First and foremost: you have to have a really good relationship with ALA's Conference Services Office and they have to have a great relationship with the city government agencies in which the conference is held. All parties have to essentially abide by the governing bodies, rules, regulations, guidelines. If there is no city recycling program, don't expect to see a lot of opportunities to recycle. In general cities are greatly improving.
There is a BIG sustainability/footprint issue with which to deal: the exhibitors and the amount of paper they bring. Some publishers will give most if not all of their books and resources to the city's public library system, and other librarians who routinely attend ALA Meetings for this very purpose. There is a round table for exhibitors, and there are members that would be great speakers for a SustainRT joint program, which may have already been done and a relationship formed.
Over the years the Task Force on the Environment got some movement from ALA on recycling, reducing paper and using recycled paper for photocopying, and using non-chlorinated paper stock where ever possible. Some of these were never officially adopted (BARC and other financial concerns were raised, but there were efforts to address the issues with some limited amounts of success--I have no idea what current practices are in place now).
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[Frederick] [Stoss]
[Librarian]
[SUNY University at Buffalo][Science and Engineering Information Center][
fstoss@buffalo.edu]
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Original Message:
Sent: Oct 16, 2018 01:06 PM
From: Amy Brunvand
Subject: Sustainability at #ALAMW19
I was just looking at the website for ALA Midwinter in Seattle, Washington (#ALAMW19)
The good news is, there is a page to address sustainability at the conference: Think Fit @ ALA & Green Efforts | ALA Midwinter 2019
I'm glad to see the page there, but at the same time the information seems kind of rudimentary.
I'd love to hear your ideas for how SustainRT could improve this. What could we do to help offer better information for a more sustainable conference?
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Amy Brunvand
Associate Librarian
University of Utah
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