The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) achieved its most sustainable event yet at this year’s European Wind Energy Conference and Exhibition (EWEC) 2010 in Warsaw by reducing exhibition carpet by 40%, only using hotels with energy efficiency initiatives, and donating €5,400 to compensate for carbon emissions.
Other sustainable initiatives EWEA introduced this year included:
2,903 meals were donated to the Warsaw Food Bank
40% reduction in exhibition carpet, 15% of which was re-purposed into household textiles
40% of all food served was locally harvested
45% of event budget was invested in local economy through selection of local suppliers
100% of hotels participated in energy efficiency initiatives
5,400€ was donated to the Renewable World Foundation projects in order to compensate for the event emissions
This year’s European Wind Energy Conference (EWEC) gained a score of 59% from auditors MeetGreenSM, significantly higher than the average for comparable events, which is 42%, and above the score obtained by EWEA at EWEC 2009 (42%) and EOW 2009 (56%).
“Sustainable events are a natural extension of EWEA’s core business of working to promote the development of a zero-carbon source of energy, the wind”, said Malgosia Bartosik, EWEA’s Head of Conference and Events. “This commitment to a clean, sustainable future is increasingly reflected in all our work, including the management of our events”.
“For over two years, we have been working to create more sustainable events”, added Luisa Coll, EWEA’s Event Manager. “We are proud of our results so far and of the favourable MeetGreen audit from EWEC 2010. However, we must continue to aim even higher if we are to create an ongoing, meaningful difference to event participants and suppliers and to the local community, while continuing to set an industry standard in terms of sustainability”.
As part of this sustainable events management process, EWEA has committed to producing a comprehensive and transparent report for each major event it organises, outlining sustainable activities, sustainability systems and performance against objectives. The results of three Sustainable Event Assessment reports, including EWEC 2010, are now available.
