Initiatives such as the #BeeSustain campaign underscore Copenhagen’s reputation as the Capital of Sustainable Meetings. And it’s winning prizes, too! Anyone who has ever attended a major international conference or meeting will almost certainly have paused for a moment to reflect uneasily on the likely environmental impact of the event. The sheer scale, volume and quantity of things – not to mention the accumulated air miles racked up by the attendees – can’t be good for the environment. Whichever way you look at it, there’s a huge amount of resources used – and a lot of wastage, too: everything from the paper and ink used in the marketing of the event and the registration to the post-event disposal of furniture and booths. Of course, conferences and events have to happen, but surely there’s a better way? Well, there is. And Denmark’s capital city Copenhagen is leading by example.

In recognition of its commitment to sustainability and green growth, Copenhagen was appointed European Official Green Capital in 2014. Not content to rest on its laurels, though, the aim now is to become the first carbon neutral capital city in the world by 2025. High ambition, indeed! But it’s by no means fanciful. Copenhagen is already a world leader in the consumption of organic food, more than half of Copenhageners commute by bicycle every day, the majority of its hotel rooms are eco-certified, a sizeable chunk of the electricity used in the city is wind generated… well, let’s just say: Copenhagen is green-obsessed.

So if you felt the occasional twinge of environmental guilt during the last event or meeting you attended, you almost certainly weren’t in Copenhagen – because Copenhagen, known globally as the ‘Capital of Sustainable Meetings’, does things differently. For one, it doesn’t just passively accept that the meetings industry must necessarily contribute to pollution and environmental damage. Instead, it actively seeks out ways to do things better and positively influence a meeting’s environmental footprint. Everything from low energy and water conservation programs to recycling and compost programs are second nature in Copenhagen. But it’s also about education and engagement, so that attendees take the sustainable message home with them. As far back as 2009 when the UN’s Climate Change Conference came to town, the event was certified to international eco-meeting standards, not to mention being an IMEX Green Gold Award Winner. And since then, things have moved forward.

One of the more recent and original initiatives was the #BeeSustain campaign. (Tweet reach of more than 2,5 million to date ) Launched by Wonderful Copenhagen Convention Bureau (with the support of VisitDenmark and others within the meetings sector in Copenhagen), its aim is to promote sustainable behaviour in the meetings industry – not just in Copenhagen or Denmark, but globally. The message was simple: if you’re organising an event, make it sustainable. It called on meetings professionals throughout the world to ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’.

The initiative was one of the three finalists for the ICCA Best Marketing Award 2014. This award – set up to recognise excellence and outstanding achievement when it comes to marketing a destination or product – looks for innovation, creativity, communication, effectiveness, research and rationale. Even better, Wonderful Copenhagen CVB was the 2014 winner of the ICCA Best PR Award, which recognises excellence in PR.

What is so special about the #BeeSustain campaign? Its simplicity, its effectiveness and its novelty. It presents the common bee as the symbol and carrier of the call for sustainability. When participants arrived at IMEX 2014, they were greeted by exhibitors literally buzzing around in bee costumes, distributing the latest news and marketing material on flower seeds paper. At the booths, attendees were treated to honey beer, which went down especially well! Underpinning all of this, though, was a very serious message. Despite being crucial to the eco system, bees are now an endangered species. This is due to intensive agriculture, climate change and disease. Bees need more flowers and less pesticides – unfortunately, though, things are moving in the opposite direction. At least a third of the world’s food production depends on pollination – if bees and other pollinators were to disappear tomorrow, the effect on food production would be devastating. The message impressed among attendees was the need for proactive, sustainable and eco-friendly measures – and, once again, the need for everyone to ‘be the change you want to see in the world’.

The call for responsibility and sustainability at meetings has a more subtle impact, too. It stimulates the atmosphere, adding momentum and energy to proceedings. So you’re planning your next event or meeting, think of sustainability and think of Copenhagen – it’s more than just the right way of doing things, it’s a better way of doing things. You can even get involved yourself by sharing best practices on Twitter using the #BeeSustain hashtag or visit www.beesustain.com , for more information.

How sustainability helps cut costs

A survey of MCI’s largest 50 clients revealed that 100% wanted to implement more sustainable elements, but were stopped by either a lack of knowledge, a failure of the suppliers to communicate their sustainability offering, or the perception/reality of the sustainable option being more expensive. But it is both responsible and economically viable to execute more sustainable conferences.

Some organizations believe they have to choose between the largely social benefits of developing sustainable solutions and the financial costs of doing so. But studies show that sustainability is a mother lode of organizational and technological innovations that yield both bottom-line and top-line returns. “Becoming environment-friendly lowers costs because companies end up reducing the inputs they use. In addition, the process generates additional revenues from better products or enables companies to create new businesses. Because those are the goals of corporate innovation, we find that smart companies now treat sustainability as innovation’s new frontier,” says Ram Nidumolu, Founder and CEO of InnovaStrat (source: Harvard Business Review).

There are ways to cut costs by encouraging your business partners to act sustainably too: Suppliers that use too much energy, water or materials, or produce more waste and carbon than necessary, are spending too much and passing those costs along. Reducing initiatives typically have rapid payback periods and may be among the lowest risk projects an organization can undertake.

Savings of 70 million Euros

Hosting a sustainable event does not equal overspending your budget. The 2012 Danish EU Presidency cost 35 million Euros, which was less than 1/3 of the costs of the previous Polish EU presidency. The savings were achieved by choosing partners, who focused on cost savings as well as sustainability and by using busses instead of limousines, removing expensive bottled water and giveaways, and using only locally grown food products.

“Embedding effective sustainability within and among enterprises can provide numerous corporate benefits, including competitive differentiation and positive brand image; cost efficiencies in energy, water and waste management; and potential for gaining share of new and growing market segments,” says Karen Butner, Global Supply Chain Management Lead, IBM Institute for Business Value (source: IBM).

Incorporating sustainability into your events

Sustainable Event Management (SEM) is the process of designing and organising an event following sustainable development principles in order to achieve strategic goals, which serve the economic, environmental and social interests of organisers, delegates and host communities.

Need to Know

Wonderful Copenhagen Convention Bureau

Contact: meetings@woco.dk

Tel.: +45 33257400

Twitter: @copenhagencvb