Let’s Partner in the Effort to Create Fully Sustainable Events
February 1, 2019SHARE:
2019 is shaping up to be the year when the meetings and events industry gets a firm handle on what it means to be fully sustainable. That’s because in January, the Events Industry Council (EIC), comprising more than 30 member organizations within the meetings and events business, unveiled four principles designed to guide and motivate event organizers worldwide to implement sustainable practices in their work. These principles can be found on a new page within the Sustainability section of EIC’s web site. (Here)
Nine months in the making, the four principles go beyond just the environmental elements of meetings, such as reducing fuel and power usage, recycling, and minimizing food waste. They also include the economic and social elements that sustain hotel and restaurant employees, residents, and cultures in travel destinations. In fact, the four principles that EIC created incorporate all 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
“The principles are a great starting point for planners to talk to their suppliers, and for planners to talk to their bosses, about how we can drive sustainability forward from the environmental perspective and also from the social perspective,” says Mariela McIlwraith, director of industry advancement for EIC. “We have a responsibility to support all parties in the economy who are connected to our business.”
That last thought is one that we at AIC Hotel Group take very seriously. As we offer activities both at our hotels and in our destinations that show off the local natural beauty and the local culture, we make sure that the people we partner with are being compensated fairly, and that the local places our meeting and incentive guests go to are kept in pristine condition for future visitors as well. So in addition to the recycling and waste-management efforts we have on property to ensure environmental sustainability, we also look to the social aspects that create total event sustainability.
If any meeting and incentive planners would like to discuss how their events held at AIC Hotel Group properties could exhibit environmental and social responsibility that promotes sustainability, I’d love to hear from you. And if you have any other event-sustainability ideas you think we should look into for our properties, I am happy to listen!
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