Black Meetings & Tourism - Top Meeting Planners Plant 250, 000th Tree Front Of The Colorado Convention Center

Facilities Update
Top Meeting Planners Plant 250, 000th Tree Front Of The Colorado Convention Center
On Friday, November 11, members of VISIT DENVER’s Customer Advisory Board, made up of top meeting planners around the nation, and VISIT DENVER Convention Staff (including President & CEO Richard Scharf and VP of Convention Sales & Services Rachel Benedick) helped plant the 250,000 th tree in front of the Colorado Convention Center. The ceremony is a huge milestone in the Mile High Million initiative, set forth by Colorado Governor - then Mayor - John Hickenlooper in 2006. The goal of the Mile High Million is to add one million new trees to the metro-Denver area by 2025, in order to provide a cleaner, more beautiful environment for locals and visitors, and motivate individuals to become life-long stewards of the city’s natural environment. Here are just a few other ways Denver is leading the charge in green initiatives, a growing concern and selling point for meeting planners around the world: The LEED certified Colorado Convention Center has one of the largest solar arrays on their roof and has a full-time staff member dedicated to assisting our planner with their sustainable initiatives. Denver was the first city in the nation to start a bike sharing program – B-cycle – which has been such a success, they will be adding 30 new stations next year. The farm-to-table movement that you see around the country has been happening in Denver for many years and a group of independent restaurants formed Eat Greener Denver to help lead this charge locally. Ten of Denver’s large facilities have formed The Rocky Mountain Greener Venues partnership as a way to share green best practices. Asian Tropics at the Denver Zoo, set to open next Spring, will be the first to use a biomass gasification process to turn human trash and animal waste into energy – a technology they invented that could one day be used outside of zoo facilities The Denver International Airport has three solar arrays that make it the largest solar airport array in the country VISIT DENVER has created resources online to help meeting planners provide green options to their clients and convention attendees – from carbon calculators to accredited green vendors.

Facilities Update

Top Meeting Planners Plant 250, 000th Tree Front Of The Colorado Convention Center

On Friday, November 11, members of VISIT DENVER’s Customer Advisory Board, made up of top meeting planners around the nation, and VISIT DENVER Convention Staff (including President & CEO Richard Scharf and VP of Convention Sales & Services Rachel Benedick) helped plant the 250,000 th tree in front of the Colorado Convention Center. The ceremony is a huge milestone in the Mile High Million initiative, set forth by Colorado Governor - then Mayor - John Hickenlooper in 2006. The goal of the Mile High Million is to add one million new trees to the metro-Denver area by 2025, in order to provide a cleaner, more beautiful environment for locals and visitors, and motivate individuals to become life-long stewards of the city’s natural environment.

Here are just a few other ways Denver is leading the charge in green initiatives, a growing concern and selling point for meeting planners around the world:

The LEED certified Colorado Convention Center has one of the largest solar arrays on their roof and has a full-time staff member dedicated to assisting our planner with their sustainable initiatives.

Denver was the first city in the nation to start a bike sharing program – B-cycle – which has been such a success, they will be adding 30 new stations next year.
The farm-to-table movement that you see around the country has been happening in Denver for many years and a group of independent restaurants formed Eat Greener Denver to help lead this charge locally.
Ten of Denver’s large facilities have formed The Rocky Mountain Greener Venues partnership as a way to share green best practices.
Asian Tropics at the Denver Zoo, set to open next Spring, will be the first to use a biomass gasification process to turn human trash and animal waste into energy – a technology they invented that could one day be used outside of zoo facilities
The Denver International Airport has three solar arrays that make it the largest solar airport array in the country
VISIT DENVER has created resources online to help meeting planners provide green options to their clients and convention attendees – from carbon calculators to accredited green vendors.