Thirty American cities, including several of the nation's top meetings destinations, have announced that they'll soon begin sharing environmental data as part of a new project that's being spearheaded by the Carbon Disclosure Project and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), reports
The Green Meeting.
The cities, including New York, Las Vegas and New Orleans, as well as Denver and St. Paul—home to this year's Democratic and Republication national conventions—have promised to voluntarily report their greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to advance public knowledge on climate change.
"Over 70 percent of total global emissions are generated from cities and if you don't measure these emissions, you cannot manage them," Paul Dickinson, CEO of the Carbon Disclosure Project, said in a statement. "This is a vital step for city councils who wish to gain a better understanding of their own impact and by improving their understanding of risks and opportunities associated with climate change, best prepare their cities for a carbon constrained world."
Cities participating in the Carbon Disclosure Project will also be able to compare their carbon emissions—from entities such as fire departments, ambulances, police services, waste transport, and other civic services—with other cities in order to identify best practices for reducing them. For meeting planners,
The Green Meeting suggests, the result will be widely available data that will help them identify sustainable cities in which to hold environmentally friendly meetings and conventions.