German travel managers at the spring conference of the VDR voted to hold “carbon neutral” meetings in future
The 250 delegates at the two day meeting in Dresden agreed that future events of the business travel association should as eco-friendly as possible.
This will include online agendas and as little use of paper as possible.
Attendees will also pay an off-setting fee for any carbon footprint the event causes.
A spokesman for the VDR said ultimately it would hold its spring and autumn conferences in green hotels.
The association did have a policy of certifying hotels.But the destination chosen for an event might not have such hotels with sufficient accommodation or “green.”
"We have not arrived at this stage yet," the spokesman said.
The delegates also voted to set up a joint venture with the University of Applied Science at Worms to offer an MBA in business travel.
Previously German universities have offered MBA courses in tourism but this is the first for business travel.
The first course will start in the autumn.
The meeting also voted to increase members' fees in order to employ a full time secretary for the non-profit making part of the association.
The limited company which is owned and operated by the VDR has full time staff but the other section so far have not employed any.
Berlusconi victory 'ends AF KLM's Alitalia hopes'
The victory of Silvio Berlusconi is likely to have ended hopes of a successful Air France KLM take over of Alitalia.
The new Italian prime minister made clear during the campaign that he favoured an "Italian" solution to the chronically loss-making national carrier.
He regularly spoke out again the sale to AF KLM, on one occasion describing such a deal as “offensive for our country.”
Both the then board of Alitalia and the out going centre left government backed the AF KLM rescue plan as the only realistic offer.
Under the deal, AFKLM were buy out Alitalia's shareholders including the Italian government's 49.9% stake but would scale down operations at Malpensa Aiport, Milan and make about 2,000 workers redundant.
AF KLM walked out on the negotiations after failing to get the support of the Italian trades unions.Mr Berlusconi appears to be opening the way for a new bid by the Italian low cost carrier Air One whose first bid was rejected by the outgoing government.
But the airline which is losing €1m a day, is already sliding towards bankruptcy.
Officials of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said they had met with Alitalia representatives this week to discuss what might happen if the airline went into administration.
Mr Anthony Concil, a spokesman for IATA, said: "We have informed Alitalia of the process we would follow should they go into administration."
We would either suspend them from settlement systems or require a security guarantee."