Sustainable Events Guide: Give your large event a ... - ICLEI Europe

Good practice: Greening A CONFERENCE — UNEP Governing Council
In line with the UNEP Climate Neutral Strategy, the 26th session of the UNEP Governing
Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC-26/GMEF), held in February 2011, was
conducted as a “green meeting”. Sustainability achievements of this meeting included:
• Paper use was reduced by 85%. This is the equivalent of 15,000 kg GHG less compared
to the Governing Council session that took place two years earlier.
• A “zero plastic” waste approach was applied. Safe drinking water was provided to
participants in large dispensers, instead of plastic bottles, recyclable paper cups were
made available and UN gift cups could be purchased. This avoided 8,000 - 10,000
plastic water bottles being discarded. In addition, the UNON Commercial Operations
Unit was able to persuade the caterers to make available an additional 500 glasses for
water, fresh juices at the cafeteria, and replace soft drinks in plastic bottles with those
in glass bottles.
• UNON provided a green venue at the UN premises where major greening activities have
been carried out in recent years, including: improved water management (dual flush
toilets and grey water for irrigation); electricity savings through more efficient light bulbs
in conference rooms; separation of waste, where glass, plastic and paper are recycled
by local recycling firms; and separation of organic waste which is composted on site,
thus reducing waste sent to landfills by 80 per cent. To remind people of the value of
recycling, waste separation boxes were put in all conference rooms.
• The cafeterias added a variety of green and healthy meals that were favourably received
by participants and UN staff.
• Participant travel sponsored by UNEP was offset. Those who covered their own trip were
encouraged to do so as communicated in the “Delegates’ guide to a green GC” posted on
the website. Since no green accommodation or green transport was available, participants
were given a hotel list with the approximate distance to the UNON headquarters.
• To showcase other examples of sustainability work carried out by UNEP, participants
were invited to visit the new green offices using a quiz that took participants on an
“office trail”, highlighting the main environmental features of the new headquarters
office facilities.
• To promote further awareness of the issue, all relevant documents were posted on the
website, an information stand was set up in the conference area, and a screen saver
featuring green news and updates was installed on all conference computers.
• Prior to the conference, two meetings were held with all those involved in greening the
GC and an action plan, drawn from the Green Meeting Guide 2009, was developed and
used to share and monitor actions and responsibilities.
• Following the meeting, a sustainability report was drafted that included lessons learned
and recommendations for the next meeting. This highlighted, for example, that the
quiz was not very successful due to the limited time of participants – organising green
initiatives in conjunction with the GC programme was the resulting recommendation. On
the other hand, the green stand attracted considerable attention. Some of the measures
taken for the event have now become standard procedure for compound activities.
UNEP 26th session of GC/GMEF – Implementation of a Green Meeting - Report
Sustainable Events Guide
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