The AEV/AEO/ESSA Sustainability Working Group, a collection of UK events industry associations, will be meeting on 20 March 2019 at Informa London for a special session with a sustainability workshop.
The workshop will be delivered by The Mice Machine, and sponsored by Olympia London.
Martin Cottrell (pictured), chair of the AEV/AEO/ESSA Sustainability Working Group, explained what members could look forward to: "The MICE Machine will be engaging our members directly to imagine what a sustainable industry looks like from their particular perspective, and bringing all these ideas together. We want to begin formulating an industry-wide, industry-led approach into more innovative and creative ways to set and meet sustainable objectives."
Siân Richards, business services & sustainability manager at Olympia London, explained how The MICE Machine had helped bring about transformative changes at the venue saying: "We enlisted The MICE Machine at Olympia London to help us develop our sustainability vision. Over the last two years this has developed into our 'Grand Plan', focusing on our community, the environment and empowering everyone within the organisation to make better, more sustainable choices and decisions.
Richards continued: "The work we have done with The MICE Machine has taken us beyond ISO 20121 and has been instrumental in effecting change amongst our suppliers and service partners too. When the Association of Event Venues approached the working groups to define their purposes and objectives for the coming year, I knew that The MICE Machine would be able to help with its workshop-centred, collaborative and objective-oriented approach.
"Olympia London had no hesitation in agreeing to support the workshop, to share the methods and approaches that have been such a success at the venue with sustainability personnel across the whole industry."
Ruth Holdroyd of The MICE Machine explained how its approach might differ from other sustainability consultancies and strategists, saying: "At The MICE Machine we understand the importance of building a commitment to sustainability at every level throughout an organisation. Sustainability efforts dictated from the top rarely achieve the intended effect.
"What works is bringing people together to discuss and suggest their own contributions to making a business or activity more sustainable, and then building these ideas and insights into a cohesive, realistic and meaningful strategy. You cannot give the same sustainability advice to two different businesses and expect it to work, every business is as different as the people who work within it. When everyone has a hand in the sustainability plan, it benefits from the support of the whole organisation."
