Slovenia evaluated the impact and carbon footprint of its showcase at IBTM World Barcelona
The Slovenian meetings industry exhibited at one of the industry’s central events – IBTM World in Barcelona. Seventeen providers and suppliers presented their services at the famed trade show, attended by over 12,000 participants annually. Among Slovenia’s strategic goals is organising events responsible to the environment, society and attendees. The first step to reach this objective is measuring the carbon footprint of events. To measure the effects of the Slovenian stand at the trade show, they used the innovative Slovenian tool Planet Positive Event, developed by Toleranca marketing and Arctur. The results were displayed on an interactive LED screen that inspired attendees to venture on a journey of sustainable transformation. The preliminary sustainability rating and regenerative effects are now publicly available.
The Slovenian Convention Bureau’s future-facing approach revolves around sustainable event organisation. In 2024, they became one of the strategic partners of the Planet Positive Event tool. Strategic cooperation is one of the ways they encourage international event organisers to begin their sustainable transformation and foster measurable regenerative effects.
Fredi Fontanot, the Director of the Slovenian Convention Bureau, emphasised: “With Planet Positive Event, Slovenia can now rival the world’s leading sustainable destinations. Above all, Slovenia aspires to manage and plan initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint emissions in the future.”
The results of using the tool for Slovenia’s stand at the IBTM World trade show:
- A calculation of the carbon footprint generated by the Slovenian stand with the help of the PPE carbon footprint calculator
- A complete sustainability rating, created with the help of PPE’s sustainable criteria
- The final regenerative rating of the event, made with the help of the SDG and ESG matrixes
- A final action plan for future events, created with the help of automatically generated sustainable recommendations for the future
- An external assessment and certificate created by external assessors who evaluate the data
- A complete ESRS sustainability report, generated automatically after a successful external assessment
The tool also stands out from the rest of the competition on the market thanks to trustworthy national and international assessors. They include leading sustainability experts in Slovenia and beyond. The external assessors guarantee the credibility of the final sustainability rating.
The project’s founder, Gorazd Čad, outlined that the tool came to life as a response to pressing challenges he and his team faced on a sixteen-year-long journey to transform the Conventa trade show. He stressed: “Measuring the carbon footprint is a prerequisite for the Slovenian team who aspires to transform how they attend trade shows. It enables better governance and planning for future promotional events. At the same time, it optimises the use of public funds to promote Slovenia.”
The preliminary results of the calculation were available live at the Slovenian stand H90, where the Green Manager explained how to precisely measure and calculate the carbon footprint of events in accordance with the GHG Protocol (Scope 1, 2 and 3) and the ISO 14064 Standard (1-6) for the entire life cycle of an event.
Attendees were able to explore a range of sustainable tips that help foster behavioural changes among attendees. To illustrate, here is what the PPE team say about the travel habits of event attendees. They say drastic changes in the carbon footprint at IBTM World can happen with minimal changes:
- If all 12,000 attendees travelled from their hotels to the trade show venue with taxis running on petrol, the carbon footprint would amount to 28,560 kilogrammes of CO2e;
- If 80% of attendees used the metro and 20% travelled with taxis running on petrol, the carbon footprint would amount to 9,264 kilogrammes of CO2e (a reduction of 67.56%).
An in-depth look at the methodology will be presented at stand G12, where Ljubljana Talks will be filmed. Gorazd Čad will personally present the calculation and methodology with handpicked guests. Attendees can listen to his talks on:
- Tuesday, 19 October 2024 at 13:30
- Wednesday, 20 October 2024 at 13:00
Ljubljana Talks will also be streaming live. Find out more at the following link.
Planet Positive Event is supported by more than ten leading companies on the market. The Planet Positive Event team ensures 360° support to help them sustainably transform their events. You can find out more about the methodology at www.planet-positive-event.eu.
Planet Positive Event in numbers:
- 180 practical tips for organising sustainable events
- 16 evaluation matrixes (94 obligatory and 241 recommendable criteria)
- 15 international external assessors
- 11 Slovenian external assessors
- 1 SDG matrix to calculate the event’s regenerative effects
- 9 forms to calculate the carbon footprint
- 1 carbon footprint calculator
- 1 automatically generated sustainability report and certificate
- 1 external assessment by an independent sustainability expert
Learn more about Planet Positive Event here.
