The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) held its annual conference on Oct. 24-26 in Chicago at McCormick Place, the largest convention venue in North America. With a record-setting 19,100+ attendees, the event was a resounding success on many fronts, including sustainability.
McCormick Place is the largest convention venue in North America and an Events Industry Council silver-certified facility for Sustainable Events Standards. The venue has scored many hits in sustainable event management.
This year, the venue host, McCormick Place, shared some sustainability metrics with SWE to highlight the impact of the practices implemented and the systems in place during the event:
Energy
Energy efficiency was prioritized with LED lighting and motion sensor technology installed. McCormick Place also purchased renewable energy certificates to offset 100% of the electricity used on campus. During the WE24 conference, 287,471 kWh of electricity was consumed.
Food and Beverage
Aluminum cans of water and water coolers with five-gallon capacity per unit were used as alternatives to single-use plastic bottles during the conference as aluminum can be recycled multiple times.
McCormick Place has an on-site nonprofit partnership committed to reducing food wastage. Housed in the East Kitchen, Fight2Feed rescues and repurposes food from such large-scale events.
Recycling and Conservation
Thanks to conservation efforts at McCormick Place, 12.13 tons of waste was diverted away from the landfill for a 58% diversion rate during the event. That represents 206 trees saved, 84,910 gallons of water conserved, 48,520 kWh/ton electricity saved, and 958 gallons of oil conserved.
It’s important to SWE that our events are not only nurturing and supporting all our attendees, but also the communities in which we host and the environment as a whole. We are proud to partner with event venues like McCormick Place to further these goals. Please save the date for WE25 on Oct. 23-35 in New Orleans.
