Green Meetings at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando & Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek

Following up on my blog last week on the subject of Green Meetings, I had the opportunity to speak recently on this topic with our Jean Hays, from our e4 host property.  Here’s a look into how this hotel is adopting a greener approach to our industry:

Jean Hays

• Name: Jean Hays
• Hotel: Waldorf Astoria Orlando & Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek
• Title: Director of Group Sales
• Location: Orlando
• Number of years with this hotel: 3 years with Bonnet Creek and 11 with Hilton
• Professional background: El Conquistador Resort & Golden Door Spa; Hilton in the Walt Disney World Resort; Hilton New Orleans Riverside; Hilton Direct USA
• Role with current meetings at your property:  Our Events team at Bonnet Creek are all  experts  on hosting a “greener” meeting.  We find ourselves being “cheerleaders” for these initiatives internally.  So, in a way, I am the Head Cheerleader.
• Green Meetings “Ah-ha” moment – what got you engaged: Being a new property, we were always conceived with a “green” mindset.  As we made purchasing decisions for the hotels and convention center, we most often opted for greener choices.  It is much easier to start off that way.
• Biggest Green Meetings challenge currently: There really are no consistent standards for a “green meeting.”   It might mean something completely different from one organization to the next.
• Green Meetings accomplishment you are most proud of: So proud of our work with Clean the World which distributes recycled soap products, along with appropriate educational materials, to impoverished countries worldwide, and to domestic homeless shelters as well as Second Harvest Food Bank.  We live by the three Rs… reduce, reuse & recycle.
• Hotel environmental certifications or awards: We are currently working on our green certification.
• Green Meetings pet peeve: We want to help our clients reduce their “footprint” as much as possible.  Unfortunately, there are some “green” ideas  that just don’t lend to a quality meeting experience.  So we are always searching for better ways to help our groups become “greener.”
• Favorite Green Meeting gadget, tool, or accessory: The absolute easiest “green” initiatve that practically every meeting planner can implement today is a name badge recycling program.  It’s super simple – it only requires a bin at the end of the closing session.  And it just makes so much sense — doesn’t everybody end up with a bottom drawer full of old conference name badges?  Why not reuse them from year to year… or at least recycle them!
• What green tidbit(s) would you like Experient and their clients to know about your property prior to coming to e4? What’s one of the biggest components of waste at a large meeting?  Bottled water!  The convention center at Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek uses a Natura water system in meeting room sets as an alternative to bottled water.  This carbon-free, triple-filtered water system delivers H20 as pure as bottled water but without the packaging waste to our environment.  The water is served up in sharp-looking reusable glass bottles.

Mike Smith, CMP