Sustainability Is Definitely On The Agenda In The Meetings And Events Industry
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In the early quarter of 2020, I was trying to get a coalition of industry leaders together to get sustainability on the agenda for 2020 and had lots of long chats and passionate phone calls with Scott Maclean of Green Tourism to see what we could do that would be industry-specific to Meetings and Events.
Don't get me wrong, our wonderful industry is very sustainably focused but it all felt a bit fragmented. Venues and event organisers were all doing their own thing and I remember a fantastic video given to me by Kate Blythe of Accor that really showed what is being done and could be done, you can see it here.
Sustainability Moments for Meetings
I found this very motivational when I first saw it and left the BTA meeting with a spring in my step determined to do something about sustainability recognition in the Meetings and Events industry.
Roll forward a few months and we are in the vortex of a global pandemic that decimated the hospitality and events sector shutting down venues and hotels across the globe.
We were told to stay at home, and although some countries escaped the worst of the virus the UK took the full force of its effects on its people and business. For the first time in a long time, the skies over major cities were clear, the famous smog over Bombay fell away and the whole beauty of the city could be seen.
The dominant sound in places like Reading and Slough were not of 747 jets tracking their way into Heathrow but of the native songbirds of the area and as many people said the planet had a chance to breathe. Carbon emissions dropped, fossil fuel consumption fell and the world felt like it was a new place, fresh and inspiring. Then in the late summer of 2020, the whole world went into recovery mode with traffic slowly building and people now focused on building back their business and sustainability might have been easily put back on the shelf. Then came lockdown 2.0 closely followed by 3.0 for the UK and with the gloomy winter of the northern hemisphere life got really tough for businesses and peoples mental health came into the spotlight.
As April 2021 arrived in the UK people were once again focused on their second recovery and trying to rebuild their business, but then this phrase 'build back better' started to reverberate across the blogs of the world and the airwaves of the media. So when I got the call from Juliet Price and Leigh Cowlishaw at the HBAA about a session they were running about Building Business Better and wanted to focus on sustainability and could I take part, not even time for a heartbeat and I said yes.
Sustainability was on the agenda, would this have some momentum, can we really make a difference? For me this event on the 6th May 2021 was the start of a movement that is really now gaining momentum, we were not just taxiing to the runway, we were buckled up and ready for takeoff. The event was a huge success and the industry had certainly changed in the last year with new initiatives arriving, people to help and support and a real desire to make business better and sustainable.
Green Meetings And Events
The HBAA hosted an event with Ben Quarell from Isla that was founded mid-pandemic in August 2020 offering a not for profit service for those businesses wanting to re-focus on sustainability. Also on the session was another new arrival from February 2020 Andrew Perols of Greengage with the EcoSmart accreditation for venues and agencies.
Adding further support to this whole green initiative event was Deborah Heather from Quality In Tourism outlining what their REST accreditation could do for not just places, but people and the planet. This is what I found refreshing about the whole approach that this was beyond my original thinking, people weren't just looking at a bit of recycling of plastic and cardboard all the schemes were looking at the wider picture and driven by the 17 Goals set out by the UN this was the big picture, global solution thinking. So what about Green Tourism, where were they, stealing the show! Scott Maclean made an impassioned presentation at the event about Green Tourism and what it had achieved in the last 24 years and then announced they were launching Green Meetings on Monday June 7th 2021.
A scheme specific for our industry and that the 700 hotels that they already had accredited under Green Tourism would be automatically assessed for Green Meetings. Clearly, their founder Laura Nicolas and Scott had been busy during the lockdown and listened to the feedback from Jane Longhurst at the MIA and the rest of the industry and developed a scheme fit for purpose. To me this was great news as in my experience never does one shoe fit all so it gave venues the choice of EcoSmart from Greengage, REST from Quality in Tourism and Green Meetings from Green Tourism, and all of them reasonably priced and very accessible.
The rest of the next few weeks was a bit of a green whirlwind to be honest, with the M&IT magazine dedicating its June edition to Sustainability and then closely followed by the business travel news.
On Monday 7th June 2021 Green Tourism launched its Green Meetings accreditation with support from Aileen Crawford from Glasgow Convention Bureau who gave us case studies of where procurement is specifically looking at the sustainability of not just a venue but a whole city to make its choice for the next big live event.
Aaron Mckeen of the EICC outlined how they became Gold with Green Tourism and the first venue for Green Meetings and the steps they are taking now and in the future which are underpinned by 17 goals outlined by the UN. Rory Archibald who is with Visit Scotland gave us a global view of how Scotland stacks up so well compared to the rest of the world and how Visit Scotland is using the sustainability accreditations of the country as a tool to win business.
Sustainability in Travel and Events
Hot on the heels was Greengage with its Sustainability in Travel and Events webinar on Thursday 10th June 2021 with quite a brilliant lineup of speakers including the organisation's founder Andrew Perols and a couple of stellar speakers. Anna Wolfram from Custard Communications gave a great session on how to tell the world what you are doing in the sustainability arena and how to keep it on the agenda for buyers and make them recognise what you are doing.
Andy Byron told us the story of Teapigs and how sustainability has been one of the founding pillars of the business; did you know with household tea bags you are pouring water on a plastic bag each time, not with Teapigs of course, so interesting what can be achieved with your most frequently drunk beverage.
Then there was the show-stealer - Richard Smith from Wyboston Lakes - what a venue and definitely not new to the whole idea of sustainability. I would have to write a whole blog about what they are doing. Big things like using greywater, changing energy suppliers and even installing a wind turbine! To little things that we can all do, no more buffets, it's end a plated service to reduce food waste, electronic Spa registration forms on iPads saving 36 reams of paper a year and supporting local food banks and charities with the excess food.
Richard delivered a master class in what a venue can achieve and he delivered it with such business professionalism and made no apology for making changes that might be difficult for the customer to change to, but were better for the people, planet and place.
Hilton South Pole
Sustainability is definitely on the agenda for Meetings and Events and is here to stay, just today I had an update from Nicola Chapman from Hilton hotels with their carbon offset program with South Pole and another from the PR team at Etc Venues about the organisation joining the SME Climate Hub.
As the world recovers from Covid and sets out a way to live with it moving forward, it's good to know that the planet is getting the focus it needs and with a new captain at the helm of the USA who is committed to climate change it will be interesting to see what comes out of the Cop26 Event.
When Joe Biden arrives in Glasgow in November he will get a sustainable welcome and hopefully can bring some significant positive commitments to the climate change programme. And what are we doing at venuedirectory.com? We are going through the accreditation process with all 3 organisations, well you need to walk the walk if you are going to talk the talk. We will list all the meeting venues from Green Meetings, EcoSmart and REST and provide the biggest directory of sustainable venues available to professional meetings and we will continue to support and champion the need for better sustainability in the Meetings and Events venues.