The Greening of Oracle OpenWorld

Communicating Green

Oracle is committed to using online methods of communication wherever possible and appropriate in its drive toward paperless meetings and events. This includes taking advantage of electronic ticketing and reservation systems and using online registration, online agendas and exhibitor kits, digital and recyclable signage, downloadable speaker presentations and handouts, and electronic event evaluation. Also for the first time, Oracle is replacing Oracle OpenWorld content DVD kits with Oracle OpenWorld On Demand for Full Conference attendees, eliminating the production of DVDs and the carbon created from shipping disks all over the world.

Exhibiting Green

Oracle has extended its green requirements to exhibition producers as well, giving preference to producers that, among other things, reduce lights and power use during move-in and move-out in the exhibition hall; provide online exhibitor kits/service to reduce printing; use recyclable, environmentally responsible signage products, carpets, and packing and shipping materials; offset transportation emissions with a carbon offset program; and provide and manage a donation area for exhibitors to collect donated items.

Exhibitors are encouraged to follow green best practices as well, including recycling cardboard, freight boxes, and plastic wrappings and other recyclable items during move in and move out; using soy/vegetable-based ink and post-consumer, recycled paper in printed pieces; providing giveaways made of recycled, responsibly grown natural fiber and nontoxic and biodegradable materials; and designing booths and displays using environmentally responsible materials and energy-efficient lighting.

Green Marketplace

Moscone North, Upper Lobby
Sunday, October 11, 4:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Monday, October 12, 8:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, October 13, 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Wednesday, October 14, 8:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Check out this year's Oracle OpenWorld Green Marketplace, where Oracle, its partners, and its customers exhibit solutions, create interactive experiences showcasing all things green, and show you what they are doing to incorporate sustainability into their business and IT plans.

The Green Marketplace expands on Oracle's increasing efforts in environmental stewardship and seeks to create a community of customers and partners that will share knowledge and inspiration in the months and years ahead.

Measuring Green Success

A case study of Oracle's green efforts at Oracle OpenWorld 2008 demonstrated Oracles progress toward shrinking its event footprint: 61 percent of all waste was diverted from landfill, water stations replaced the need for 500,000 plastic bottles, producing a smaller print conference guide saved 965 trees, 65 percent of food served outside Moscone was local food and 20 percent was organic, and shuttles and other transportation focused on using greener vehicles.

For 2009, we've identified several key performance indicators with all of our stakeholders, including the city of San Francisco, Moscone Center, the hotels, our suppliers, and our internal team, that will increase savings in all of these areas and provide Oracle with more data than ever to get the company closer to a zero-waste event.

San Francisco: Partners in Green

San Francisco, host to Oracle OpenWorld for several years, has made clean technology fundamental to its development strategy and, under the stewardship of Mayor Gavin Newsom, has launched one of the most aggressive, informed environmental programs in the world. Naturally, this makes the City a perfect partner for creating the greener conferences toward which Oracle strives.

Make it sustainable: San Francisco boasts one of the best recycling programs in the country; the city currently recovers 69 percent of the materials it discards, with the goals of 75 percent landfill diversion by 2010 and zero waste by 2020. It's also not hard in San Francisco to find food and beverage services that provide local, organic, and vegetarian options and use china and linen service rather than disposables—key requirements for green event catering.

San Francisco's Moscone Center, which has been instituting green programs for years, has replaced all disposable food and beverage products with biodegradable items, boasts the most aggressive waste diversion program of any convention center in the country, and claims to have the largest public solar-generating project in the nation on its roof, in addition to maintaining an impressive list of energy-efficiency/green building programs (for more on Moscone Center's green efforts, go to www.moscone.com/community/sustain.html).

In its drive to run events with the smallest possible negative impact on the environment, Oracle looks for destinations and venues that, like San Francisco and Moscone Center, are committed to such green practices. In fact, Oracle has devised a detailed list of green requirements to be met by event venues, catering services, hotels, and exhibition producers looking to host, produce, and serve at Oracle events.

Green hotels: Several of the Oracle OpenWorld preferred hotels have earned a Green Rating for such practices as energy and water conservation, recycling, towel and sheet programs, and durable service goods. Oracle's policy for hotel selection now includes several additional criteria, including provision of clearly marked recycling containers, reduction in waste of consumable amenities, and use of environmentally sound cleaning products.

Green Transportation: San Francisco offers several hotels within walking distance of Moscone Center, reducing the need for gas-emitting transportation. Public transit, high-occupancy shuttle services, alternative-fuel or hybrid taxis or buses, and car-pooling programs are readily available. Oracle also plans to reduce shuttling at its events where acceptable and use shuttle providers that operate greener fleets.

Showing Green

Onsite at Oracle events such as Oracle OpenWorld, you'll see increased focus on use of biodegradable name badges, holders, lanyards, and exhibit hall bags; energy-efficient copiers and fax machines; and printers that use recycled and recyclable printer cartridges.

You'll find well-marked recycling bins throughout conference venues, collection stations for badge holders, and materials available in digital and online rather than printed form. Oracle has reduced paper use by 75 percent since 2006.

You will also find no plastic water bottles onsite. Full Conference attendees will be provided with refillable water bottles. All other attendees are encouraged to bring their own reusable water containers or purchase one in the Oracle Bookstore on-site at the event.

Be sure to visit the following areas this year to explore and support Oracle's green event efforts:

• Water Stations: Keep hydrated at the OpenWorld Water Stations in the Yerba Buena Garden and the Howard Street tent. Bring your water bottle and fill it up with San Francisco water—or use one of the cornstarch cups available and then place it in a compost bin.
• Ready. Set. Connect.: Hop on a bicycle and charge away. Give your cell phone or laptop a little power boost without using any electricity, just the power of your cycling energy.
• OpenWorld Virtual Collateral Racks: Starting two weeks before the event and continuing for six months after, you can access Oracle and participating exhibitor collateral. On-site, you can download the collateral to your thumb drive to take home, or e-mail it to yourself or a coworker back at the office. No unnecessary paper use, no print waste, and no extra weight for you to lug home.