Less Conversation More Action » green destinations

The Business case for Sustainability in tough times

Guy Bigwood — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:46:10 +0000

Following on my Michaels post earlier, I wanted to attached a presentation that we created to really define the business case for sustainability in the meetings industry. The presentation details the opportunities and costs benefits using a whole list of research data collected by us and many of the global top publications and consulting organisations.

Its prepared in a generic way and so is very relevant for agencies, planners, suppliers and destination manager.

In the last week I delivered it to a packed house at the Costa Del Sol Convention Bureaus annual innovation forum and in Lisbon at ExpoEvents.

Remember: Greenwashing is ’Sly’, not cool

Michael Luehrs — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 09:15:07 +0000

In spite of a the litany of columns, reports and studies on the topic of Greenwashing, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwash), it seems that confusion ensues, resulting in more unsubstantiated claims which only serve to make the market more jaded and fussy with those that make them. I think the causes can often be traced to over-enthusiastic marketing teams who forget that what you do matters more than what you say. For these teams and others like them, I offer the following helpful memory device:

Responsible communication is Clive Owen. Children of Men, Clive Owen, especially.

Discounted by many, dogged and committed, often indelicate, the guy backs up his statements and pretty much single-handedly saves the world. No pretentiousness, just results. Action first, communication second. Have you seen this movie? You must.

Greenwashing, then, is Sylvester Stallone, let’s say in Rambo III.

Bless him for his energy and creativity, there’s a lot more bluster than substance here. Overly produced and with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, his performance is wholly unbelievable. He phones it in. The result is a lot of irritation and an immediately forgettable product.

Both get attention, but which would you rather be? Cool and current and relevant and admired? Or somebody… well, somebody used as an unfavorable comparison?

Not that you’ll ever need more than this mental image, here’s some links to deeper research on the topic:

http://www.terrachoice.com/Home/Six%20Sins%20of%20Greenwashing

http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/97/summit/greenwash.html

http://www.futerra.co.uk/downloads/Greenwash_Guide.pdf

Creating and Marketing Sustainable Destinations

Guy Bigwood — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:30:52 +0000

With the growing trend of sustainability, many destinations are now preparing themselves as “green meeting destinations”. In 2008, we increasingly started to work with DMOs and CVBs who wanted to go green. Not surprisingly cities are seeing that green has financial, branding and motivational benefits.

The following presentation highlights the high level findings of some introductory research into the green pioneering cities. We extrapolated the best practice and top ideas from these and others examples, and then created a strategic sustainable destination framework. We are now using this in our consulting work, and it is helping to speed up strategic planning and implementation of operational and marketing programs.