Everyone’s doing it.

Going green that is. A study for the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, based in Alexandria, Virginia, found that one-third of corporations have, and another third are developing, travel policies promoting sustainable tourism.

Society has embraced the notion that we can do more to help the planet, and the travel industry has listened to their clients, reexamining every aspect of their operations in order to be both better corporate citizens and comply with client demands. Airlines, like Virgin and British Airways, are experimenting with new ways to save fuel and reduce their carbon footprint by changing the way they taxi their aircraft. Car rental companies are adding hybrid cars to their fleets. Holland America is testing a $1.5 million emission reduction technology on its cruise ship the Zaandam.

Cities have also gotten the message. Boston adopted a Green Tourism Program to entice environmentally aware groups to the city, and Orlando insisted that the new home of the NBA Orlando Magic, which is the centerpiece of a $1.1 billion downtown entertainment hub, be the nation’s first certifiably green sporting venue.

Perhaps no partner is more on the front line than hotels. Michelle Heston, western director of public relations for Fairmont Hotels, says with 60 percent of clients “asking some sort of green-like question, whether it’s about our recycling programs or if we respect carbon offsets,” the company’s California Global Sales Office team decided to respond with a client event for 150 of the state’s top meeting planners at the Fairmont San Francisco. “The whole event was green,” says Heston.

The Fairmont purchased carbon offset credits to cover the fuel burned to transport guests to the evening event. After a reception, guests moved on to dinner designed around a “locivore” menu. As Heston explains, “It’s our play on words. Instead of carnivore, it’s ‘locivore.’ Everything served that evening was purchased or grown within 150 miles of the hotel,” further reducing the evening’s carbon footprint.

The meal was followed by an educational panel on green, environmentally-friendly meeting practices, with the head of Google’s Green Program, the president of a green strategy company, and a representative of Governor Schwarzenegger’s Department of Conservation. The format showed planners how easy and unobtrusive it is to have an environmentally-friendly, productive event which maintains a professional atmosphere and doesn’t look like some touchy-feely, art school happening. Heston says, “All the collateral material was posted on a website, so they could go home and check the links the next day and download whatever they were interested in. It was as green an event as possible.”

The purpose of the event, says Heston, “was to show there are a lot of ways to green meetings that are truly seamless to the end user. So whether it’s using a flip chart made of recycled paper or just doing a presentation that’s all electronic, and instead of handing out notes sending people a link to a website that has everything posted to it. It’s also avoiding heavily packaged foods at all breaks, especially water bottles because water bottles are a killer. And then having recycling facilities in the guest and meeting rooms.”

In a final, creative twist to the evening, instead of the traditional goody bag for guests, planners were given reusable organic linen bags and invited to “shop” for fresh produce at a farmer’s market set up in the Fairmont for the event. Heston laughs, “It was funny seeing people leaving the hotel with bags filled to the brim with fresh produce.“

Being green isn’t rocket science. Every bit helps. In California, according to the state’s Integrated Waste Management Board, waste generation can be as high as 30 pounds per hotel room, of which 80 percent can be recycled. For business to rethink how they conduct their meetings can mean a lot in California and everywhere else. And, it’s a win-win situation: the company gets to looks good, without necessarily adding to the cost of an already scheduled event.

Happily, companies don’t have to book into far-flung locales to be green. While city-based events, which require less travel, are probably the most green, hoteliers have gone out of their way to accommodate clients. The final frontier on the environmental front is the bedroom. With 20 million Americans suffering from asthma and 70 million more with allergies, hotels are greening their accommodations so guests, whether they’re individual travelers or group participants, can get a good night’s sleep. Two Fairmont hotels in Vancouver, B.C.—the Fairmont Waterfront and Fairmont Airport—worked with an allergist at the University of British Columbia to turn half of one floor in each property into allergy sensitive environments. That meant removing feather pillows, changing the way rooms were cleaned, and altering the materials used in decor and amenities packages. Forget the notion of a futon on the floor; these allergy-sensitive rooms look like any other Fairmont room. Hilton Hotels has also developed a range of hypoallergenic rooms in their Chicago area hotels and in 2008 are spreading the initiative out across the chain. They are also building environmentally-friendly new hotels, like the Hilton Vancouver Washington, which has low energy consumption, and uses paints, carpets, and adhesives that reduce off-gassing which aggravates sensitivities in some guests.

Rock Resorts, which has nine properties and four more in development, has launched a range of initiatives to make stays and meetings more green, including a green meetings scheme with in-room recycling, carbon offset programs, sustainable food and beverage options, and environmentally-friendly decor in meeting rooms. Keeping in mind the importance of golf in teambuilding and fostering business relationships, they have converted five of their golf courses to Audubon standards. So even the company championship can be green. In addition, their “Give and Getaway” Volunteer Vacations, which allow guests to work on trail restoration projects in Colorado’s White River National Forest, can be employed as a type of green teambuilding event.

Today, going green is sophisticated enough not to embarrass the most image-conscious corporation. If anything, going green can boost a company’s image, fostering positive impressions among team members and clients, and, in no small part, helping the world. Not a bad day’s work.