What if you had 10,697 participants from over 150 countries attend your event?
plus over 2,900 exhibitors from 50 countries?
All from your peers in the hospitality industry watching?

Especially with the inspiring goal “to be a leader in event sustainability and focus on reducing their  environmental impact?”

Then you might be the brave team at IMEX America!   Daring to be change agents, they started by setting four main objectives in 2014…

  1. Decrease footprint in terms of water, energy, emissions and waste
  2. Measure and quantify the event’s environmental footprint to better understand results and future improvement needs
  3. Increase their compliance score using APEX/ASTM Level 1 Environmentally Sustainable Event Standards
  4. Educate visitors, exhibitors and hosted buyers on issues related to sustainability practices WHILE supporting local non-profit organizations through donations, volunteer participation and material donations.

IMEX America was able to make significant changes resulting in of a substantially more sustainable event.
Using the MeetGreen© Calculator score as a benchmarking tool, in 2011, IMEX America reported in with a 49% total score and was off to a great start. In 2014, the event scored an impressive 75.1% putting them in the top 10% of all events in the Calculator. Impressive!

One of the biggest wins was the increase in local foods served, which was up 150% over 2013. Coupled with the food waste, which was down over 56% from the previous year, there have been significant strides in this area alone. From first-hand experience, I can attest to a much healthier, better quality meal on the show floor.

Indeed, they are showing the rest of the industry it can be done. Now before I go on and tell the whole success story…

Spoiler Alert: Don’t let me ruin the ending for you. Find out more in the full case study