McNamara’s meeting clients go green, naturally
[MINNEAPOLIS, MN] — The Recycling Association of Minnesota promotes resource conservation through multiple practices. No wonder this nonprofit selected the McNamara Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota to hold its two-day conference last year—and has rebooked the space again for this fall.
“We have to practice what we preach,” says Ellen Telander, executive director, RAM, emphasizing how challenging it is to find a centrally located, environmentally friendly venue and how delighted she was to find that McNamara features a naturally lit, large meeting space. “The McNamara team was happy to work with us to make our event green and carbon-free.”
Focusing on the environment is nothing new for McNamara, a premier meeting-and-event space known for its award-winning customer service. “Our clients are pleased to learn about our environmental efforts, as well as our willingness to make extra eco-friendly accommodations,” says Kim Hamlin, senior event coordinator and on-staff green guru.
A high-performance chiller saves 175,000-kilowatt hours of energy per year. Automatic sinks, soap dispensers and toilets go a long way toward saving resources and water—especially with annual building visitors numbering 400,000. Ninety-five percent of the building’s cleaning products are green-seal certified. New vending machines, installed last year, automatically conserve energy. And the on-site caterer, D’Amico Catering at McNamara, is an enthusiastic composter.
For RAM, the McNamara event and catering teams took additional steps: offering cream, butter, salt and pepper in bulk dispensers rather than individual packets to lessen garbage; introducing the use of new collection methods so that paper towels could be composted —a practice McNamara has permanently adopted; recycling all cans, bottles and paper; selecting organic ingredients for meals; and using reusable glassware, flatware, plates and linens.
In addition, McNamara engineers worked with RAM to calculate not only how many kilowatts of energy would be used across its five meeting rooms but the carbon footprint of attendees’ travel to the conference itself. RAM then planted 30 25-foot trees in Minnesota to offset all carbon effects.
“Our engineers do a great job of saving energy,” says Hamlin, “but this was the first time we determined kilowatt usage for a client. Now it’s a service we offer to interested customers.”
Going forward, Hamlin says, the McNamara event team is exploring additional environmentally friendly services for clients. But with Earth Day, April 22, just around the corner, you might want to book soon!
The McNamara Alumni Center is a unique Minneapolis meeting-and-event venue, thanks to its soaring architecture and award-winning customer service. In February 2009, for the second consecutive year, the McNamara Alumni Center won the Best Meeting and Event Space (Non-Hotel) Award at the annual “best of” event, sponsored by Minnesota Meetings + Events magazine.
The McNamara Alumni Center, 200 Oak St. SE, is located on the East Bank of the University of Minnesota campus, just 5 minutes from downtown Minneapolis and 10 minutes from downtown St. Paul.
