Mina Malin of New City founded Mina Malin Consulting Group Inc. last year to help companies plan green meetings. The former Con Edison employee is holding a biodegradable pen that contains a tomato seed. When the pen runs out of ink, it can be planted. (Kathy Gardner/The Journal News)

As Mina Malin was getting ready to wind up her long career at Consolidated Edison Inc. and wondering what she would do after retirement, she had what she calls an "a-ha moment."

She had worked in the giant utility company's "Save a Watt" program, teaching consumers to conserve energy, and as a corporate meeting planner, handling the complicated logistics of putting together conferences, dinners and meetings for the company's top executives, investors and others.

Well aware of the shift in American culture toward environmental awareness, Malin thought it would make sense to start a business taking advantage of her expertise in energy conservation and meeting planning.

Malin, 56, of New City, has started Mina Malin Consulting Group Inc., which she founded last year. She worked for Con Edison through last month and is now marketing her business to companies and nonprofits looking to host so-called "green" events, which are events that seek to conserve energy and environmental resources.

Malin, who runs her company out of a home office, is a soldier in a growing army of professional event planners trying to cater to organizations' desire to reap the public relations and other benefits of holding environmentally friendly events.

Across the country, large and small companies are emphasizing events near mass-transportation systems in buildings rich in energy-savings measures and that use as little paper and other resources as possible.

And planners and the owners of sites that host the events are eager to help them.

"It's been here for a while but it wasn't as mainstream as it is now," Tamara Kennedy-Hill, executive director of The Green Meeting Industry Council in Portland, Ore., said of the trend.

Kennedy-Hill said her organization's 2007 annual meeting drew about 150, including venue owners, planners and others. This year's meeting, held in Vancouver in February drew 280 people and next year's event in Pittsburgh is expected to draw as many as 500, she said.

She attributed the increase in interest to growing awareness of global warming.

A local venue owner is getting into the trend. White Plains-based Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. plans to open 20 LEED-certified Element hotels by the end of next year. The acronym stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Some of the green features Malin and other meeting planners can work into an event or conference are common sense. Registration can be done exclusively online to save paper. The food served can be locally grown and produced so that it doesn't have to be transported. Hosts can serve water in pitchers, instead of plastic bottles.

But other features are a bit more offbeat. For instance, she can provide pens that biodegrade and contain a tomato seed. If the user buries the pen after the ink is used up, a tomato plant will grow.

The Journal News recently conducted an e-mail interview with Malin about the green-meetings industry.

Q: What factors do you think drive the rising interest by companies and organizations in hosting green events?

A: (Recently) various factors came together to heighten the public's interest for companies and organizations to "become green." 1) Al Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth," became an eye-opener to the general public. 2) More and more regions were experiencing unusual and harsh weather conditions because of global warming. 3) Many people were still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. And 4) There was a lot of news coverage on sustainability. All these factors came together and everyone was paying attention, especially the meetings industry.

Q: Do you think that interest will be sustained or will it fade, as many other trends have?

A: Green events are more than a passing trend. They will be sustained, as businesses are constantly incorporating them into their daily business strategies and practices. With "green initiatives" becoming more of a business standard, I expect businesses' commitment of becoming more eco-friendly will continue to increase.

Q: What, in your opinion, is the greenest feature that can be worked into an event or conference?

A: The Convention Industry Council's Green Meetings Report highlights eight categories that enable an event to be green: Destination, accommodations, meeting and venue, transportation, food and beverage, exhibition production, communication and marketing, and on-site office procedures. MMCG (Mina Malin Consulting Group) provides direction and focus on where to spend time and resources. For example, does the client want local food and china service, or will they want to reduce paper by not sending out invitations or printed materials? The decision to select one green feature over another for an event is the client's decision.

Q: Are other nations ahead of the United States in demanding green events, to your knowledge?

A: Yes, other nations are ahead of the United States in demanding green events. The British Standards Institute is currently working on a standard called BSI 8901 Sustainable Event Standard. This standard has the potential to become an international standard for the event industry to measure and demonstrate sustainability steps put in place within an event.

Q: You began working in Con Edison's Save a Watt program during another energy crisis, in 1980. How do you think the public's desire to conserve during that time compares with today?

A: In 1980, Con Edison took an active role in educating customers on how to conserve energy with the Save A Watt campaign. The customers were cooperative in the program, and it helped minimize the use of oil, which was in short supply during that crisis. Fast-forward to today, and you have a greater desire to conserve since consumers are more aware that they need to help reduce the greenhouse emissions.

Q: In your opinion, what is the most common misconception that companies have about green meetings?

A: These misconceptions fall into five categories:

1. Green meetings are expensive.

2. If you don't do 100 percent green, why bother at all?

3. A green meeting requires a lot of work.

4. Going green is only for the "environmental types."

5. Individuals cannot make a difference with regard to green practices.

These are all myths.

Q: Are the misconceptions changing with time?

A: Yes, more meeting managers are integrating green practices into their normal meeting management cycle, from site selection and contract negotiations to marketing and logistics. In addition, the green marketplace is filled with Earth-friendly products and services to make it easier to run a green meetings or event.

Q: Are green meetings good for business?

A: Green meetings are great for business and should be part of a full green strategy that requires meeting planners, vendors and venues to consider energy and environmental impacts. First steps could include energy-efficiency improvements in a meeting venue (i.e. replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs), visible recycling in (the) guest room, or purchasing carbon offsets to mitigate the emissions caused by air travel.

Reach Allan Drury at adrury@lohud.com or 914-694-5069.

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