The Convention Centre Dublin (CCD), Ireland, announced that it has secured accreditation in Event Sustainability Management Systems – ISO 20121. The CCD is one of only three venues in Ireland to hold this accreditation.
Management says its vision is to make CCD Ireland’s most sustainable venue and a leading expert in sustainable event delivery in Europe. The CCD has identified four ambitions to achieve this:
- Carbon neutral by 2025
- ISO20121 by 2021
- Sustainable hospitality
- Eliminate single-use plastics by 2023
As part of the external audit process for ISO 20121, the CCD was recognised for its achievements including:
- The venue is supplied by 100% certified renewable electricity
- Single-use plastics removed from the venue’s cash catering offering
- The CCD held its first carbon-neutral event in 2021
- The CCD achieved Gold Healthy Venue accreditation in 2021
- Clients are offered the option to offset carbon emissions from their event by planting trees. To date, 300 indigenous trees have been planted.
Stephen Meehan, CEO of the CCD, said: “As the world’s first carbon-neutral constructed convention centre, the CCD is one of Europe’s most environmentally friendly venues and this accreditation demonstrates our commitment to long term sustainability and leading event sustainability in Ireland.”
Alan Gallagher, director of event operations at the CCD added: “We will continue to ensure that the venue leads and influences suppliers and clients to make the rights choices and come up with innovative sustainable ideas for events held at the CCD”.
On behalf of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), the Swiss-based certification company SGS awarded the accreditation. In addition to ISO20121, the CCD also holds Quality Standard ISO 9001 and Environmental Standard ISO 14001, as well as British Security Standard BS7499.
