Wherever we look, whatever we do, whenever we travel, whoever we meet, everything and everybody is turning green!
Confucius says : “Words are the voice of my heart“ and my heart is quietly wondering why it is only now the business events industries have discovered “green“ — about 20 years after the European Leisure Wholesalers started mailing out their first environmental audit forms.
Every business event organisation and association has lately found this Holy Grail; and consequently, every trade magazine is suddenly dripping with green ink.
Yet, when was the last time you switched off your computer during lunchtime, the last time you walked to the office or the last time you attended a conference without climate control?
No, we still happily jet around the world, chasing business or attending conferences in Beijing, Melbourne, Berlin or San Francisco, because it is imperative we meet the customer “face to face“. Not to mention the need for bonding over ice-cold drinks!
It seems that, once again, we expect everybody to take action, but just “this time“, there happens to be some weighty reasons why we cannot join that action. And, to clear our conscience, doesn’t only profitable businesses enable us to go green?
That is why I see red when I read about the Bali “talk-show” and how thousands of experts are wasting time, money and the environment by deciding, after 10 days of “fruitful debate“, where the next meeting will take place.
I see red when I get magazines in the mail instead of electronically; I see red when I see in the internet that there are already 300,000 other entries for “Seeing Red over Green “. And I see red, because at nearly every business event I attend, I see organisers crooning “The Great Pretender”, by and large insincerely.
So what are the real, feasible solutions?
So let’s listen to our inner voice, to our instinct and realise that the little, daily things mean the most!
Please stop going green because your competition is using it as a marketing tool. Please stop planning taking those big green steps for your next conference.
Please stop printing brochures and proceedings to satisfy your ego.
Please stop travelling around the world — week in, week out — because you have to save the world personally.
Instead, please take one small step each and every day, like the Chinese saying that a long journey starts with one small step.
And what tiny step will you take, now that you have finished reading this article?
Perhaps like me, switch off your computer and your air conditioner.
Go smell the red roses in your garden, the perfect combination of red and green — the silent voice of harmony!
