Once again, we’ve worked hard to make our conference friendly to our planet. Our goal is to make our carbon footprint as small as possible while bringing you great speakers and information.  Our use of recycled materials, selection of venue locations, caterer, hotel, and conference practices once again brings you A Greener Outlook. 

Conference Location

This is the third year the Deloitte and Touche building is home to our conference. One of greenest buildings in the city, it is the first office building anywhere, other than those designed for a single tenant, to receive special recognition for its environmental friendliness. A few of its environmentally friendly attributes include:

• Gold LEED-CS certification (world’s first high-rise office building not devoted to a single tenant to receive this certification).

• ENERGY STAR 2007 building.

• Green rooftops with plantings, low-flow faucets, native planting, recycled content materials, low volatile compounds paints and carpeting, and energy-efficient glass.
  
  Learn more at the location website: http://www.111southwacker.com

Conference Hotel

The Hotel Allegro, where most out-of-town conference guests will be staying, is a Green Seal^TM Silver Certified Chicago hotel and the recipient of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley's Greenworks Award. The hotel’s practices include a linen and towel reuse program, recycling 60% of its waste, using environmentally safe cleaning agents, printing with soy-based inks on recycled paper, and energy efficient light bulbs and air conditioning.

For more information on the hotel’s green practices, visit: http://www.allegrochicago.com/green-hotel.html

Catering

Our caterers:

• Use recyclable/recycled materials and green practices.

• Provide recycling stations for items such as paper, plastics, glass, and cans as required.

• Provide disposable-free food and beverage service that significantly reduces unnecessary waste by replacing disposable items with reusable ones.

• Avoid bottled water where possible.

• Serve locally sourced food if available.

• Serve fair trade coffee.

Shedd Aquarium, the venue for our dinner, is environmentally focused in every aspect of its operation, including best energy use, purchasing, and even animal selections. The aquarium even has a soy-based roof!

Click here to read more about the roof and the Shedd’s worldwide commitment to environmental issues:
http://www.sheddaquarium.org/whatsheddisdoing.html

Here’s a summary of the green efforts at the Shedd, which include recycled uniforms, recycling and composting:
http://www.aza.org/Publications/2003/09/Sept03Shedd.pdf

And here’s a summary of their conservation efforts:
http://www.sheddaquarium.org/conservation.html

Carbon Offsets

This year, FCStone Carbon has calculated the carbon footprint of the FCStone/Downes-O'Neill Outlook Conference and has purchased offsets to effectively neutralize all emissions associated with travel to and from the conference and the hospitality. Using the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), we have offset 100 percent of these emissions so that the Outlook Conference is now fully carbon-neutral.