submitted by Chris Lewis, Clareville
Brussels, 24 April 2024 −The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the world’s premier business travel and meetings trade organisation and the voice of the industry, has joined Net Zero Carbon Events (NZCE), the worldwide events industry initiative to address climate change as a supporter of the campaign.
Since its launch at Cop 26 in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2021, Net Zero Carbon Events has developed a wealth of resources to support events industry organisations on their journeys to net zero carbon emissions. These include a Roadmap and advisory reports on Venue Energy; Smart Production and Waste Management; Logistics; Travel and Accommodation; Food and Food Waste; Offsetting and Measurement.
With the campaign now focused on implementation in each of these areas, GBTA and NZCE
will be working together with the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) on implementing the Travel and Accommodation element.
James Rees, President of the Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC), which is driving the Net Zero Carbon Events initiative for the industry said: “We could not be happier than to have GBTA as a supporter. GBTA has unparallelled expertise and experience in the technical aspects of business travel and sustainability, especially through the Sustainability Initiative of the GBTA Foundation. We are delighted to be working with both GBTA and ICCA on this and looking forward to aligning our work and developing common ground for all stakeholders in future.
“It is also a tremendous testimonial to the framework that NZCE has developed that GBTA will be using this for their own events in future.”
“For our members, industry and for the work we do as an association, GBTA is deeply committed and active in helping to create a more sustainable future for global business travel. We are pleased to be part of the Net Zero Carbon Events initiative and working with the JMIC and other key organisations to bring the power of our collective efforts to ensure more net zero-focused approaches to the very significant sector of meetings and events,” said Suzanne Neufang, CEO, GBTA.
Senthil Gopinath, CEO, ICCA said: “ICCA is proud to be a founding member of Net Zero Carbon Events, and we’re thrilled to have the Global Business Travel Association on board with this incredibly important initiative. One of our pillars as an organisation is sustainability, and ICCA is committed to working with our partners in the industry to promote the overall goal of reducing carbon emissions. It’s crucial that the meetings and events community as a whole joins forces to advance sustainable practices and policies around the globe, and as more organisations come on board, we get closer to our goal of Net Zero by the year 2050.”
Net Zero Carbon Events is open to all organisations involved in events. Registration is free of charge, but financial contributions are crucial to developing the campaign. Please visit www.netzerocarbonevents.org/funding-opportunities
For further information.www.netzerocarbonevents.org
About Net Zero Carbon Events
After the launch of the Net Zero Carbon Events Pledge at Cop26, the Net Zero Carbon Event Roadmap was published at Cop27 in November 2022 as a helpful resource. It is available as a Full Report with comprehensive information on how to implement action to achieve Net Zero, and as an Executive Summary. The documents now published are providing the necessary guidance for businesses to apply the roadmap successfully.
More than 30 major meetings and events industry organisations from across the world are now financial contributors to Net Zero Carbon Events, the industry’s global initiative to address climate change that was launched at Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021.
More than 600 organisations have now signed the Pledge or support the initiative which is being led by the Joint Meetings Industry Council – JMIC.
About GBTA
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the leading organization in the business travel and meetings sector, headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area. With over 8,000 members representing the $1.357 trillion global industry, GBTA advocates for stakeholders across six continents. The organization, along with its affiliate, the GBTA Foundation, provides education, events, research, advocacy, and media to over 28,000 travel professionals and 125,000 active contacts worldwide. For more information, please visit GBTA.org and GBTAFoundation.org.
About GBTA’s Sustainability Initiative
The GBTA Foundation’s Sustainability Initiative aims to drive cross-industry collaboration among the users and providers of corporate travel services to deploy solutions that help manage and reduce carbon emissions from travel. Our work includes capacity-building, harmonization and advocacy efforts to empower business travel professionals to advance climate-conscious business travel programs.
GBTA’s Sustainability initiative was made possible by the corporate donations and support from the Foundation’s sustainability partners. For more information or to help support the GBTA Foundation and our Sustainability Initiative, reach out to sustainability@gbta.org
