For two weeks in December 2009, 33,526 visitors including 122 heads of state participated in the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen. For over two years prior to COP15, a unique private public collaboration called the Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Coalition, invested exceptional amounts of time, energy and money into ensuring the event was of the highest possible level of sustainability; and this mission was accomplished.
At the IMEX Gala Dinner, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the coalition partners were given the prestigious Gold Award in recognition of their outstanding ability to create a huge green event with environmental measures that have not only been well monitored and documented, but also converted into an extremely useful set of guidelines ready to use for Meetings Professionals worldwide.
Partners of the Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Coalition are: The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (logistical organiser of COP15), Bella Center A/S (venue for COP15), VisitDenmark (Denmark's official national tourism organisation), Wonderful Copenhagen Convention Bureau, The City of Copenhagen, Novo Nordisk A/S and MCI.
MCI’s role: MCI Sustainability Services were the sustainability consultants to the coalition, responsible for guiding the Danish Foreign ministry through the BS8901 sustainability certification process, and for producing the COP15 Event Sustainability Report and the Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Protocol (CSMP). The CSMP is an advanced level guide for implementing sustainability strategically within the meetings industry. MCI Brussels provided graphical design of both reports.
MCI Copenhagen served as the housing bureau for COP15 managing almost 100.000 room nights. Managing Director Lotte Wagner and her team helped influence regional hotels to meet criteria for eco-certification boosting the number of certified hotels from 12 to 53% in 18months.
Steen Jakobsen, head of the Wonderful Copenhagen Convention Bureau, commented: “We are very proud to win this award. MCI has been a invaluable partner and trusted advisor in our journey to becoming the international capital of sustainable meetings ".
The IMEX Green Meetings Award was launched in 2003. In collaboration with the GMIC (the Green Meetings Industry Council), the award recognizes environmental awareness amongst meeting organizers, highlighting the opportunities that now exist to stage meetings and events in 'green-minded' venues, whilst also planning an agenda in which sustainability issues have been taken fully into account.
For more information, please contact:
Guy Bigwood
Group Sustainability Director
MCI Headquarters Office | Barcelona
guy.bigwood@mci-group.com
+34 669 76 26 34