Going Green
"Going green" is a topic receiving a lot of attention lately. But it's certainly not a new concept! We celebrated Earth Day back in the 1960s and before that we were taught to "pack out what you pack in"-don't leave trash behind. We were always admonished to turn off the lights that we weren't using. Being environmentally friendly is a concept that many of us grew up with and it's a concept that we continually need to be reminded of. The color green was chosen for our conference last year to emphasize this message of respecting the earth's resources.
CDC launched its own "Go Green, Get Healthy" initiative in 2008. "Go Green, Get Healthy" is an individual and Agency journey toward sustainable behaviors. Sustainability at the CDC means reducing, reusing, and recycling resources and also means promoting health and positive work environments. The initiative includes a number of programs and efforts aimed at making CDC staff work lives healthier, happier, and more environmentally responsible so that future generations can also enjoy health and happiness. This coordinated and expanded initiative encourages individual and organizational change that impacts the environment, public health, and personal health and wellbeing.
We have been getting progressively "greener" in the National HIV Prevention Conference. For the 2007 conference, we conducted the conference evaluation online rather than collect boxes and boxes of paper forms from each of the sessions. In keeping with CDC's "Go Green, Get Healthy" initiative, the conference committee is considering ways to make the conference "greener" still.
During last year's conference, additional steps were taken to enhance the "green" experience for participants. The Call for Abstracts as well as many formerly printed conference forms were all electronic for 2009. We didn't mail thousands of copies of materials to conference participants, saving many, many trees!
As part of the evaluation from the 2007 conference, we asked participants if they'd prefer the summary of abstracts in electronic form versus a document the size of a large phone book. Participants overwhelmingly agreed for the electronic version. That saved printing 3,000 400-page books! Attendees at last year's conference received copies of all abstracts on a CD-ROM instead.
We continued using online evaluations for the conference in 2009 and all of the continuing education activities were conducted entirely online. The conference organizers also worked with the conference host hotels in securing recycling containers that helped reduce waste. And greater emphasis was placed on physical activity in 2009; organizers offered an onsite morning exercise program and suggested ways to get and stay healthy while conference attendees were in Atlanta.
Your conference coordinator,
Bob Kohmescher
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