Our Green Commitment

2011 IMGC Environmental Statement

The 2011 International Master Gardener Conference pledges to reduce the impact to the air, water, and land from the transportation, energy demand, and waste created by planning and attending this conference. To this end, the Conference will reduce its overall environmental impact through a pollution prevention approach to all aspects of the conference including:

• Offsetting all unavoidable carbon emissions through the implementation of a carbon neutral strategy
• Decreasing the amount of waste produced by the conference
• Reducing energy and water consumption
• Disposing of waste in an environmentally responsible manner

The Specifics:
Minimizing Our Negative Impact

Carbon Negative:
Minimizing and Offsetting Carbon

• Consider ridesharing, carpooling, or a chartered bus where numbers warrant.
• Use the Internet and telephone conferencing for pre- and post-conference work.
• Conference events are scheduled within walking distance of the conference venue, hotels and other attractions.
• Sources of carbon credits to offset carbon dioxide generated by the event itself and by participant travel to it will be listed on the conference website.
• Trees will be planted to account for paper used in producing the conference, as well as to further offset carbon release.

You Are What You Eat

• The Conference is using locally produced and fair trade products to the greatest extent possible to avoid contributing to the impacts associated with agricultural pesticides and long distance freight hauling.
• The Conference facility will provide bulk service instead of disposable single food servings and reusable serve-ware such as china service or personal containers (such as coffee mugs) over disposable products.
• The Conference will not provide plastic-bottled drinks to attendees and will provide recycling facilities for plastic, aluminum, and glass containers onsite.

Waste Not, Want Not

• We’re aiming for a waste-free event through recycling of unavoidable paper and packaging waste.
• We will minimize printed material distributed during the event by having effective signs throughout the venue, which will provide information to delegates for agenda items, schedules, topics, and locations of activities.
• Conference promotional items will be considered from a life cycle perspective and will only be distributed when their practical use value is high and the end of life disposal concerns are low.