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Danish Sustainable Events Initiative and Three Squares Inc. announced as winners of the IMEX 2013 Green Meeting Award

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IMEXThe winner of the large meeting category for the IMEX/GMIC (Green Meeting Industry Council) Green Meeting Awards went to the Danish Sustainable Events Initiative for the European Union (EU) Presidency at last night’s IMEX Gala Dinner.

 

Taking the Award in the small to medium green meeting category was Three Squares Inc. for its Women in Green Forum (WIGF), which is the largest international conference series for women in environmental careers.

 

Presenting the awards, IMEX Group Chairman, Ray Bloom, offered high praise to both of the organisations. The Danish Sustainable Events Initiative was commended for its success in organising the first sustainable EU Presidency, which ran between January and June 2012. In turn Three Squares Inc. were congratulated for being the first event organisers in North America to achieve the ISO 20121 Standard for the August 2012 WIGF.

 

The IMEX/GMIC Green Meeting Award is presented annually in partnership with the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC). The Award sets stringent standards, judging applicants against their ability to demonstrate innovative efforts to significantly minimise the environmental impact of a meeting or conference. Senior industry experts judge the entries by examining a variety of success measures. They include energy efficiency, air and water quality, water conservation, waste minimisation and environmental purchasing criteria. Judges also ask applicants to explain their economic indicators, if and how their meeting helped commitment to change within the local community, and also how it aided conservation.

 

Accepting the award on behalf of the Danish Sustainable Events Initiative, Andreas Clausen-Boor, Head of Logistics for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated: “When we started the planning process in the midst of the financial crisis we had a clear vision to arrange the first ever sustainable EU presidency, with the ambition of making the presidency very cost efficient too. The entire team at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with our partners at the Danish Sustainable Events Initiative embraced the sustainable approach and put in an enormous effort to create one of the best and most innovative presidencies ever. Winning the IMEX Green Meetings Award is recognition of all the hard work that was put into organising one of the best, most sustainable and cost effective presidencies. But above all, it leaves a strong legacy of our vision of making the Danish sustainable approach a model for future presidencies. The Danish experience highlights the relationship between sustainability, delegate experience and costs: it is smarter and cheaper to be visionary and to arrange a sustainable conference than to follow the conventional path.”

 

The judges were particularly impressed with the sustainability focus of the EU Presidency which resulted in a saving of 300 Million Danish Krona (dkk), equivalent to $50 million. The total cost was approximately 200 million dkk, which compared to approximately 500 million dkk for the Swedish Presidency. 95% of this money was invested into the local Danish economy. The cost savings were achieved through various measures including careful meeting design to reduce and consolidate the number of meetings; a reduction in resources and building costs through the organisation of back-to-back meetings; focused procurement to consolidate meetings across only three venues and a reduction in the use and consumption of resources such as cars, merchandising, gifts and bottled water.

 

Collecting the small meetings award on behalf of Three Squares Inc., Jaime Nack, President, said: “As the first event organiser in North America to achieve conformity to the ISO 20121 Standard in the production of the Women in Green Forum, Three Squares Inc. is honoured and humbled to receive the prestigious IMEX/GMIC Green Meetings Award. We are proud of the groundbreaking work we’ve done in the green meeting space and it is truly an honor to be recognised on an international scale by such a distinguished group.”

 

The mission of the WIGF is to create a venue for sustainability professionals to develop the skills necessary for professional success, and to promote women’s leadership across the environmental industry.

 

The judging panel praised the event’s various sustainable event management practices. These included working to identify a local venue that operates under progressive environmental standards by using a rigorous Green Venue Checklist that reviews points such as green building practices, access to public transportation routes, energy use and water efficiency. Furthermore, the company partnered with EventPilot to go 100% paperless at the event. All programme, speaker and sponsor information was displayed online via the interactive mobile app and mobile website for BlackBerry users.

The post Danish Sustainable Events Initiative and Three Squares Inc. announced as winners of the IMEX 2013 Green Meeting Award appeared first on Travelandtourworld.com.


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