Cankarjev dom – CD Cultural and Congress Centre Ljubljana has recently become one of the 42 members of IAPCO Plastics Pledge list. IAPCO Plastics Pledge provides organisations, including government-funded convention and visitor bureaux, events agencies, events venues and hotels and IAPCO congress organisers members with a measurable goal of reducing the use of single-use plastics at conferences, meetings and events and their offices. Cankarjev dom is member of IAPCO, the International Association of Proffesional Congress Organisers, since 1980 and, in fact, the only member of IAPCO in Slovenia.
In 2019, Cankarjev dom took measurable change when it managed to ban the use of 35,000 plastic bottles (0,5l) using glass units and drinkable tap water. While now, since taking the IAPCO Plastics Pledge, Cankarjev dom is aiming to surpass this number and ban all plastic from catering in their office and meetings they organise. The efforts are focused also on environmentally friendly conference badges and bags, and digital instead of print.
There are even Bonus Pledge points that Cankarjev dom received for its committment to making real change in the ocal meeting industry by encouraging local stakeholders and suppliers to sign the IAPCO Plastics Pledge. They also plan on doing an activity within their local meetings community to help reduce single-use plastic in the environment, and they have banned single-use plastic within their organisation. For its work on the centre for sustainability, Cankarjev dom was highly commended by Olivia Galun, Member Services Manager at IAPCO.
IAPCO Plastics Pledge is approved by Ticky the Turtle. And who is Ticky the Turtle? In 2018, for IAPCO’s 50th Anniversary, the ‘Not Just a Drop in the Ocean Campaign’ was launched with the mascot ‘Ticky the Turtle’ whose purpose was to promote the adverse effects that single-use plastics were having on the oceans and seas around the world. IAPCO felt that the meetings and events industry was, at that time, not as aware of this global issue as it should have been, so felt that a campaign to raise awareness to their membership of over 133 companies with combined workforce of over 9200 employees was important to do. Their members delivered over 18,660 total meetings around the world that year so the potential of single-use plastics being used and then discarded to enter into the oceans and onto beaches was massive.
The objective was to inspire 50 organisations to take the IAPCO Plastics Pledge, and commit to making real measurable change to their use of single-use plastic at their event and their organisations by the IAPCO Annual Meeting in Vancouver in February 2020. Tick the Turtle, together with the IAPCO Plastics Pledges does a great deal of support to the UN Strategic Development Goal (UN SDG) # 14 – Life Below Water. As Cankarjev dom – CD Cultural and Congress Centre Ljubljana is now the 42th of the 50 members on the list, also Cankarjev dom contributes to the world’s sustainability and future.
