Jaime Nack

Jaime Nack (born February 20, 1976 in Columbia, Maryland) is an environmental consultant and marketing specialist who is known for her role as Director of Sustainability and Greening Operations for the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. Marking the first time in DNC history where measures were taken to reduce the environmental impact of the event on the host city, the greening effort was unprecedented in scale and has evolved into an industry case study for best practices in producing sustainable events.

2008 Democratic National Convention

The convention was held in Denver, Colorado, from August 25 to August 28, 2008, at the Pepsi Center. U.S. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, the nominee for President, gave his acceptance speech on August 28 at INVESCO Field. This was the first time in history that the Democratic National Convention Committee included a greening initiative and hired staff to oversee such an effort.

The mission was to produce the most environmentally sustainable political convention in modern American history. The comprehensive greening plan was designed to incorporate sustainability principles in all aspects of Convention planning, event days and restoration. The programs ranged minimizing waste via recycling and composting stations to measuring the event's carbon footprint.

The Denver office was centrally located in an Energy Star building at the hub of the city’s mass transit lines. Over 65% of the staff walked or biked to work daily. Motion-sensor light switches and energy-efficient T8 fluorescent bulbs were installed. The walls were painted with low VOC paints, and work stations include repurposed and recycled materials. Staff used energy efficient computers and appliances, locally-produced compostable utensils in the break room, non-toxic cleaners in the restrooms and a building-wide single stream recycling program. The computers are set to print double-sided on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper and staff recycled all used print cartridges.

The plan also included comprehensively calculating the carbon footprint of the Convention. Energy conservation measures were worked into planning for the official Convention venues. The waste diversion plan included stations for recycling and composting set throughout the Pepsi Center and the Colorado Convention Center. Each station was staffed by at least one Green Team volunteer and there were over 1,000 volunteers participating over the four-day period. Organic materials collected through the system were composted, degraded within weeks and returned to the soil.

Career

Jaime Nack is the Founder and President of Three Squares Inc.. Nack is one of Los Angeles' leading environmental consultants and marketing strategists, having produced and promoted a variety of the city's most prominent and widely-attended events over the last 15 years. Ms. Nack's extensive experience in event production includes producing several large-scale conferences and music festivals which have attracted more than 250,000 attendees. Three Squares Inc. specializes in environmentally-themed events and works with agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency‎ (US EPA) and South Coast Air Quality Management District to implement their outreach strategies. Three Squares Inc. worked on marketing the Green Tech Connect Forum on behalf of the South Coast AQMD.

Three Squares Inc. also works closely with local city governments including the City of Santa Monica, City of Beverly Hills, City of San Jose and City of Los Angeles.

Green meetings and events

Through her work on greening the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Nack became actively involved in developing national green standards for green meetings and events. She joined the effort launched by the US EPA, ASTM and the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC) as the Vice-Chair of the Transportation Committee. The standards are being developed with committee members from all aspects of the event planning arena and will go through the ASTM process before being rolled out to the public.

Nack and her firm Three Squares Inc. are leading the efforts to launch a Southern California Chapter of the GMIC to engage green events professionals from Fresno, CA to the Mexican Border.

Board memberships

Nack is on the Board of Directors of the Westside Special Olympics. She is also on the Advisory Board of ArtsEarth Partnership.

Educational experience

Ms. Nack has a Master's degree in Public Policy/International Trade from UCLA, where she also earned her Bachelor's degree in International Economics with a minor in Urban Planning.

References

1. The Greenest Democratic National Convention of All Time - Denver.Org

2. Democratic National Convention Committee Aims For Green Gathering - Article in Information Week.

3. Denver and the DNC: A Partnership for Success Case Study.

4. Green Meetings in Action: How a Convention Can Change a Destination Presentation at GMIC Annual Meeting

5. ArtsEarth Partnership Advisory Board Members.

6. Westside Special Olympics Board Members.

External links

1. Three Squares Inc. 3. Green Events 101 4. Green Event Network