Oracle, 'the world's most complete, open, and integrated business software and hardware systems company', successfully held its Oracle OpenWorld, JavaOne and Oracle Develop conferences at the China National Convention Center (CNCC) in Beijing at the end of 2010.
As part of the company’s commitment to developing practices and products that help protect the environment, Oracle worked closely with the CNCC teams, under the guidance of consultants MeetGreen, to ensure that the event minimized its environmental impact.
Following the event, CNCC produced a Waste Management report for Oracle to help quantify the consumption and overall impact of the event: In addition, this report is now a CNCC service, available upon request to organizers of other events at the CNCC.
Oracle worked with CNCC in planning and coordinating its environmental efforts for the conference, including re-using signage from previous events, eliminating bottled water and using local employees and agencies to manage the event.
Oracle also took advantage the rainwater recycling and the natural ventilation design at the China National Conference Center to conserve energy and water consumption onsite.
During the event, CNCC staff placed collection stations for badge holders, minimized energy consumption by reducing lights, power and HVAC during construction and dismantling periods, as well as simple actions like turning off lights in meeting rooms when not in use.
Throughout the event, CNCC’s various departments employed practices to promote sustainability efforts:
- Housekeeping (cleaning materials, laundry)
- Catering (service styles of food, beverages and condiments, avoidance of processed foods, use of edible food decoration)
- Hotel (towel re-use program, drawing of blinds in hotel rooms during the very sunny days to prevent over-heating plus similar Housekeeping practices as the Center)
- Engineering (venue temperature control, energy save modes for escalators and elevators, use of electric cleaning equipment instead of ones with combustion engines).
In addition Oracle provided digital rather than printed conference materials and encouraged attendees to take advantage of the hotel greening programs and use public transport.
At the end of the event attendees were encouraged to recycle their conference agendas, the show dailies and event badges in the recycling centers strategically positioned around the CNCC.
During the 4 days’ event, 60,000 plastic bottles were eliminated, 71,354 sheets of paper were reduced, 300 cubic meters of water were saved, 20% of the waste was recycled, and 93% of all food was organic and local.
