Key stakeholders within the Danish Meetings Industry team up with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure that the logistics of the EU Presidency are as sustainable as possible and result in ISO20121 certification of the Government event management system.
Denmark will host the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2012. As a result, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs will organise over 100 meetings of various sizes, attracting more than 15.000 participants visiting Copenhagen and the city of Horsens in central Jutland.
Key private and public stakeholders affiliated with the Danish Meetings Industry are uniting and creating an ambitious national sustainability project named the “Danish Sustainable Events Initiative” (DSEI) to ensure that Danish sustainability leadership in action is advanced, showcased and shared.
The vision of DSEI is to use the Danish EU Presidency to inspire businesses to greater collaboration, innovation and sustainable development. The project aims to increase the competitive positioning of Denmark as an undisputed leader in sustainable events and clean technology solutions.
Guy Bigwood, MCI Sustainability Director and President of the Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC) comments:
“The project is visionary in its scope and ambition. No other project exists to the scale globally. It will become an international reference in how to integrate sustainability on a mainstream level.”
Current project partners of the DSEI are: The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MCI, SAS – Scandinavian Airlines, HORESTA (The Danish Hotel & Restaurant Association), VisitAarhus, Wonderful Copenhagen CVB and VisitDenmark with more partners expected to join forces.
Jonathan Cohen, Int. Sales Manager – Business Tourism for VisitDenmark, comments:
“The Danish Sustainable Events Initiative will include a Danish National Sustainability Week together with a Meetings Industry CEO Forum, technology showcases, the implementation of the MPI Sustainability Measurement System (SEMT) on a national level and the production of an event sustainability report following the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) framework.
Since staging the COP15 event in Copenhagen in December 2009 and the succeeding launch of the “Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Protocol” (www.visitdenmark.com/csmp), the number of sustainable and certified businesses within the Danish Meetings Industry has boomed.
Steen Jakobsen, Convention Director for Wonderful Copenhagen CVB, supplements:
“We are convinced that the DSEI will help strengthen the competitive positioning of Copenhagen as the “Capital of Sustainable Meetings”, and Denmark as a superb sustainable meetings destination, even further. With over 60% of the capitals’ hotel rooms third party eco-certified, sustainability is already an integral part of the Danish meetings industry. With this project we will develop Copenhagen’s “sustainable” position further.”
