EnviroWonk writer Samantha Hulkower is blogging from the WIREC conference this week. We're glad she's there instead of here.

Tuesday was the first day of the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference, held in our nation's capital at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, which according to conference materials is the "most energy efficient building of its size on the east coast." So we were off to a promising start.

WIREC seems to take sustainability seriously: Composting food scraps, donating leftover food to the DC Foodbank, purchasing supplies locally when possible, utilizing recycled, organic, or postindustrial materials to make badges, handouts, cups, etc., and most impressively, forgoing plastic water bottles for water coolers and fountains. It's nice to see consistency.

Upon registration we were loaded with swag. Don't be too envious -- it's not exactly like the Oscars. We got a surprisingly useful canvas messenger bag, chocked full of tons of brochures, pamphlets, and other paper products of companies exhibiting. In following the conference's sustainability theme, they will be perfect for lining our bird's cage or recycling.

The trade show floor was abuzz with people exchanging business cards and flirting with young women at the booths. In a corner was a screen showing one of the ministerial conferences, but no one seemed to care much about that. Occasionally we would see an important-looking person (as evident by the trail of sycophants and big, burly men with earpieces) on the trade show floor, but it seemed that most people were just interested in getting a free pen or tote bag from the various exhibitors.

The ministry events kicked off with "Welcome and Introductions" (we wonder if they did any icebreakers, like where you pass around a roll of toilet paper and everyone should take as many pieces as they want, then you find out that you have to say one thing about yourself for every square?). That was followed by an hour and a half of "Opening Statements" (suddenly we are very glad we couldn't get in), followed by such stimulating topics as "Defining the Issues", "Benefits of Renewable Energy" and the vague-but-intriguingly titled "Straight Talk Session".

Today we hope to actually visit some of the exhibitors and report back on any interesting new technology, and how many pens we manage to collect.