Press Room
Renewable Energy Gets Boost from Hotels Nationwide
Green Your Event launches to meet growing demand for green meetings
BOULDER, CO. (June 23, 2009) - Renewable Choice Energy, a
leading national provider of renewable energy credits and carbon offsets has launched a
first of its kind program to empower meeting and event planners at hotels and
event centers to support wind power and carbon reduction by offsetting event
facilities, attendee travel, and more.
A number of high profile boutique and hotel chain branches kick off the program
this month including Chicago's Talbott Hotel, Marriott's
Fairfield Inn & Suites, Baltimore; DoubleTree Palm Beach Gardens, Florida,
and the Hotels Parisi and L'Auberge Del Mar in La Jolla, California.
"We chose to be a Green Your Event partner because the program allows us to
offer our guests credible solutions that they can take to help address today's
energy and climate challenges. It's a great program for us to expand our green
initiatives," said Patrick Leary, General Manager, Fairfield Inn & Suites,
Baltimore, Baltimore's
first green hotel.
Responding to the growing demand for green events and meetings, Green Your
Event is the first nationwide program to add a strong renewable energy and
carbon offset element to the burgeoning green meeting movement. Because the
greatest environmental footprint of an event or conference comes from
participant travel to and from the event, the majority of the program's offset
package includes verified emission reductions (VERs, also known as carbon
offsets) for air and ground travel verified by the American Carbon Registry.
Additionally, the electricity used for lodging, session facilities, and cell
phones is offset with renewable energy credits (RECs) certified by Green-e
Energy, the leading third-party REC auditor in the U.S. Offsetting events has
been embraced by the EPA, the Green Meeting Industry Council and the Convention
Industry Council.
"We chose Renewable Choice to support our greening initiatives because we are
committed to reducing our environmental impact and to educating our guests and
conference attendees to do the same," offered Michael McMahon, General Manager
of DoubleTree Palm Beach Gardens,
"Green Your Event was the perfect solution for our green meeting needs."
Green Your Event doesn't stop at providing offsets, however. A key element of
the program is educating and engaging event and meeting attendees on the
impacts of travel and lodging while increasing awareness about the values of
helping fund wind power and carbon reduction projects across the U.S. Funding
these projects through the purchase of offsets helps reduce carbon dioxide
pollution, the leading cause of climate change and a "danger to human health"
according to the EPA, while reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and
supporting clean technology development. Renewable Choice has also kept the
program affordable with packages as low at $10 per person, poising Green Your
Event as the go-to greening program for events and meetings across the nation. The company will also host of free sustainability webinar
on the topic to help educate hotel and other event venues, as well as
event and meeting planners, on ways to make their events more
sustainable by supporting clean energy development.
"At the Talbott hotel, environmental initiatives have continued to be a strong
driver for new partnerships, programs and purchasing decisions. We are excited
to expand our green practices with this program and offer a greener solution
for our on-site events," explains Patrick Aversa, Director of Sales and
Marketing for Talbott. "This new program, Green Your Event, raises the
conscience level for the environmental impact of events as well as a way to
balance the impact."
"These hotel events are helping to fund U.S. wind farms and carbon
reduction projects with their participation in Green Your Event," said Quayle
Hodek, CEO of Renewable Choice Energy. "We're proud to be working with such
forward-thinking leaders in the hospitality industry to help reduce our
dependence on fossil fuels and clean up our nation's energy infrastructure."
Renewable Choice also supplied renewable energy credits
(RECs) to offset the President's Green Inaugural Ball earlier this year and offsets
some of the largest green music festivals in the nation in partnership with
Planet Bluegrass, among other events.
Renewable
Choice Energy
Renewable Choice Energy (http://www.reneawblechoice.com)
is a leading national provider of renewable
energy credits (RECs) and verified
emission reductions (VERs) (carbon offsets) to hundreds of Fortune 500
Companies and small businesses, thousands of residential customers, and over 850
LEED green building projects in the U.S. Founded in 2001,
Boulder-Colo.-based Renewable Choice and its clients have received prestigious
awards from the EPA and DOE for supporting and expanding the renewable energy
market and have been featured in hundreds of media
outlets including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, USA TODAY, and
more. (http://www.renewablechoice.com/business)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Heather Philipp
Media and Communications Director
Renewable Choice Energy
303.551.7606 or Email Media
