SINGAPORE – The 2016 Green Venue Report: The State of Convention and Exhibition Center Sustainability complies data from 44 convention and exhibition centers around the world (an increase from 30 in 2015), and evaluates a collective environmental footprint of industry meeting and events, highlighting best practices and innovative programs.
In its third year, the Green Venue Report compares green performance over a wide-range of areas, including: energy efficiency, waste management, water usage, food and beverage services, cleaning practices, staff involvement, communications and certifications. The survey consisted of 142 survey questions and was conducted in the Spring of 2016, and is based off 2015 operational data and information.
The 2015 data set includes: 44 Convention and Exhibition Centers across 11 countries and 4 continents. The list of centers is available on the following page. Over 20,000 events were held at the reporting centers, hosting over 48,000,000 attendees.
The Green Venue Report captures the practices and impacts of convention and exhibitions on a global scale. A few key findings of 2016 include:
- Centers are dedicating resources to divert waste from landfills. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of centers have active and ongoing back-of-house manual waste sorting programs in place.
- Centers and event organizers continue to improve communication around event sustainability. Responding centers indicated that on average 34% of event organizers discussed sustainability or "greening" when engaging with the venue.
- Event-specific waste tracking is increasing. Seventy-nine percent (79%) of responding centers can provide event planners a specific waste diversion report for their event, a slight increase from 72% last year.
According to Evan Harwood, Massachusetts Convention Center Authority Building Services Manager, "Participation in the Green Venue Report for both the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center and the Hynes Convention Center has been a rewarding and enlightening experience. Not only has it streamlined the reporting of our facilities' data and green initiatives, it has served as a key resource for information sharing, best practices, and industry trends surrounding the topic of sustainability."
Moscone Center Sustainability Analyst, Kathleen Hennesey added, "For an industry striving to change conventions and become more sustainable, the Green Venue Report provides invaluable data on facility and event green initiatives and challenges, and allows a facility to benchmark its practices against the industry's greenest pioneers."
As the Green Venue Report continues to grow, the project will provide critical analysis, in addition to documenting the tools and best practices to sustain the industry. Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre is the first center to participate from Australia. Leighton Wood, Chief Operating Officer at MCEC commented, "The old adage 'if you can't measure it, you can't manage it' is especially important in the area of sustainability for without measurement not only don't you know if you're improving but critically, you can't tell the world you're improving. This is important as more and more of our clients are interested in our sustainability bona fides. The Green Venue Report is a leader as a sophisticated tool for benchmarking against other like-minded, industry specific, venues."
The Green Venue Report is a project started by Greenview, a leading firm in the events and meetings industry promoting sustainable practices. Greenview has developed an innovative portal for venues to track a wide range of data and best practices over time, enabling them to monitor performance and improvement, and streamlining the process for the industry to conduct comprehensive research and catalyze innovation.
