2010 Walking the Talk: Making the Conference More Sustainable

In keeping with the conference theme of “Sustainability through Community,” we’re making this year’s national conference more sustainable than ever before. The conference will take place at the University of Colorado in beautiful Boulder, Colorado, a city renowned for its commitment to sustainability. And our keynote speaker, Bill McKibben, will join us via video with live Q&A.

In addition, we are considering a number of possible options for making the conference more sustainable – and we are looking to conference attendees to help us decide on the myriad of possibilities. Tapping the power of group thinking, we can add new ideas to the mix and engage with conference attendees on the topic of personal responsibility for sustainability. We welcome your feedback and ideas for making the conference even more sustainable. If you have suggestions, please join us at the 2010 conference sustainability blog (address to be announced soon!).

Among the options we are considering are: providing non-disposable cups, making each meal “zero waste” (with compostable plates and tableware), using water coolers rather than bottled water, and making our meals locally sourced and in season as much as possible.

You can help us make the conference more sustainable by helping to share the added costs. Think about the energy you’ll consume traveling to the conference and the energy we’ll all use at the conference itself. When you register for the conference, you’ll have the option of making an optional "sustainability payment" to offset those costs.