How “green” the BlogHer conferences are has become increasingly controversial over the past few years. Last year, an uproar ensued when the group’s conference seemed to have been commandeered by Pepsi and other companies that for three days bombarded conference-goers with trashy swag. I was on BlogHer’s “Green Team”; the victory we thought we’d won convincing Pepsi not to hand out bottled water was undercut by all the soda bottles and other junk companies peddled right and left throughout the event.

This year, I did not attend the conference. But by all reports, the swag was much more restrained. Still, the confab was sponsored by a bevy of companies promoting the kind of throwaway “stuff” Annie Leonard shined such a bright spotlight on in her searing online documentary, The Story of Stuff. To wit, not only did the companies give away a lot of junk – they also sponsored a suite where conference goers could throw it away (or “recycle” it to places like homeless shelters, begging the question: if you don’t want it, why do you think a homeless person does?).

There are a lot of important questions that need to be asked around the dynamics of an event like the BlogHer conference. What is the responsibility of any conference to make its event “green”? Should a conference use the real clout it has to pressure its partners to attain the highest possible level of responsibility? Should organizations and individuals hold companies responsible for their actions by withholding access to their members – and their money?

I take issue with the suggestion that BlogHer should be let off the hook for the many wasteful products it  allows companies to promote at its conferences. I don’t think BlogHer or any other conference should be given a “pass” just because, as Lynn Miller notes at Organicmania, it is not a “green” conference. That message  marginalizes “green” rather than legitimizes it. Would anyone condone sexism at a conference because the event was not a “woman’s” conference?

But there is a more important point to be made. Companies that promote their products at BlogHer do so with only one goal in mind: to  perpetuate the same patterns of wasteful consumption that have wreaked havoc on the environment heretofore. I often say that we women, who spend $.85 of every dollar in the marketplace, have the power to change the world by changing the way we spend our money. But honestly, the world wouldn’t be in the shape it’s in if women hadn’t been buying so much junk to begin with. I’d wager that more women who attended BlogHer will be blogging about the cute little toy or other product they got for free than the purified water they drank.

Conference organizers argue that corporate sponsorships (and those product give-aways) make conference attendance fees cheap. But is cheap always better?

If you need to think about your answer, read Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture by investigative reporter Ellen Ruppel Shell. Says Shell, “America has been transformed by its relentless fixation on bargains. This pervasive yet little-examined obsession is arguably the most powerful and devastating market force of our time. It has fueled an excess of consumerism that blights our landscapes, raises personal debt, lowers our standard of living, and even skews our concept of time.”

BlogHer has the potential to be a truly revolutionary force for good, but not because it offers purified water at its conferences, or puts its program online instead of printing it on paper. In this day and age, actions like these should be a no-brainer. What would put BlogHer on the map would be to adhere to a list of socially and environmentally responsible criteria that its corporate sponsors must meet in order to be affiliated with the world’s largest network of women bloggers. (NOTE: Green  America is extremely selective about who it allows to exhibit at its events – and it draws many more thousands of people  to the multiple events it stages in several cities every year than does BlogHer.)

Would the number of corporate sponsors shrink initially if BlogHer set a true green threshold for conference underwriting? Perhaps. Or perhaps BlogHer’s vision would inspire companies to new heights of environmental responsibility. I’d put my money on the latter. There’s certainly precedent for throwing down the gauntlet: remember the Sullivan Principles? Apartheid ended, in part, because so many consumers called for its demise – and threatened to boycot companies unless they did, too.

Most companies exhibiting at BlogHer and underwriting the group’s programs have ‘green’ products in the works, if not already on store shelves. But they’re marginalizing them the same way BlogHer is, and making them the exception, not the rule.

BlogHer is a megaphone to women across the U.S. and increasingly, around the world. It’s time for that megaphone to be green, inside and out.

The post It’s Time for BlogHer to be Green – Inside and Out. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

These are just a few of the words I have heard used to describe the “swag” handed out at BlogHer09, a conference that has aroused as much backlash as “bravos” since it ended last week.

How did things get so out of hand for an event and institution that have commanded so much respect since its founding five years ago?

To some degree, BlogHer became a victim of its own success. The reputation of the conference has grown as “the” place to network with other bloggers, pick up new technical skills and get a sneak peak on blogging’s future. As a result, demand to attend has skyrocketed, forcing BlogHer to hold the event in big cities with large conference facilities that turn out to be so expensive, corporate sponsors are needed to help defray costs.

But corporate sponsors don’t come to BlogHer conferences to promote blogging. They come to promote their brands and sell their products to the most powerful consumers in the world: American women who blog. The bigger (and more expensive) the conference gets for BlogHer and attendees, the more appealing it is to companies looking to promote themselves to the captive crowd a BlogHer conference delivers over two days.

That was apparent in the degree to which corporations dominated virtually every aspect of BlogHer09 (see photos at FakePlasticFish and OrganicMania).

As an attendee, I felt overwhelmed when I checked in Friday morning. Had I accidentally stumbled upon a promotional event for PepsiCo? The soft drink conglomerate, BlogHer09’s major sponsor, seemed to be everywhere: manning its “Juice” TV studio on the main floor, aggressively handing out bottles of its new Trop 50 drink to passersby, dominating the Expo arena with the largest, busiest, freebie-est lounge. But PepsiCo wasn’t alone. Every single session was sponsored by a company; some Fortune 500 entity attached its name to every meal and every party. There was no commercial-free “breathing space” anywhere on the agenda.

As a member of the team BlogHer put together to help green the conference, I felt a bit cheated. The Green Team worked hard to collaborate with conference organizers and develop a list of items that would have low eco-impact but still satisfy attendees and conference sponsors alike. Indeed, BlogHer deserves credit for taking significant steps to reduce the environmental footprint of the conference by minimizing paper use, promoting recycling, and reducing waste. They also helped us negotiate with PepsiCo to eliminate bottled water at the event in favor of water dispensers, which we considered a major accomplishment. But I can’t help but wonder if the environmental gains we secured through Green Team negotiations were neutralized by all the free bags of Fritos, throwaway plastic pouches of applesauce, and other disposables that were dispensed over the course of the event.

It was especially demoralizing to learn that, in lieu of its throwaway plastic water bottles, Pepsico would hand out flavored water in — yes – throwaway plastic. Talk about an empty victory.

As the moderator of the conference’s Leadership panel on green and sustainability, I feel like it’s my responsibility to step up and express my concerns. I can’t lay total blame on the companies. I don’t completely blame BlogHer, either. BlogHer founder Elisa Camahort is right when she says that going into the Expo was optional. No one forced attendees to take the junk being handed out there. And BlogHer evidently had no control over independent parties held in private suites to attract select conference goers. Whatever attendees chose to do, they did all on their own.

However, I do take issue with the argument that because BlogHer09 was not a “green” conference, the conference sponsors did not have to adhere to principles of sustainability in what they offered to attendees.

“Green” is not a niche. It’s not even a lifestyle choice. It’s a matter of survival. We need to start treating it that way, including at events like BlogHer09.

As women bloggers, we have the world’s most powerful communications tools at our disposal. It’s why so many corporations exhibited at the event. Consciously or subconsciously, it’s probably why so many of us attend: we like having a megaphone, and we want to use it better.

But what good does it do if we use our voices to shout the same messages that have been shouted since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, which all boil down to “More! More! More!”

As influential women, we have the power not only to walk away from more junk, but to tell its producers to clean up their act

As influential women, we have the power to encourage companies to offer useful services rather than more stuff we don’t need.

As influential women, we have the power to redefine the world we have and create the world we want — not just at events like BlogHer09, but in every aspect of our lives.

Let’s do it.

The post Did Swag Pollute BlogHer09? appeared first on Big Green Purse.