Green Rethinking
The scarcity of resources and worldwide climate change are global challenges that the MICE industry must also address because conferences, meetings and incentive trips have a detrimental impact on the environment: the arrival and departure of the guests, the transfer from their hotel to the venue or the delivery of catering supplies all add to increased CO² emissions. Signs and exhibition materials are often just waste after only a few days of use. Fortunately, this approach is becoming increasingly a thing of the past – says the German Convention Bureau in Frankfurt as they go on to explain that "sustainable meetings" are the conference industry’s long-term megatrend. Green energy, environmentally friendly travel options – such as the event ticket of Deutsche Bahn – recycled paper and sustainable catering with local products are moving away from a nice-to-have option to the must-have standard.
Aachen - Green MICE destination
In 2018, Aachen is listed as one of the top 3 most sustainable cities in Germany and has interwoven the concept of sustainability into its development for many years. The city aims to cut its CO² by 40 per cent by 2020 – it has already saved 25 per cent today. Thanks to the development of e.Go, Streetscooter and Velocity, Aachen is now the model region for e-mobility.
Aachen's largest event location, Eurogress Aachen, is one of the pioneers in sustainable corporate management and in organising resource-efficient congresses and conferences. In 2011, the venue took part in the Ecoprofit project of the region and city of Aachen. Under the umbrella of this project, it optimised its internal environmental protection and created strategies for future-oriented further development. The Eurogress has been awarded the "Green Globe" certificate of the EVVC, the "Meeting Experts Green Award" for its sustainable personnel management and it has committed itself to the sustainability code of the event industry.