UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry, has named international exhibition organiser Easyfairs as the winner of the 2024 UFI Sustainable Development Award.
The UFI Sustainable Development Award aims to honour those who have implemented innovative and results-oriented initiatives, demonstrating excellence and fostering growth in the sector.
The topic for this year’s award was ‘Best example of sustainability integration into business proposals’, and Easyfairs’ submission covered both the intrinsic sustainability of their model and their overall ESG plan.
Edwin Van der Vennet, chair of this year’s jury, said: “Congratulations to Easyfairs for their very comprehensive and inspiring case. Their systematic, data-driven and widespread approach to tackling sustainability establishes a culture of sustainability that can serve as an example to many in the industry. The jury also recognised two other finalists for their strong entries: Jaarbeurs and RX France.”
Nil Sönmez, chief sustainability and customer experience officer at Easyfairs, added: “We are honoured to be recognised by UFI as the recipient of the 2024 Sustainable Development Award. This is a huge vote of confidence for the team members across our organisation who are shaping and implementing countless sustainability initiatives. Their collaborative efforts demonstrate that you can pursue sustainable targets, such as reducing carbon footprint, while improving the unique experiences delivered by face-to-face events.”
In addition to the entries from the two other finalists – ‘Accelerating sustainability at our trade shows and events’ from Jaarbeurs (The Netherlands), and ‘Our sustainability strategy in action’ from RX France, the jury also acknowledged several entries selected as best practices in the first round of the competition: Aditus (Germany), BITEC (Thailand), Comexposium (France), CQEXPO (China), Fiera Milano in partnership with Venditalia (Italy), IFEMA (Spain), Javits Center (USA), Procédés Chénel International (France), RX Africa (South Africa), Songdo ConvensiA (South Korea), TAITRA (Taiwan) and TIF-HELEXPO (Greece).
All entries listed above are available for download on the UFI website, and a webinar to showcase the entries of the three finalists will be organised in September.
For more information about UFI’s awards, visit www.ufi.org/awards.
The 2024 UFI Award winners will present their projects at the 91st UFI Global Congress from 20-23 November 2024 in Cologne, Germany. To learn more about the UFI Global Congress, visit www.uficongress.org.
