Sustainable events are becoming a priority for organizations, but many are still struggling to turn their plans into practical action. A new guide from Radisson Hotel Group and GDS-Movement aims to help Associations and Professional Congress Organizers (PCOs) close that gap with practical tools, destination data and ways to measure progress.
The guide, titled “Accelerating Sustainable & Regenerative Events: A Guide for Associations & PCOs”, was presented to industry stakeholders in Brussels. It is designed to help organizations include sustainability in the planning, delivery and reporting of their events.
The need for practical guidance is clear. According to the findings used in the guide, 66% of Associations consider sustainability highly important, but fewer than 34% have made it part of their operations. Only 3% say they have an advanced sustainability program.
For Associations, sustainability can also be difficult to manage because they often organize several events in different destinations. Each event may involve different venues, suppliers and planning schedules, making it harder to apply the same standards and measure results consistently.
“The industry does not have a sustainability awareness problem; it has an implementation challenge,” said Inge Huijbrechts, Chief Sustainability and Security Officer at Radisson Hotel Group. She said the guide is intended to give planners practical tools and frameworks that can help turn sustainability goals into actions.
Event organizers face several obstacles when trying to improve their sustainability performance. These include concerns about additional costs, limited access to reliable sustainability data, fragmented supplier networks and a lack of clear guidance on how to put sustainability plans into practice.
The guide argues that individual measures are not enough on their own. Sustainable events require cooperation between Associations, destinations, venues and suppliers. This is particularly important for organizations that run annual conferences, congresses and meetings across different locations.
Destinations have an important role in this process because they can provide information that helps event organizers make better decisions before choosing where and how to hold an event.
The GDS-Index, which is used by destinations to benchmark and improve their sustainability performance, assesses destinations using 74 qualitative and quantitative indicators. These indicators are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council Destination Criteria.
Guy Bigwood, CEO and Chief Changemaker of GDS-Movement, said destinations can help speed up the move towards more sustainable and regenerative events by measuring their own performance and making useful information available to event organizers.
The new guide identifies five areas where Associations and PCOs can take practical action. These include working with destination partners earlier in the planning process, choosing suppliers with recognised sustainability credentials, including social impact initiatives in event design, using lower-carbon transport options for delegates and stakeholders, and introducing systems to measure and report sustainability performance.
For organizations managing several events, these measures can also provide a more consistent way to approach sustainability across different destinations and suppliers.
The partnership between Radisson Hotel Group and GDS-Movement is intended to give the meetings and events industry a more practical approach to sustainability. Rather than focusing only on long-term ambitions, the guide puts greater emphasis on planning, cooperation, measurement and actions that can be applied to real events.
Radisson Hotel Group has also been developing sustainability initiatives across its hotel portfolio, including Verified Net Zero and the implementation of Hotel Sustainability Basics. The company says it will continue working with Associations, destinations and other industry partners to support more responsible events.
