Our partnership with TerraCycle® makes it possible to divert waste by recycling things that are not accepted by curbside services. Hard-to-recycle trash can be deposited in the Zero Waste Boxes with the corresponding waste stream found throughout the event venue. TerraCycle is an international and award-winning waste management company with a mission to eliminate the idea of waste. 

We have partnered with South Pole to provide climate offsets on your behalf for VERGE 22. We’ll calculate the emissions of all our attendees for the entire event by asking you information about your travel as well as accounting for venue energy use, food and other factors. South Pole will then offset those emissions via a selection from the world's largest portfolio of carbon projects to protect the planet and transform lives.

By investing in carbon offset projects with South Pole, you are taking immediate action on greenhouse emissions. We recommend it as one part of a broader, integrated carbon management strategy.

We are teaming up with One Tree Planted to plant 4,000 trees on behalf of our attendees! These trees will benefit a reforestation project in Siskiyou County, California that was impacted by forest fire. The project will restore and replant 234 acres of forest that was burned, while also contributing numerous ecological and community benefits. Reforesting this area will reduce post wildfire erosion, create jobs and enhance water quality and quantity. It will also help restore wildlife habitat. The Grey Wolf, previously hunted to extinction within the state over 100 years ago, recently returned to the area and depends on large landscapes and healthy ecosystems for survival, this project will help restore and protect their habitat.

We'll balance VERGE 22's water footprint with the help of Bonneville Environmental Foundation and Change the Course, restoring approximately 820,000 gallons of freshwater to critically depleted ecosystems in Merced County. Change the Course is a first-of-its-kind initiative that brings together the public, corporations and on-the-ground conservation organizations to raise awareness about freshwater issues, balance water footprints and directly support water stewardship projects. Change the Course is the leading corporate water restoration and engagement campaign. The initiative has supported over 150 water projects across 26 U.S. states, Canada and Mexico; and restored over 28 billion gallons of water.

We're partnering with Copia to redistribute all of our surplus food to nonprofits in the San Jose community. In America today, 40% of the food we produce goes wasted, while 1 in 6 people are food insecure. What this means: hunger in our country is not a scarcity problem, it's a logistics problem. Copia is the first technology-enabled food recovery solution. They've built industry-leading logistics to solve hunger and food waste at scale, and GreenBiz is proud to be part of the solution.

Since 2013, VERGE events have utilized 100% renewably-powered microgrids to help power our live events. Each microgrid is built on-site using a combination of off-the-shelf components from startups and leading solution providers. Tours will be available throughout the event to learn about the interoperability, resilience and radical efficiency of these technology solutions available today. 

Learn more about the VERGE microgrid here.

In the place of printed programs, the CrowdCompass app offers the best option for accessing the program on-site, connecting with fellow attendees and keeping up with all that VERGE 22 has to offer. Be sure to download the app or access it on your desktop to view the most up-to-date event program. By using the conference app, you are helping to reduce paper use at VERGE 22. Thank you! Click here for instructions to download the app.  

Team San José, the Convention Center and the Cultural Facilities are committed to supporting the City of San José’s Pathway to Carbon Neutrality. From recycling (191 diverted tons of waste in 2021) to using Green Seal-certified cleaning products to saving 365,000 gallons of water annually by closing the hot water loop, the SJCC is prioritizing sustainability to make green meetings easy.

We are partnering with Impossible Foods to offer some delicious plant-based alternatives to resource-intensive meat products such as beef. The mission of Impossible Foods is to restore biodiversity and reduce the impact of climate change by transforming the global food system. To do this, they’re making delicious, nutritious, affordable and sustainable meat from plants. Compared to conventional ground beef, the Impossible Burger® reduces environmental impacts in four key impact categories -- 87% less water, 96% less land, 89% fewer GHG emissions, and 92% less aquatic pollutants.

We've partnered with Watershed, the enterprise climate platform, to measure the carbon footprint of our business operations and our large, in-person events. Watershed's mission is to help decarbonize the global economy by giving companies the tools and services they need to take meaningful action on their greenhouse gas emissions. Their platform allows businesses like ours to measure and analyze their complete carbon footprint, take action to reduce and remove those emissions, and report on progress to stakeholders and regulators. Watershed helps companies around the world turn their net zero ambitions into reality, fast.

The Physicians Committee’s culinary specialist collaborated with San Jose Convention Center culinary team to create delicious plant-based options including selections from the Universal Meals program that are plant-based and void of the top nine allergens.

We encourage you to bring your reusable water bottle to reduce dishwashing and waste on site, and take public transportation to the Convention Center and surrounding events when possible to reduce emissions.