Copenhagen wins IMEX Green Meetings Gold Award 2010

June 2, 2010

In December, Copenhagen hosted the world's first environmentally certified, international political summit - the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) - attracting over 33,000 people. Last week, the host of the high profile event, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the partners in the Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings coalition, won the prestigious IMEX Green Meetings Gold Award 2010.

For over two years prior to COP15, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the City of Copenhagen and the venue, Bella Center, invested exceptional amounts of time, energy and money into ensuring the event was of the highest possible level of sustainability - and the mission was accomplished. Svend Olling, Head of Department at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says:

"It is a real honor and I am very proud to receive the IMEX Green Meetings Gold Award on behalf of the COP15 Logistics Team and the Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Coalition. From the start we wanted to make the climate change conference as sustainable as possible given the challenging conditions of one of the largest political summits ever held. This award is a testament to the hard work of a committed team of individuals in the Ministry and its event partner organisations. Special recognition should be given to Jan-Christoph Napierski and to the members of the Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Coalition who formed a unique private-public partnership to not only help improve the sustainability of COP15, but also to share the results and learnings with the global meetings industry. This award is fantastic recognition of the hard work of everyone involved, who leave a legacy for others to follow."

Jonathan Cohen, Marketing Manager - Business Events at VisitDenmark, the official national tourism organisation of Denmark, adds:

"The Green Meetings Gold Award is an acknowledgement from prominent members of the global meetings industry that Denmark is very committed to both staging and further developing sustainable meetings. We are, of course, delighted that COP15 has received this prestigious accolade and look forward to continue the collaboration with the partners of the Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Coalition in the future".

And Steen Jakobsen, Convention Director at Wonderful Copenhagen Convention Bureau, comments:

"Under the headline ‘Copenhagen, the Capital of Sustainable Meetings' will we continue to use COP15 to catalyse our sustainability efforts. Green Copenhagen is now one of the four main pillars of our 3-year Business Tourism strategy. With a solid sustainable product portfolio, including over 50% of the city's hotels now being eco- certified, sustainability is a unique and credible attribute that offers both event organisers and the local community short and long term social, environmental and economic value".

Facts:
The Green Meetings Award was launched in 2003 by IMEX, the International Hotels Environment Initiative and the Oceans Blue Foundation. Now partnered by GMIC (the Green Meetings 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.

COP Logistics Team and the Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Coalition was given the Green Meetings Award in recognition of the event's demonstration of commitment to community initiatives, including partnerships, minimisation of social impact and community actions, as well as its pre and post event management, for which it received maximum marks.

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, MCI Copenhagen and Novo Nordisk A/S. Sustainability consulting was provided by MCI Sustainability Services who were the project managers, designing and writing the CSMP in conjunction with the partners.

The coalition's common vision is to accelerate the sustainable development of the international meetings industry and henceforth, the sustainable event planning actions and strategy from COP15 have since then been extensively documented in the COP15 Event Sustainability Report and in the corollary Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Protocol (CSMP). The CSMP is an advanced level guide for implementing sustainability strategically within the meetings industry and to be used in conjunction with The COP15 Event Sustainability Report with its more in-depth details of the COP15 sustainability approach, initiatives and performance - see also: www.csmp.dk