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Brett's first taste of event sustainability came as a seasonal contractor for ESPN over the course of 6 years, helping to mitigate the environmental impacts of various events around the country.

After a short career as a remediation engineer, he joined Kilowatt Events, Inc. and helped launch their new dedicated sustainability wing, Kilowatt One.

Because Kilowatt's expertise is producing traditional events, the company advantage comes from their ability to weave event sustainability into the fabric of the event production process under the control of a single company, ultimately saving time and effort for clients and creating deeper impacts throughout event operations.

His education in engineering gave him the technical toolset needed to tackle large-scale social and environmental issues while his degree in business has provided the ability to clearly communicate the value in doing so to all stakeholders.

Event sustainability must make business sense, and he is excited to help grow the industry as it becomes increasingly important in an ever-changing world.

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Abbie joined The Offset Project in 2010 and is now leading all sustainability programs as well as spearheading commercial waste reduction initiatives in the Monterey Bay area. She holds a masters degree in international environmental policy and sustainable business and development from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and is a 2004 graduate of Middlebury College. Abbie also contributes to the Product Stewardship Institute, which collaborates with businesses and local governments to formulate extended producer responsibility legislation for toxic products and packaging. Abbie serves on the Monterey Food Scrap Resource Recovery Coalition and on the Carmel River Watershed Conservancy board.

About Abbie:
Each day I am inspired to create a world in which landfilling becomes an antiquated practice. While we are a long way from eliminating waste in the state of California, never mind across the globe, this long-term vision inspires a call to action right now, today. Through the hierarchy of waste reduction (reducing, reusing, recycling, composting and upcycling), we are able to lessen environmental impacts on many levels, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserving water and controlling pollution. Not only does waste create toxicity issues, but it also demands that new products be mined and produced in its place.

Waste reduction starts with purchasing materials that will not need to be landfilled after their first useful life. I am also in tune with studying the lifecycle analyses of various products in order to understand which materials may be the least harmful to the environment over their entire lifespan, not just at the end of life.

I believe what makes myself, and The Offset Project 501c3 unique, is that we not only understand high-level certifications and environmental regulations and requirements, but we have a deep and well earned understanding of the nitty gritty details of waste diversion --- with an emphasis on gritty.

We've been inside hundreds of dumpsters, hand-sorted thousands of bags ourselves, worked on the ground in kitchens attempting to source separate their own “waste”, trained and worked with stewarding crews, hauled food waste, and much more in order to understand ALL the logistics of carrying out "zero-waste" concepts.

Our self-deprecating sense of humor and passion for the environment carries us forward each year. Once again, we work not only with governments and law and policy makers, but we work with the haulers, the waste management districts and the businesses themselves in order to understand all of the possibilities and roadblocks on the way to zero waste. Through this understanding, we have been able to achieve some of the highest waste diversion numbers in the country, from 93 percent at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am PGA event (131,000 spectators, players, volunteers and staff) to 96 percent at the Big Sur International Marathon.

I also have one year of experience working with the national Product Stewardship Institute based in Boston, which collaborates with government and business in order to write and inform legislation on extended producer responsibility for toxic and otherwise problematic products at the end of their useful lives. These include materials such as plastic packaging, paint, carpet, mercury thermostats, phone books and batteries.

Lastly, I have specialized knowledge of implementing environmental programs beyond waste diversion, such as water and carbon foot printing, in order to achieve environmental certification for example.

The Offset Project also specializes in selling renewable energy credits to events that have reduced their GHG emissions as much as possible on their own. This funding is then funneled into local renewable energy projects such as solar installations on schools and electric vehicle charging stations.

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Green Team Spirit (GTS) helps organizations (business, government, NGOs) on the path to sustainability, addressing all organizational operations, including "green meetings and events".

Building "green community" in the Hudson Valley NY region is an integral part of the Green Team Spirit mission.

Aside from working with individual clients, GTS hosts Green Drinks Westchester each month, and organizes the program and events for the Westchester Green Business Challenge (WGBC).

Both of these programs serve to educate the business community about sustainability and the events set an example of best sustainable event practices. 

Venues are carefully chosen for their commitment to sustainability, and they are invited to share their story with our guests.

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Ulrika was born and raised in Sweden, a part of the world that has always been focused and concerned about the environmental, economic and social issues in the world.

Scandinavian countries are big advocates for sustainability and are far ahead of many other counties, people and businesses in this aspect.

She feels that it is their duty to care for, respect and increase the responsibilities for how they live and conduct their businesses today. 

Since the creation of the Redcircle, their goal has been to find the most sustainable approach for each step and category in event planning: In conceptualization, promotion, marketing, coordination, logistics, production, execution, talent sourcing and management as well as all aspects of consulting.

She says that no client of them can resist the benefits that come with their sustainable event approach; cost savings, positive reputation, environmental innovation, raising awareness, social benefits, influencing decision making and increased return on investment, etc.

She thinks people can ALWAYS make sustainable choices and she always challenges her clients to push a little harder, do a little more and make it part their business.

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Ulrika has never pursued sustainability degrees, qualifications and training until now, when realizing that she had no proof of her sustainability practice, no matter for how long this has been a natural approach for her. 

Sustainable Event Alliance is her first step in putting a seal on her sustainability vows and practice.

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She strives to work in sustainability regardless of who the client is and regardless of what event or project I am engaged on - inclusive but not limited to:

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Joanne has been working in the field of supply chain management, business, and education for 25 years.

While working as an instructor at Fox Valley Technical College, she had the opportunity to lead our college’s efforts from an instructional standpoint. The work was so fulfilling that she was soon the college’s sustainability expert and go-to resource. 

Joanne developed several sustainability focused classes for the Supply Chain Management and Energy and Environmental Engineering degrees.

She also lead outreach efforts for the college to help educate the public and encourage business to adopt sustainable development principles into their business practices. This is how she got into sustainable event management. 

Instead of just attending sustainability related events on behalf of the college, she decided to create them. Joanne secured corporate donations to 100% fund the events and also produced and managed the events.

She also was able to work with sustainability thought leaders in business as well as colleges to help advance her understanding of current best practices and areas of improvement opportunities.

She works on all types of sustainability initiatives for various types of organizations.

She loves to apply her supply chain management and educational background to help drive changes to the way people and businesses manage their resources.

Each event is a new opportunity to help educate and motivate individuals to make meaningful changes.

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Program being audited:

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Over the last decade Shawna had the fortune to play in many different event sustainability sandboxes in the corporate, technology, tourism & travel, sport and association sectors. This has involved working with internal and agency event teams in different corners of the globe who are planning events of diverse scope and scale - from a few dozen to tens of thousands of participants.

She relishes learning about the unique challenges their event or event company is experiencing, and lending support to provide both proven as well as new and innovate sustainability solutions that respond to their individual situation. These solutions often involve working across internal departments and with groups outside the event organization and are driven to produce measurable results.

Shawna says she proudest when she sees her event clients go on to win media and award recognition for their efforts.

Most recently she has been inspired by the opportunity for events to influence attendees to make better choices for themselves, their communities and the planet. This led to the creation of a mobile application based-event sustainability game for EventCamp Vancouver which engaged attendees in fun, simple acts of 'green' that reduced impacts while creating social good.

"Get Your Green On" became the winner of the 2012 IMEX Commitment to Community Award.

She has contributed to the creation and roll-out of event sustainability standards, including participation in the Canadian Mirror Committee for ISO 20121.

Shawna enjoys sharing stories--many of them self-deprecating--in event sustainability via her personal blog, which she hopes inspires other event professionals to make sustainability an everyday practice.

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Kristin Cushman provides an on-the-ground approach to corporate social responsibility that is both realistic and sustainable. Kristin specializes in working with companies to structure sustainability policies then initiates grassroots ideas that extend this policy into the community.

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Currently being trained to host the Positive Impact workshop for the state of California.

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