Event planners continue to seek out innovative ways to ensure their meetings are sustainably run. That’s particularly important for a destination like Monterey, Calif. With beloved sites including Big Sur, Carmel by the Sea and Pebble Beach, protecting natural surroundings is a vital part of any gathering held here.

To understand these efforts, we spoke with Teresa Savage, senior vice president of business operations for See Monterey, the destination’s marketing organization. She discusses how sustainability has been a priority for the organization for decades, but so has evolving with new developments and demands from event planners — ensuring the destination is working with groups to put the most effective eco-friendly efforts into practice.

We discuss what’s next for sustainable events and, as Savage puts it, planners can “ensure that all travel paths contribute to a better quality of place and leaving the destination better than it was before.”