability, non-financial risk management, transparent disclosure, and on research findings that can impact the long-term viability of their organization. For more information, please visit www.tremblantforum.org.
NATIONAL is a privately-held public relations firm with offices in Montréal, Québec City, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria, New York, and London and is affiliated with Burson-Marsteller worldwide. The firm offers corporate communications, investor relations, public affairs, marketing, technology and health-care communications to a broad range of leading corporate, government and institutional clients.
