NBTA Goes Green at 40th Convention

"Recycle, Renew, Reuse" seems to have taken on a new meaning with the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) at this year´s conference and exposition in Los Angeles. This year NBTA celebrates its 40th with a vision and commitment to the environment.

The steps that NBTA has taken include reduced paper usage, by not pre-printing a lot of material that has normally been available to anyone walking up. Now attendees to the event can print out their own copy. This saves paper because attendees won´t feel so inclined to print out more copies than they need, and will safeguard the copy they print.

Registration bags that were handed out are made of recycled products, and educational materials for classes can be downloaded onto thumb drives. Any printed products are done with recycled paper. Even the location was chosen for their commitment to the environment. "The Los Angeles Convention Center is one of the ´greenest´ facilities of its kind in the world. The largest solar energy-generating convention center in North America, the Los Angeles Convention Center offers 100% environmental-friendly service ware products and all food, food-soiled paper, and plants are composted or recycled, "according to the NBTA website.

Keeping with the theme, NBTA has committed to sending unused food to local food banks, and using water coolers instead of water bottles. They have also made sure that recycle bins are available for exhibitors and attendees.

"The carbon footprint for this year´s Convention is being offset by Carbonfund.org, one of the nation´s leading nonprofit carbon offset organizations. Carbonfund.org is working with over 650 businesses and organizations to reduce and offset their carbon emissions, including Volkswagen, Allstate, Dell, JetBlue, and Orbitz."

To help members implement green initiatives, NBTA has "offered a preview of two new tools aimed at helping companies launch and effectively execute travel-related corporate social responsibility initiatives."

NBTA is the largest business travel organization in the United States; they assist over 15,000 Corporate Travel managers through education, legislation, and networking opportunities. They collectively manage and direct more that $200 billion globally on behalf of more than 10 million business travelers.

The Convention is recognized widely as the must-attend conference for buyers, industry leaders, business travel journalist, and suppliers. The expected 6,000 travel professionals in Los Angeles from July 27-July 30th, are expected to take advantage of the programming which aims to empower attendees through education, networking, and more than 460 exhibiting companies, thus bringing maximum value to their companies.