2019 EAT Stockholm Forum: A Good Model of Green Meeting (Case Number: GMI-002)
2019/7/16 15:30:00 本站

President Xi Jinping points out that industrialization while generating unprecedented material wealth, has incurred serious damage to Mother Nature. Development without thought of the future is not sustainable. The way forward should be green development that focuses on harmony with nature and eco-friendly progress. In the era of ecological civilization, the lifestyle is changing, which may bring out multiple challenges. We hope to accelerate the green transformation of meetings and exhibitions by Green Meeting Index (GMI). Every detail matters in this process, and we could start from each detail to fulfill the philosophy of ecological civilization and green development.

 

Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), was invited to attend the 2019 EAT Stockholm Food Forum held in Sweden, from June 10 to 13. As a big and bold international leading platform for global food transformation, 2019 EAT Stockholm Food Forum attracts elites and professionals in science, politics, finance, social organizations and other fields around the globe. The GMI evaluation of 2019 EAT Stockholm Food Forum is compiled and shared as follows.

   

Case Number: GMI-002

Conference: EAT Stockholm Food Forum

Time: June 10 to 13, 2019

Host: Swedish government, EAT, etc.

Size of meeting: about 1000 attendees

Meeting Type: International forum

Scores: 103.6

 

Merits

1. The venue and hotel are within walking distance, which reduces carbon footprint.

2.Accommodation

A door hanger reads: Make A Difference- Say no thanks to room cleaning. It saves our planet on the front. It calls on hotel guests to hang the card outside the door. On the other side of the card, it reads A Simple Act for a Great Cause. Every month more than 30,000 of our guests hang this sign outside their door. In addition to saving our planet, it gives more than 400,000 children a safe night, in a safe bed every year. Your good act helps children have sweet dreams, and contribute to a better planet! Thank You! This is an initiative called Sweet Dreams Stay and launched by Nordic Choice Hotel, which aims to crack down on child trafficking.

3. An app is launched by the host, and every information and document of the forum are available on the app. Participants also can share cars through the App.

4. Everyone has a badge without rope or shell, which can be easily pinned on clothing.

The badge is not only the credential but also the room card and catering coupon. Moreover, participants are encouraged to leave the badge for recycling, thus avoiding unnecessary waste. (We notice that most participants choose to do so.)

5. The temperature of the venue is moderate.

6. Few garbage is generated during the forum because the host doesn't provide any plastic bags or packages. Most plates and tableware are recyclable, and disposable plates used during the session are eatable.

 

Disadvantage

The travel cost is too high in Stockholm. We suggest the host add placards of green travel. Moreover, more efforts should be made to advocate participants to share cars, rather than simply providing a platform.

 

Opportunity

There is still a lot of room for improvement. When attending the Policy Roundtable which is not held in the building, participants take a taxi by themselves. But when they come back, four people share a taxi. If the event is well organized in advance, participants could carpool. This also reflects that participants are not familiar with the App. If the organizer could make more detailed instructions, then it is expected to be more efficient.

 

Summary

In general, this forum, as one of the highest-level thematic conference, inspired us a lot. The GMI score of 2019 EAT Stockholm Food Forum has been the highest by far. We expect that China can learn from this conference to promote the green transformation and high-quality development of various conferences and exhibitions.

 

CBCGDF believes that the conference pertinent to ecological civilization and environmental protection should stick to the philosophy of environmental protection and resource saving. The Earth Overshoot Day (EOD) has been earlier than expected every year, and the EOD of 2019 is advanced to July 29. Mankind is consuming natural resources in an unprecedentedly rapid way. If we hold high the banner of "ecological civilization", "environmental protection" and "green development" while producing great pollutions and wastes at the conference, then how could we truly practice these philosophies? This is the fundamental reason why wen issue GMI—to promote meeting and exhibitions to develop in a high-quality way.

 

About Green Meeting Index (GMI)

Green Meeting Index (Standard Number: T/CGDF 00001-2019) was issued in June 2019. As a system to measure the sustainability of meetings and exhibitions, GMI take multiple indicators into account, such as catering, accommodation, travel, waste, and biodiversity, which aims to promote meetings and conferences to reduce resource consumption and environmental pollution, in order to respond to the call of the 19th National Congress with practical actions, and integrate the practice of ecological civilization into the details of the conference organization. It advocates green and sustainable lifestyles and opposes unreasonable and unnecessary consumption.

 

CBCGDF will evaluate each conference it attends and marks according to GMI, which aims to measure the sustainability of meeting and exhibition through five steps: observation, analysis, summary, evaluation, and feedback, so as to achieve the requirement of ecological civilization and high-quality development of conferences and exhibitions. The score is a relative number to reflect the comparison between various events.

 

We sincerely invite organizers of meetings and exhibitions who are interested in GMI to join us and help to make a professional assessment with their rich experience. Please contact v1@cbcgdf.org to contribute to GMI.


微信图片_20190715103515.png


微信图片_20190715103517.png


微信图片_20190715103519.png


微信图片_20190715103520.png


微信图片_20190715103523.png


http://file.cbcgdf.org/T18/O125/image/20190715/20190715134008_4607.png


微信图片_20190715103528.jpg

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)


Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4937/9251.html


By / Wang Yanqing