Austria Case Study: The Concept of Green Events - 'Events for a Greener Europe'

On Thursday 5th July Event Professionals in Austria gathered to explore and discuss the concept of ‘Green Events’. Since their publication of the 2004 Environmental report (https://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/Competitions/EURO_/77/42/52/774252_DOWNLOAD.pdff) for the UEFA Euros 2008 inspired a global conversation which led to the development of ISO20121 and the Global Reporting Initiative Event organizer supplement, the Austria Events Community have met regularly to advance the conversation and marketplace for sustainable events. This year was no exception as the audience heard from Corolla of EVVC about the potential impact the industry could have, Uta Kroll from Zurich Tourism about creating sustainable tourism destinations, Jurgen SMRZ of Fairsports Events about the impact of sustainable sporting venues and Claudia Van't Hullenaar of Sustained Impact about measurement system.

Awards were given to sport and cultural events held across Austria which had demonstrated best practice such as reuse, carbon measurement and repurposing waste.

The Positive Impact team where inspired to see the coordinated approach from Austrian government to the event supply chain and the healthy conversation engaged in by all attendees. It is clear that the Austrian event industry is taking action other countries are only talking about and there is enthusiasm to go even further.