2026 Commitment to Zero Waste in San Diego

Written By Matt Molinari

CRRA strives for sustainability by making the 2026 conference a zero-waste event. With the help of our greening committee, our venue hosts, business partners and exhibitors, we are working to conserve resources, prevent pollution and minimize waste.

We wish to recognize the efforts of our venue hosts – Sheraton San Diego Resort for their commitment to being an active member of our zero-waste campaign. We’d also like to recognize the City of San Diego and Republic Services who have been ever-present and helpful, and who’ve gone above and beyond to ensure our footprint is as small as possible. And thanks, also, to our exhibitors who’ve agreed to our inaugural “Pause before you Purchase” greening commitment; a pledge to make every effort to reduce their impact as well.

The CRRA Greening Committee, staff and board members have worked to ensure this year's event stays true to our mission; we all play a role. If you notice an issue that can be addressed; tell CRRA staff. We’ll work directly with our venue hosts, the city and Republic Services and all external vendors to act quickly and ensure every opportunity is taken to leverage reusables, reduce packaging, support edible food recovery, prevent food waste, and compost our food scraps.

Amazingly, the Sheraton venue already had waste reduction programs in place to lower their environment impact. These include: towels and bedding reuse, the ban of polystyrene cups, use of compostable cups and straws upon request only, overall reduction of single use plastics throughout the facility, water refill stations, LEED certification, and more. As always communal bowls and serving vessels will be used for food service, and local, vegetarian food options will be primarily selected for our served meals.

Some specific efforts we’d like to call out for 2026:

  • Sheraton has water access is every session room in the conference area but no water cups will be supplied. Be sure to bring your reusable water bottles.

  • Sheraton has in place green practices for housekeeping, room amenities, hvac/lighting, local and shared food sourcing and planning, composting, food recovery partner, and the list goes on.

  • Lanyards and name badge holders from last year will be repurposed/used for 2026.

  • Republic Services has partnered with Sheraton to provide new composting bins for front of house collection for our event. They were already providing back of house sorting/collection.

  • Republic will also provide landscaping compost prior to and after the event; sourced from Otay Park, which is also hosting a tour on Wednesday, Sep 2.

  • CRRA is partnering with Zero Waste San Diego to host two Re:make & Take Events – Sunday Welcome Reception activity and Tuesday afternoon activities.

  • So much more; too much to list here…

We encourage you all to hold each of us, and yourselves, accountable. Thank you to our volunteers who will assist in this effort. Thank you all for your commitment.

Resource documents provided by our partners:

Sincerely,

The 2026 Greening Committee:

Rachel Adell
Senior Associate - HF&H Consultants, LLC

Ciara Aw
Product & Zero Waste Specialist, SW + Hawaii - Eco-Products

Risa Baron
Manager, Municipal Sales - Republic Services

Melissa Corruthers
Senior Events Manager - Sheraton San Diego Resort

Andrea Deleon
Deputy Director - City of San Diego Environmental Services Department

Manuel Medrano
Environmental Services Manager, Office of Sustainability - City of Chula Vista

Polina Osipova
Recycling Specialist III City of San Diego Environmental Services Department

Danelle Bright
CRRA

Florence Torres
CRRA

Matt Molinari
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