Environmental sustainability has been a big part of the public discourse for many years now. Everyone wants to do their part in making the world a better, greener place.
But you can make a difference in more ways than you think. If you’re like many Americans, you’ve made an effort to conserve water, compost, or recycle in your home. So when planning a celebration or gathering, you should find an event venue that matches your own values.
At Overland Park Convention Center, we’ve done our absolute best to minimize food waste and reduce our energy consumption. Let’s take a deeper look at why OPCC should be your choice for a green event venue in Overland Park.
Waste Management
One of the most important steps we’ve taken to become a green event venue in Overland Park is through our waste management. Every event venue, big or small, will have some waste. It’s unavoidable. But everyone can take steps to eliminate the amount of waste that their venue produces.
With the help of FRED, or Food Residual Environmental Diversion Program, we’ve been able to set up easily identifiable waste and recycling bins all across our venue.
So it’s never been easier for guests like you to find the right way to responsibly dispose of your trash and recycling. FRED then picks up our garbage and brings it to their center, where it can be recycled or used for composting.
Green Purchasing
We’ve done our best to make the purchasing process as green as possible as well. We’ve begun offering more and more vegetarian options, not just for inclusivity reasons, but also because vegetables use less energy and take less land to produce.
Additionally, we also use a number of sustainable dinnerware options.
It takes a lot of energy and water to wash dishes, so we’ve chosen to include compostable plates and utensils. After guests are finished eating, composters can actually break down their dinnerware into soil, for better, healthier plant growing materials. But don’t worry—you can also opt to use traditional china as well.
Energy Efficiency
There’s no way around it—an event venue like ours needs electricity to thrive. In the modern age, you can’t have a wedding, banquet, trade show, or meeting without a little electricity.
But we have taken steps to mitigate energy waste. We spent $2 million to retrofit our venue with energy-conscious technology.
Perhaps the biggest advancement was replacing the lights with an LED alternative. There is absolutely no change in visibility across our venue, but we did see a big change in our utility costs. They dropped 15%!
This effort shows how becoming more energy-conscious can help a business save money and energy at the same time.
Resource Conservation
The last major step we took in becoming a green event venue in Overland Park was energy conservation. First, we installed an automatic lighting system that shut off the lights if no guests were detected in a given area, meaning that lights aren’t being left on unnecessarily.
We also installed low-flush, automatic faucets. Water waste is a big issue affecting the environment, so we eliminated the possibility of a guest accidentally leaving the water running.
Schedule an Event with Us!
We hope you’re excited about the possibility of scheduling your next celebration at a green event venue in Overland Park.
We’ve taken steps to reduce unnecessary waste, and we’ve certainly noticed a positive change. Hopefully, you will, too! To schedule an event at our venue, take a look at our virtual event planning tool.
This tool allows you to answer a few short questions about your upcoming event, so we can give you a basic estimate. The process is quick, easy, and fun. Give it a look now.
