American Express Meetings and Events, a full-service global meetings and events management provider, has started a new initiative to help meeting planners create events that have less impact on the environment. In partnership with Maxvantage, the company is providing information to interested planners that compares various hotels’ standardized footprints of carbon, water use and waste diversions per meeting.
The information is prepared in the Carbon Accounting Company’s Green Hotels Global (GHG) reporting program. GHG has compiled environmental data used in the American Express meetings program that helps plan and evaluate meetings. American Express Meetings and Events further expanded GHG’s data by enabling an additional 100 hotels to participate.
“Data is essential to having a successful meetings program and by supporting hotels’ participation in GHG, we are helping our clients have the tools to grasp the environmental footprint of each hotel and event,” said Issa Jouaneh, vice president and general manager of American Express Meetings and Events. “With this data, companies can be better equipped to accomplish meeting objectives that have a maximum return on investment and experience with minimum waste.”
Property specifics are available for comparisons during the RFP process. Once the event has ended, reports can calculate the meetings’ environmental impact.
“American Express Meetings and Events recognized that clients were embarking on large-scale green initiatives and that having this data available for meetings and events is necessary to help them reach their goals,” said Justin Raymond, president and chief executive officer of the Carbon Accounting Company.
American Express Meetings and Events also launched its Meetings Expert program in 2011,which provides planning and sourcing resources for meetings planned outside of a managed events program. Those who plan meetings but may not have training in event planning can use the program to help them better understand the process.
“As companies direct more of their attention toward meeting and expense consolidation, Meetings Expert offers solutions for those who continue to plan meetings on an ad hoc basis,” said Jouaneh. “Even for companies only requiring meetings sourcing support intermittently, implementing structure around the process is important.”
Meetings Expert specifically helps planners with cost control, standard meeting policies and sourcing practices. The service connects planners with experts to negotiate all aspects of a meeting contract.
For more information, visit www.americanexpress.com/meetingsandevents.
