Packing hundreds of people into a single venue can pose real challenges for organizations looking to minimize their environmental impact, as Margaret Lydecker well knows. As sustainability director at VH1, Margaret is responsible for greening the cable channel's many award shows. In this SLM interview, Margaret shares some of her top green-meeting tips, and explains why VH1 is keeping mum on its green event-management efforts instead of touting them among viewers. (To listen to our conversation with Margaret, click here.)

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SLM: Margaret, you've been instrumental in developing green guidelines for VH1 productions such as award shows. What are the areas of event production that offer most opportunity for reducing environmental impact?

Margaret: These guidelines are for big "tent-pole" shows - live shows that are taped for television broadcast. So you'll have several hundred people descending on a venue for a short period of time. Anytime you've got a crowd together there's a lot of garbage generated, including large amounts of paper. What we've found is that by implementing some highly visible, easy ways for people to recycle or otherwise properly dispose of their trash, it becomes a habit. Once they get used to our signage it's much more natural for them to separate their recyclables from their garbage and dispose of waste in the right container.

SLM: There seems to be a lot of overlap in approach between greening a TV production and greening a business meeting - for example, boosting recycling, greening catering services, and offsetting the carbon emissions from travel. In creating your green guidelines, where did you look for inspiration?

Margaret: Part of it was being out on productions myself and part of it was looking at other large events like Live Earth, which published its own green guidelines. Many other groups have really pushed to create basic steps to minimize environmental impact in these very specific areas. And, truthfully, a lot of it is common sense - just looking around and saying "here are some easy things we can do." A lot of these strategies, like offering adequate recycling bins, are not difficult and they're not expensive.

SLM: Over the past year we've seen various TV channels address green issues through programming - the new Planet Green lifestyle channel come to mind - but we don't hear much about reducing the footprint of the productions themselves. What prompted VH1 to begin looking at the environmental impact of its production activities?

Margaret: It's true that there have been a lot of green initiatives that target the demographics of certain TV shows. They'll encourage viewers to recycle but they won't actually address these issues among staff within their own production environment.

I was first approached on this topic by Lee Rollins [SP??], VH1's head of new music production. She had seen, over the course of her many years producing large-scale shows, exactly how much waste these events can generate. (In addition to which, I understand that her own kids were pressuring her to find ways to be more green!) So I was brought on to help her find ways to mitigate these impacts.

It has to start with the executives that are running these shows. They have to lead the team, and in this case the mandate really did come from the top down. Lee is a big supporter. She'll personally call the various departments and let them know that it's part of a companywide initiative - it's much harder for staff to shrug off that way.

SLM: What about the production sets themselves? Is it difficult to find suppliers of low-impact materials for set design and construction?

Margaret: It used to be, but it's gotten a lot easier. In many ways it comes down to simple economics: it's cheaper to design set parts that can be reused in some way. We pay for storage and reuse parts whenever possible. We even share set elements with other channels. For example, MTV will use our set parts and we'll use theirs. In addition, a lot of these elements can be repurposed or adapted, such as fabric-backed LED screens that can be reshaped for another set. So we're seeing a lot more efficiencies.

On the other hand, there are still challenges. Flooring often has to be ripped up, and we're trying to figure out ways that floors can be laid down and taken back up more carefully so that they can be reused, recycled, or donated.

SLM: Economics is often the driving force behind initiatives that have environmental payoffs as well. Think that's why the bosses at VH1 have been so enthusiastic about greening their productions?

Margaret: These people are savvy. They've been in this business for a long time and they don't want to waste valuable resources. In the case of set design, it's just a matter of storage and then finding opportunities to reuse the materials. And the set designers are saving money, too, if they can avoid having to buy new materials all the time.

SLM: What kind of messaging is VH1 doing around its green programs? Is the company sharing these efforts with viewers?

Margaret: We had a lot of discussions about this early on, and in the end we decided to focus on two areas. First, we've implemented an internal messaging effort, posting clear signage to help VH1 employees feel empowered around our environmental programs. We've got something called the VH1 Best Green Team Ever, in which the head of each major department communicates our progress on various green goals. Employees also receive a monthly update on VH1's environmental initiatives.

Second, though we're working to green our event productions, which is more of an external effort, we've decided not to target viewers with our messaging. Instead, we're working with our staff and crew so that we can get to the point where we have something to talk about outside the company. It's such a monster effort - teaching 600 people to re-evaluate their thinking on disposable water bottles, for example. We don't have any plans at this point to share our green efforts with the public - not until we've got it DOWN - and I totally applaud that strategy.

SLM: What advice do you have for other companies that are looking for creative ways to minimize their environmental footprint?

Margaret: I think transparency is the number-one thing in my book. Get a baseline understanding of how much waste you're generating, or how much energy you're using, and post that information to get people motivated and inspired to make some positive changes. Everyone contributes to that number, be it number of water bottles or kilowatt hours of electricity. Then, when you've gotten some results from your efforts, post that information as well. Show people how their individual efforts are helping to make a difference. That I think is the best way to get people engaged in the process.

For Margaret's top tips on hosting a greener event, click here.