Innovation in Sustainability Awards 2022 now open
Applications are now invited for the IMEX – EIC Innovation in Sustainability Award, which is presented annually at the IMEX in Frankfurt Gala Dinner.
The award is open to multi-stakeholder teams and collaborative projects that support the meetings industry by driving innovation and leveraging sustainable practices in areas such as environmental, social justice, inclusion and thriving economies. The deadline to apply is 31 January, 2022.
Previous winners include GDS-Index (now GDS Movement), the Global Climate Action Summit, SMG Salt Lake: Salt Palace Convention Center & Mountain America Exposition Center and Radisson Blu. Further information and application forms can be found here.
MeetGreen partnership expands to IMEX in Frankfurt
IMEX will extend its existing partnership with a sustainable event management agency, MeetGreen, to include a detailed environmental impact analysis of IMEX in Frankfurt starting in 2022.
The two companies have worked hand in hand for the last 10 years on IMEX America, each year setting higher targets for improvements in areas such as reducing food waste, eliminating single-use plastic, the use and reuse of show materials, specifying more sustainable materials, adopting clean energy and more.
Each year IMEX has made its environmental progress – or challenges – public with a detailed report after each IMEX America. The new partnership will extend this transparent annual reporting process to include future editions of IMEX in Frankfurt.
IMEX Group CEO, Carina Bauer, also announced at the close of IMEX America that the company would offset 100% of carbon emissions from its Mandalay Bay Convention Center activities for the duration of the 2021 show. The offset was built upon the foundation provided by MGM Resorts which guaranteed that 30% of IMEX’s onsite energy came directly from the company’s local solar array.
Funds from the offset have been directed to advancing both the Tribal Renewable Energy Fund, which benefits Native American renewable energy projects in the Western United States and landfill methane capture in Davis County Utah.
Net Zero Carbon Events pledge
Earlier this year the IMEX Group also signed up to Net Zero Carbon Events, an industry initiative to address climate change. This means that by the end of 2023 IMEX must publish its pathway to achieving net-zero by 2050, including an interim target in line with the Paris Agreement’s requirement to reduce global GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions by 50% by 2030.
As Nalan Emre, IMEX Director and project lead on IMEX’s Net Zero Carbon pathway explains: “We see our commitment to the Net Zero Carbon pledge as a natural extension of our values and legacy around sustainability. It’s not going to be easy, innovation and lasting progress rarely are, but we’re determined to push ahead and also to share what we learn along the way. As we’ve remarked in the past, the IMEX team ‘bleeds green’. We’re not in this for kudos. We’re in this because we believe it’s the right thing to do for our industry, and more importantly for our planet.”
More information on IMEX’s green credentials and activities is available here.