Green Meetings Award
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The Green Meetings Award was launched jointly by IMEX, the International Hotels Environment Initiative, and the Oceans Blue Foundation at IMEX 2003. The award is now partnered by GMIC (Green Meeting Industry Council).
The award recognises environmental awareness amongst meeting organisers, highlighting the opportunities that now exist to stage business tourism events in 'green-minded' venues, whilst also planning an agenda in which sustainability issues have been taken fully into account.
There are two award categories, Large Meeting Award and Small to Medium Meeting Award (previously Gold and Silver).
Please contact Natasha Richards natasha.richards@imexexhibitions.com for more information.
Submissions are now closed for the 2013 Award.
Previous Winners
U.S. Green Building Council 2011 Greenbuild International Conference & Expo held in Toronto, Canada, Oct 4-7, 2011 was presented with the prestigious Green Meetings Award (large meeting category). At the 2011 Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, the U.S.Green Building Council (USGBC) sought to increase energy efficiency, worked to improve air and water quality, and concentrated on water conservation, waste minimisation, and environmental purchasing. USGBC also made a commitment to change, the community and
conservation. Primary venues were the Metro Toronto Convention Center (MTCC) and the Air Canada Centre (ACC).
Download the 2012 Large Meeting Award winner's case study
The Green Meetings Award for Small/Medium Meetings in 2012 was presented to the KPMG Climate Change & Sustainability Global Summit. KPMG engrains citizenship, sustainability, and Corporate Responsibility (CR) into every component of their business practices. One of the core components of the firms’ citizenship is the Climate Change & Sustainability network that held a ground-breaking summit in New York City on February 14–16, 2012— KPMG’s Business Perspective on Sustainable Growth: Preparing for Rio+20 Global Summit (also referred to as the Climate Change & Sustainability (CC&S) Summit). The CC&S Summit addressed one of the fundamental challenges of our time: driving sustainable business in a resource-constrained world.
Download the 2012 Small/Medium Meeting Award winner's case study
The International AIDS Society (IAS), the leading global association of HIV professionals working to end the HIV pandemic, was presented with the prestigious Green Meetings Award (large meeting category). The award was made in recognition of the XVIII International Aids Conference held in Vienna, Austria, in July 2010, which had 18,000 participants. Organised to raise awareness and increase knowledge of developments in AIDS research and policy, the event was given highest praise by the judges for its delivery of green and CSR initiatives.
Watch an interview with Jelena Milovic from IAS and hear more about their case study
Download the 2011 Large Meeting Award winner's case study
The IMEX Green Meetings Small to Medium Meeting Award went to Canada Media Marketplace for its 2010 San Francisco conference which had the goal of achieving maximum positive media coverage for Canada within the United States. 268 participants representing destinations, properties and attractions throughout Canada as well as travel writers and media from the United States, were in attendance when the Canadian Tourist Commission (CTC) hosted this opportunity for its partners to connect with the US market. The event was staged in April 2010 and was designed to reflect Canada’s image as a clean, green, naturally beautiful place to visit.
Watch an interview with Susan Fry from CTC
COP15 Logistics and CSMP Team working within The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs collected the coveted IMEX Green Meetings Gold Award 2010 at the annual IMEX Gala Dinner. For two weeks in December 2009, 33,526 visitors descended on Copenhagen, including 122 heads of state, 4,000 media representatives and more than 6,000 NGOs from 192 different countries for the UN Climate Change Summit COP15. With sustainability as its raison d’être, the organisation strategy for this event encompassed everything from accountability, social responsibility and stakeholder engagement to producing a lasting legacy and commitment to change.
Download the 2010 Gold Award winner's case study
The IMEX Green Meetings Silver Award 2010 went to Intel Corporation, Corporate Event Marketing for its Intel Development Forum (IDF) America event. IDF America took place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco in September 2009 and hosted around 4,000 developers, technical managers, academia, government, press, sponsors, exhibitors and Intel staff as IDF sought to reinforce its industry leadership and branding. The aim of the event was to influence developers to build their technologies on Intel architecture but, chiefly, to forward key sustainability objectives. Showcasing its visions for reducing the environmental impact of its operations, adding value and educating attendees about sustainability, the success of IDF America is now being transferred to its global meetings strategy.
The US Green Building Council (USGBC), was presented with the 2009 IMEX Green Meetings ‘Gold’ Award at the IMEX Gala Dinner in Frankfurt. The Award was made in recognition of an outstandingly “green” event – the Greenbuild Convention held in Boston in 2008, in which the USGBC demonstrated a deep understanding of both how to track and measure environmental targets and also how to enthuse and motivate new suppliers to support its event ambitions. USGBC is also the first North American organisation to have their entire meeting management department BS 8901 certified. This is the second time that the Council has accepted this honour, having previously triumphed in 2006.
Download the 2009 Gold Award winner's case study
The Silver Green Meetings Award 2009 was given to the Oracle OpenWorld Conference 2008 in San Francisco. Judges were once again impressed by the high standards that Oracle set itself across the whole enterprise and its long-term commitment to improving sustainability within its global meeting division. Oracle OpenWorld is an annual trade show with 40,000 participants. The event uses five separate meeting venues and a total of 85 hotels. In the judges’ view, the company achieved some impressive energy savings, especially regarding power consumption.
Awarded the 2008 IMEX Green Meetings ‘Gold’ Award were Scandic Hotels for their Swedish Environmental Coordinators Meeting which took place in Scandic Ariadne in Stockholm in October 2007. Scandic has 130 hotels in 9 countries and each hotel has at least one person with the role of environmental coordinator. The meeting was impressive not just because of the environmental work within the hotel where the meeting took place but because the same work applies to all hotels. This is due to Scandic’s top management being deeply engaged in sustainable business. A “Compass for sustainable business” has been developed. All business within Scandic relates to the compass’s triple bottom line, e g Purchasing policy and Supplier’s declaration and guidelines for construction
Download the 2008 Gold Award winner's case study
The 2008 Silver Green Meetings Award went to Unitarian Universalists Association (UUA) for a conference held at The Oregon Convention Center. The 2007 General Assembly supported businesses in and around Portland. 61% of food services were sourced locally. They also supported local charities by donating left over, unserved food to those in need.
The Globe Foundation of Canada's organisation of the bi-annual World Urban Forum (WUF) Conference, on behalf of UN Habitat and the Government of Canada, was awarded the 2007 Gold Green Meetings Award. The conference addressed 10,000 delegates from 150 countries on the issue the rapid urbanisation of the world's population. As event organisers Globe created a detailed greening programme that successfully integrated event operations with marketing, promotions and communications. They instigated a green procurement strategy and set out to make the conference carbon neutral. Planning focused specifically on waste minimisation, pollution reduction and energy conservation and actively engaged suppliers and delegates.
Download the 2007 Gold Award winner's case study
The 2007 Silver Green Meetings Award went to DNC Parks and Resorts for the 2006 Sierra Business Council Conference. Measurable achievements at the conference included 50% of meals being produced using local, sustainable produce and waste reduction of 70% thanks to recycling, composting, re-use and minimisation of packaging.
In 2006 the Green Meetings Gold Award was presented to the US Green Build International Conference and Expo 2004. USGBC's strategy for its 2004 Green Build Conference was to enlist the help of the convention centre, hotels, caterers, exhibitors and decorators in minimising waste by reducing consumption, pollution and waste at source. Outcomes for the 2004 event included a saving of US$25,000 through the use of water stations and compostable cups instead of water bottles. An audit measured waste output at the Oregon Convention Centre and the hotel and showed that 48% of solid waste was recycled while 23.9% of food served was composted. An additional 3450 lbs of food were donated to a local community service organisation.
Download the 2006 Gold Award winner's case study
The 2006 Silver Award winner, the Sierra Club, was praised for introducing clear contract measures and achieving excellent waste management reduction at its first ever four day annual conference, which took place in San Francisco in September 2005 and hosted 4,000 delegates.
The Boston-based Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions (CERC) won the 2005 award. CERC was praised for its work during the 2004 Democratic and Republican political conventions in the United States. The organisation was formed in 2004 by 15 local environmentalists in direct response to the Democratic Convention being held in Boston. CERC also targeted the Republican Convention in New York in its efforts to increase awareness and improve overall environmental education among meeting planners in the United States in general.
Download the 2005 award winner's case study
The 2004 award was given to Terri Stewart of the US Green Building Council (USGBC) for her work on the Green Build International Conference at the David Lawrence Convention Centre in Pennsylvania last November. According to the judge, Stewart and her team were clearly focused on minimising environmental impacts and their application data was well crafted and well qualified. Terri also demonstrated a clear commitment to influencing environmental policies of the show’s suppliers. The caterers, convention centre and registration company all changed their practices permanently as a result of what they have learned from the USGBC.
Download the 2004 award winner's case study
In 2003 the award was won by Meeting Strategies Worldwide, in recognition of their work on the 2002 Forest Leadership Forum. This forum, hosted by the World Wildlife Fund and the Certified Forest Products Council, and held in Atlanta was one of the greenest conferences ever held in the USA. In total, more than 1.34 tons of waste was recycled and more than $68,000 saved against budget. Meeting Strategies Worldwide made these achievements through a combination of environmental and economic stewardship of transportation, marketing, guest registration, accommodation and catering arrangements, all of which were scrutinised and planned against strict criteria.
For more information on other IMEX Green Awards visit the Awards page.
