Green Meetings Germany

This week I had the pleasure to give a keynote at Green Meetings Germany. This was the most important event so far in Germany about sustainability in the meetings, events and exhibitions industry. It was held in the World Conference Center in Bonn, which was the former home of the German Parliament before it was moved to Berlin.

The event was supported by

• United Nations
• Deutsche Bahn AG
• Europäischer Verband der Veranstaltungszentren e. V.
• German Convention Bureau
• CO2OL a brand of Forest Finance GmbH
• IMEX
• MCI / Green Meeting Industry Council
• Bonn Conference Partners
• Sustainable Bonn
• Steigenberger Hotel Berlin
• Weltklimakonferenz 2.0 – das 1. Weltklimaspiel
• World Conference Center Bonn
• World Conference Hotel Bonn

There was an excellent turn out of approx 250 people who came together to discuss the needs for standards and certifications in the meetings industry.

My presentation was focused in two parts

1. the business case for sustainability

2. the business case to not reinvent the wheel, but to adopt one or both of the international standards; BS8901 and the forthcoming ANSI APEX

[slideshare id=1110691&doc=090303bonnsustainabilityasabusinessstrategygubi3-090306092652-phpapp01]

I was supported with an excellent presentation from Nalan Yilmaz, the talented operations director of IMEX. She did a superb job explaining the leadership tactics of IMEX in greening their exhibition.

Standards

Both BS8901 and APEX are  officially recognised standards, authorised by International standards bodies. they are complementary and so will work very well together (more on that in another post)

It was very exciting to see such a good turnout and to see the motivation of the participants to implement standards. I just hope they dont create another standard and loose 2 to 3 years in the process.