"Walking the Talk" (Guest Blog)

"Walking the Talk" - how one green event pro went from teacher of sustainability to student

By Guest Blogger – Stacey Winkelmann, Absolutely Events

Sometimes you find yourself doing things you just don’t ordinarily do in your everyday life – one of those is writing a little article for a blog.  However, when I was extolling my tale on social media, my good friend Judy said “why don’t you write about it and I’ll post it as a guest blogger on my blog?”  But, I digress…

The other thing - and the point to this article, that I didn’t ordinarily do in my everyday life is really watch the amount of water I used at home.  Certainly in my business, whenever I would consult with or plan events for clients; we would always propose the most sustainable water choices in bulk versus bottled and maybe even include a community give back where a water resource might be involved where possible.  Although at home, while we have changed our shower heads to low flow and reduced toilet tank water levels, shut off water while brushing teeth, do laundry at full loads, we really don’t have any idea of how much we use or waste.

Well, the other day I was FORCED to use as little water as possible for two days.  You see, a water main down the street had broken and there we were…  camping in our own house!  I was thankful for the grocery store that stocked the 2.5 gallon water jugs.  This was our water source for cooking, cleaning, etc., for who knew how long?  Spit baths, brushing teeth from a cup, one pot cook meals, one pot clean-up too and all those other things that you normally take for granted at home every time you lift that faucet handle and water comes rushing out and down the drain for your modern convenience.  Aren’t we lucky!  Yes we are indeed, however, this experience has reminded me to be more cognizant of our earths resources not just in our 8-5 workday lives at events, but in our whole lives.

I’m fortunate too that I belong to an organization called GMIC (Green Meetings Industry Council).  I’m part of the Northern California Chapter.  The Global organization supports the One Drop Foundation.  I’m proud to say as of our Board meeting last Saturday, it was unanimously voted that our Chapter would also charitably support One Drop.  If you are interested in finding out more information on our precious water resources or if you can help, please visit the One Drop Foundation website.