On 11 November 2022, the Net Zero Carbon Events initiative officially launched its Roadmap, designed to aid suppliers, venues, and businesses in their journey to becoming Net Zero by 2050.
On the launch, Kai Hattendorf, managing director and CEO of UFI, said: “This is the biggest, most inclusive action ever from our industry. At COP26 we just got started with our pledge and a lot of momentum. Now, at COP27, we are launching the Roadmap.”
According to the initiative, the Roadmap was designed to help event professionals and venues define a pathway towards sustainability, by following best practices and implementing measurements into their efforts.
In doing so, the goal is to provide standard metrics for measuring the carbon footprint of events and avoid duplication of efforts where possible.
As measurements were mentioned by several speakers who attended both in person and virtually, Hattendorf commented: Measurement is key – without it, you can’t track progress. The challenge in our sector is that every event is different. It’s essential to take a united approach."
Participants included Senthil Gopinath, ICCA CEO; Derar Almanaseer, director of strategy and investment at ADNEC; Helen Sheppard, sustainability director at RX; Edwin Van der Venner owner and chief innovation and sustainability officer at beMatrix; and James Rees, ExCeL London executive director for conferences and events and ICCA president.
According to Hattendorf, by 2028 the initiative aims to: “have models for implementation, successful pilots to announce and share, and we will have companies beginning to report their progress into the framework."
Speakers expressed that many businesses and venues are at different stages of their sustainability journey, with varying budgets that provide differing restrictions case-by-case.
Rather than using the initiative and Roadmap to enforce measures that penalise suppliers, businesses, and venues that can only work within their means, the speakers emphasised that the primary takeaways going forwards should be:
- ‘Start simple’ by focusing on obvious changes first
- Encourage buy-in across the company
- Apply measurements of carbon footprints and establish a baseline
- Educate stakeholders
- Join the initiative as soon as possible, for the industry to work through challenges together
Following the launch, Hattendorf stated that the next step for the Net Zero Carbon Events team is to turn items in the Roadmap into tangible action items over the next 12 months – in the leadup to COP28.
The initiative
The Net Zero Carbon Events initiative, launched at COP26 in August 2021, now has 400 supporting organisations from 55 countries. Additionally, 225 operators have signed the Net Zero Carbon Events pledge. Pledge signatories commit to providing their organisation’s pathway to achieve Net Zero by 2025 at the latest (in line with the Paris Agreement); collaborate with partners, suppliers, and customers to drive change; measure GHG emissions according to industry best practice; and report on their progress every two years at least.
In October 2022, Net Zero Carbon Events, established by The Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC), provided an official update for IMEX America attendees, coverage of which can be found here.
The Roadmap
Net Zero Carbon Events have launched the Roadmap on its website as a resource which can be found here.
