The discussion around sustainability in the events industry has been heating up (no pun intended) in recent months as the industry-wide Net Zero Carbon Events initiative was launched last year and many organizations got on board.
While this is a huge step in the right direction, there have also been questions raised about how the industry plans to track and benchmark its carbon emissions in order to achieve the net zero goal. This is an ongoing process that various software companies and event organizations are working to address, but overall, it’s very much on each organization to take the initiative to decrease the carbon impact of their events and pursue relevant certifications.
Informa’s New Hope Network is an example of an organization actively working towards this goal as it will be pursuing Climate Impact Partners’ CarbonNeutral Certification for the first time for its upcoming 2022 Natural Products Expo East, which is taking place at the end of September in Philadelphia.
Going carbon neutral will entail reducing carbon emissions as much as possible, as well as purchasing ICROA-approved carbon offsets after the event to offset the emissions that the event does produce. The Carbon Neutral Certification verifies that events, companies, products, etc. are carbon neutral in accordance with the CarbonNeutral Protocol, a global standard for carbon neutral programs.
"Every year we push for further improvements that put sustainability and our environment at the forefront of our shows and our business. Together with the natural products community we can ensure that our events are as sustainable as possible and help reduce any unavoidable impacts," said Lacey Gautier, Vice President of Events at New Hope Network, in a statement.
Other event organizations are similarly making inroads on sustainability this year. ExCeL London, for example, announced that it would be offsetting all travel emissions generated by attendees of The Meeting Show, which took place at the end of last month. It’s encouraging to see so many sustainability initiatives throughout the industry, which will hopefully continue to aggressively lower the climate impact of events.