CAUSE RELATED: The Global Green Alliance seeks to make its mark

12/05/2010 by Pete Roythorne, Joint Editor in Chief Print

With Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool and Cape Town International Convention Centre joining together as the Global Green Alliance, we look at exactly what the group plans to do and how it will benefit the industry.

During last year’s ICCA Congress, three of the world’s greenest convention centres – Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool (ACC Liverpool) and Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) – joined forces to create the Global Green Alliance.

While the press releases hail this as potentially marking a new era for the meetings and events industry, as the alliance seeks to develop new ecological practices and services that will ultimately benefit the industry as a whole, is it really just another sales pitch to an already overcrowded market?

Green horizons: Cape Town's ICC has a big vision for
sustainability and the Global Green Alliance will be
helping it make its mark

“We wanted to create an industry alliance to ensure our global customers are provided with a professional and innovative environment, which ensures that their sustainability expectations are met across the globe through their meetings at MCEC, ACC Liverpool and CTICC,” says Leigh Harry, chief executive of MCEC.

Educating the industry
“Each venue has a number of highly regarded industry Green Awards and certificates specific to their country. We want to educate our buyers by providing sustainable event options, while also demonstrating what our combined awards and accreditations mean to them and their events.”

In what it claims is a combined effort to promote industry best practice for hosting sustainable events across the globe, the alliance sets out to achieve a number of goals.

“Obviously a core aim is to promote the MCEC, ACC Liverpool and CTICC as sustainable convention centres,” says Rashid Toefy, chief executive of CTICC. “We were all keen to align ourselves with other organisations that have the same sustainability goals, to share leads, and encourage the ongoing attraction of international events and associated clients and attendees across the Alliance, as well as to develop combined offerings and joint marketing activities.”

Toefy adds that the alliance also aims to educate buyers about the green awards the venues have received and to work together to assist the events industry to continually strive to be socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.

Conspicuous by their absence?
But with so many green convention centres around the world, the alliance is noticeably lacking venues like Vancouver Convention Centre and the Amsterdam RAI. So are there plans to expand membership in the near future?

“The idea is to open the alliance up to other continents once it has been established for a year,” explains Kerrin Macphie, head of sales at ACC Liverpool. “Ideally, the additional venues would be from the remaining continents that are not already members of the alliance, so that we can bid as a group for events and cover all the regions in the world for sustainable meetings – giving event planners more choice.”

So it seems that the alliance isn’t just there to feather the nests of the three venues involved, but is designed to benefit the industry as a whole. And that's not just through giving buyers more choice, as Macphie points out, but also to raise the green agenda and drive awareness of what the various global ratings and awards actually mean.

“International events will be offered in the future with bids that will include proposals from all Green Alliance members,” adds Harry. “Not only will this save time for event organisers, but it will help the alliance to promote the importance of green meetings within our industry.

“The fundamental aim of the Alliance is to benefit our industry by promoting sustainable meetings, and we certainly hope this will also assist us in attracting and winning business for members of the Alliance.”

Enhance sustainable objectives
With the MCEC being the world’s first ‘Six Star Green Star’ environmentally rated convention and exhibition centre and the other members’ green credentials being well documented, this would certainly seem like an excellent starting point for both clients and other venues all over the world wanting to meet and enhance their sustainable objectives. That said, is 'green' really a deal breaker?

Toefy believes that sustainability is not only a necessity, but also something that will grow in importance for businesses over the coming years. “We should all be becoming increasingly green as a matter of course,” he says. “This will help us best meet the needs of our clients, sustain the environment and win business.”

With the large association and convention business opportunities booking three to five years hence, this is a medium to long-term vision. However, for this market the green agenda is certainly a growing concern. Meanwhile, for organisers and planners, an alliance that brings the most environmentally aware venues 'under one roof' can only really be seen as a benefit. As the alliance opens up to more members, the chances are this will just become a stronger proposition.

The Global Green Alliance will be officially launching to the industry at IMEX on Tuesday 25 May 2010 at 11.30am.

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