Microsoft Smart Buildings and Microsoft Store

One of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gasses in the U.S. is commercial buildings, and Microsoft is doing something about that. The facility team at Microsoft has achieved energy savings and reduced environmental impacts across 125 buildings stretched over 500 acres using a data-driven software solution that "connects and transforms a variety of city functions." Each building is controlled remotely utilizing Microsoft Cloud Services with anytime, anywhere access. During this tour see how the smart buildings on Microsoft's Redmond campus are an example of how IT is reimagining buildings to have less of an impact on the planet. The tour includes a stop at the visitor center and employee store where attendees can purchase Microsoft products. Attendees must register for one of the tour slots in addition to registering for the conference.

Microsoft Envisioning Center and Microsoft Store

Explore how Microsoft technologies could transform your life at work, at home and on the go in 5 - 10 years. Featuring immersive, scenario-driven demonstrations that range from productivity explorations to entertainment, the tour aims to engage customers and partners in a future vision of computing across devices and services. The tour includes experiences in three future environments. 1: A series of dynamic work places demonstrate how people will work and collaborate in new ways; 2: An "on the go" environment features augmented retail and personalized location-specific services; 3: a domestic environment highlights a set of family, entertainment and home-productivity scenarios. The tour includes a stop at the visitor center and employee store where attendees can purchase Microsoft products. Attendees must register for one of the tour slots in addition to registering for the conference. Attendees must also be prepared to sign a non-disclosure agreement to participate in this tour.

University of Washington Compostable Packaging Expo and Tour of Cedar Grove's Everett Composting Facility

Check out the cutting edge of compostable food service ware and packaging at the Compostable Packaging Expo on the University of Washington campus. Dozens of vendors and other industry representatives will have their product lines on display for local, regional and national restaurant owners, managers and chefs. Visitors to the Expo will get a good feel for where the industry is headed and the advances in compostable packaging in the four years since a Seattle ordinance required that all single-use food service packaging be compostable or recyclable. Talk to restaurant staff about how the city program works, and how it’s taken hold. Learn how the city’s collection and composting system works and test your knowledge of food packaging with the “Where Does It Go” – compostable, recyclable or garbage? – game.

Cedar Grove Composting’s Everett facility is a nationally recognized, state of the art composting facility that accepts urban organic feed stocks from residential and commercial sources throughout the greater Seattle area. On the tour, participants will see how raw feed stocks are transformed into high quality soils and mulches through a highly controlled, aerated in-vessel system. Technical experts will provide a general overview of the science of composting, and will explain how improperly sorted and sourced packaging can build up in the system and significantly impact compost quality and operational costs. Participants will also learn how Cedar Grove conducts compostability testing for the packaging manufacturing community, and will have the opportunity to visit the pile of non-compostable materials to see what gets screened out at the end of the process and has to go to the landfill. Attendees must register for this tour in addition to registering for the conference.

Behind the scenes at Safeco Field, home stadium of the Seattle Mariners

The sports industry has started stepping up to make sporting events more sustainable and the Seattle Mariners franchise has, among other accomplishments, achieved zero waste at its Safeco Field ballpark. On this tour, learn how the Mariners reached this goal. The tour will being in the interview room with a 20 minute presentation and then move out to the warning track and the dugout before visiting the recycling center and zero waste stations on the concourse. Attendees must register for this tour in addition to registering for the conference.

Waste Management Material Recovery Facility Tour and Presentation

Visit Cascade Recycling Center, the facility that processes recyclables for some of the most successful recycling programs in the U.S. WM staff will take you into the facility to explain the equipment, its limitations, and the impact of the changing waste stream on processing logistics and costs. See first-hand the investments made in technology and learn how the Chinese Green Fence has changed recycling forever.

As part of this tour, we will see the multi-faceted procedures WM has put in place to ensure that clean material is shipped to market. We’ll review the process WM undertook to identify the most prevalent contaminants in the recyclables, and the work done to created targeted outreach efforts to improve the quality of the incoming feedstock. Learn how Community Based Social Modeling (CBSM) principles work and can be used to ensure successful recycling programs