Green Meetings

We're Rolling Out the Green Carpet

Portland, OregonPortland is known for its green spaces and proximity to natural wonders like the Columbia River Gorge and Mount Hood. The city is also known as an incubator for progressive urban planning, environmentally conscious public policy, and the sustainable development movement.

In addition to offering you tools and resources for planning your "green" meeting in Portland, you'll quickly learn why Portland is a leader among "green" cities worldwide.

The Doubletree Hotel Portland-Lloyd Center has earned a Green Seal GS-33 Lodging Sustainability certification. The 476-room Doubletree — which hosted the national conference of the Green Meeting Industry Council in February 2007 — is the first lodging property in Oregon to receive this "green hotel" designation, which includes a set of stringent criteria that encourages hotels to adopt environmental standards and practices in their everyday operations.

The ongoing efforts of the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower — the largest hotel in Oregon — have also been recognized by Green Seal with the coveted Green Seal Lodging Properties certification. In late 2005, Hilton Portland & Executive Tower turned its attention to "greening" hotel operations. Recognizing the enormous consumption and dramatic impact of the hospitality industry on the planet, hotel management decided to take action to decrease its environmental footprint. The 782-room Hilton Portland & Executive Tower recognized the opportunity to reduce impact, improve sustainability, replace toxic products with eco-friendly products, save energy and save money.

Oregon Convention Center Sustainable Practices
Sustainable Group Testimonials
Green Meetings Choose Portland
Planning Tools and Resources
Portland Profile

Oregon Convention Center Sustainable Practices

Oregon Convention Center Rain Garden, Portland, OregonDesigned, built and operated with sustainability in mind. Oregon is the only state in the country to have passed a formal statewide sustainability act, making the practice of effective land and resource use public policy.

The Oregon Convention Center’s expansion builds on the standards set by the award-winning design of the original building by incorporating the latest in sustainability into both design and practice.

Both the original Center and the expansion were designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, which has demonstrated its leadership in sustainable design through a number of projects. Two of ZGF’s buildings have been rewarded with the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) rating.

Download Oregon Convention Center Sustainable Practice information here.
"Oregon Convention Center Green Facts" (Word document)
"Oregon Convention Center's 'Rain Garden'" (Word document)

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Testimonials

Jan Kourmadas
Meeting Planner
Computer Sciences Corporation
US EPA Brownfields Conference

Portland is a friendly, beautiful, and environmentally conscious city with a great light rail system, MAX which provided quick and economical transportation for conference participants. The newly, expanded Oregon Convention Center has a great balance of exhibit hall and meeting room space, a great recycling program, and the "Rain Garden."

Tom Heim
Conference Coordinator
Environmental Management Systems
EMS Conference

Portland and the State of Oregon are environmentally-focused and encourage public participation. Both the city and the State have established some innovative programs to improve the quality of the environment and to involve the public. For environmental organizations like EPA that are hosting meetings, this can be important. For our event, we planned several field trips to highlight some of the environmental and public participation activities being conducted within the city of Portland.

Jennifer Sprout
Executive Vice President
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities
Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference Awards and Trade Show

We were very impressed with the beautiful streetscapes that included rows of shady trees, recycled cobblestone walkways, public art, and green roof parks...the City of Portland has become a municipal leader in the United States in its efforts to use natural systems to manage stormwater run-off, to encourage sustainable development practices and to enact polices that provide incentives to build and use greenroofs.

We commend the City of Portland for their environmental polices, and thank everyone involved in the planning of the conference (hotel, restaurants, transit system and many local developers) for their efforts in helping us to make our conference green.

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Green Meetings and Conventions Select Portland

Here's a glance at green meetings and conventions that have chosen Portland as their host city.

American Solar Energy Society
Ecological Society of America
Environmental Bankers Association
Environmental Protection Agency - POCOC
Environmental Protection Agency - Brownfields
Green Roofs Conference
Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Program
LGC - Smart Growth Conference
National Association of Environmental Professionals
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
National Wildlife Federation
The Nature Conservancy River Network
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
Society for Cultural Anthropology
Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
Sustainable Northwest
U.S. Green Building Council

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Planning Tools and Resources

Planning Tools

"Green Portland" One-sheet (PDF)
"Oregon Convention Center Green Facts" (Word document)
"Oregon Convention Center's Rain Garden" (Word document)
Portland Oregon brand statement (PDF)

Coming soon: more planning tools.

Resources

Oregon Convention Center
City of Portland, Office of Sustainable Development
Meeting Strategies Worldwide
Recycling Advocates
Oregon Natural Step Network

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