Count on ‘Green’ Conferences Boosting Economy (Market Forecast)

Observers in Northwest Arkansas may have noticed that “green” oriented conferences seem to be taking place on a fairly regular basis in the area.
This may be a welcomed trend by local businesses not only because these conferences bring out-of-town visitors to the area who spend tourist dollars, but also because the environmental information presented at the conferences, as it is put into practice, could help keep Northwest Arkansas’ economy prosperous for many years to come.
In April, the Arkansas Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council sponsored a statewide conference with 285 in attendance and 44 exhibitor organizations.
This conference emphasized various aspects of green building construction and featured nationally recognized speakers such as Ray Anderson, founder of Interface Inc., an interior furnishings company with the mission to eliminate any negative impact the company may have on the environment by the year 2020.
In June, Northwest Arkansas cities and counties, the Cooperative Extension Service, Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning, companies such as Flintco and CEI, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency worked together to host the five-state 9th Annual EPA Region 6 Stormwater Management Operators Conference.
Conference committee chair and Rogers engineering technician Jennifer Bonner reported that a total of 430 people participated in the conference as attendees, speakers or exhibitors.
Recently, the City of Fayetteville through the encouragement of Mayor Dan Coody, hosted a national workshop program of the International Council for Local & Environmental Initiatives. According to Fayetteville’s new Sustainability Coordinator John Coleman, about 100 people attended the program. In recent years Fayetteville was host to the Arkansas Urban Forestry Council and the Arkansas Watershed Advisory Group.
Dede Hamm of the Rogers Convention and Visitor’s Center, said it is estimated that the average overnight convention attendee spends about two hundred dollars per day.
Using this estimate for the out-of-town visitors along with the dollars spent by the conference itself, the EPA conference brought in more than $350,000 to our regional economy.
We can assume that many of these dollars will be re-circulated and multiplied throughout Northwest Arkansas. Similar estimates could be generated for the other environmentally oriented conferences. With these figures we might conclude that “Green Conferences” (as well as all area conferences) do, indeed, help “green” the local economy with dollars added to the area.
Beyond conference dollars brought to the region, a common theme emphasized at many green conferences is the idea that environmentally responsive design and construction is good for the economy not just for now but for many years to come.
For example, at the U.S. Green Building Conference participants learned much about the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Building Program.
Economic benefits of LEED buildings often cited by the USGBC include reduced operating and maintenance costs, lower insurance and risk costs, improved employee productivity and satisfaction and reduced energy, water and waste costs.
A study of 33 green buildings in California discovered that the average additional cost of green construction over the conventional methods was about 2 percent or about $4 per square foot. The study found that over twenty years, the net savings for green buildings would be $48.87 per square foot for Standard and Silver certified buildings and $67.31 per square foot for Gold and Platinum certified buildings.
From December 2005 through November 2006, the Fayetteville Public Library, a Silver rated LEED building, saved $43,000 in gas, electricity and water costs compared to a conventionally constructed building.
Speakers at the Stormwater Management Conference also emphasized the economic benefits of environmental approaches to stormwater control such as Low Impact Development construction techniques.
Administered properly, environmental methods such as using grass swales and rain gardens instead of conventional concrete culverts not only can save the developer money, they help protect the water quality of reservoirs such as Beaver Lake. Degradation of reservoirs can result in higher water treatment costs, higher water rates, and bad tasting water.
The title of the national workshop program by the International Council for Local & Environmental Initiatives is “Saving Energy & Saving Money: The Economic Benefits of Local Climate Action.”
The program presents numerous sessions with subjects such as “Creating Economic Value through Effective Climate Action Planning.” Again we see the common focus on the economic benefits of environmental action.
One of the main purposes of adopting environmental building practices is to protect or restore natural biological systems that provide us with ecological services such as cleaning our water.
In order to support this process, economists, biologists, physicists and others have begun to develop a relatively new transdisciplinary field called “Ecological Economics.” It is the belief of biologist, regional planner, and ecological economist, Robert Costanza, that by putting a price on ecological services, better decisions will be made when it comes to conserving natural resources and protecting ecosystems.
In 1997 Costanza, co-founder of the International Society of Ecological Economics (ISEE) and director of the Gund Institute of Ecological Economics, and his colleagues wrote a paper published in the British journal Nature that estimated the worth of the biosphere at $33 trillion per year, a figure greater than the annual GDP of all the world’s economies combined. Later in a paper published in Science, they asserted that investing in the preservation of intact ecosystems yields returns of 100 to 1.
According to an article in Grist magazine, various opponents, including environmental moralists who maintain that humans should not put a price on nature, have criticized Costanza’s work. However, Costanza responds that putting a dollar value on ecosystem services raises public awareness. When people see high dollar figures, they ask why ecological services are so valuable and begin to understand the importance of protecting natural systems.
Although the conference presenters coming to Northwest Arkansas may not call themselves ecological economists, by raising awareness of the economic returns of building methods that protect natural ecosystems, they could fall within this category.
Given current trends, it is quite likely that Northwest Arkansas will continue to host green conferences in the future. If so, we can expect more “green” dollars spent that will contribute to our regional economy. More importantly, as more public officials and developers adopt environmentally responsible building techniques, we can expect to see even greater returns in terms of long-term prosperity and economic sustainability in Northwest Arkansas.

(Paul Justus is a regional planner with the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission. He may be reached at [email protected].)