The Danish EU Presidency ran from January to June 2012. The chief goals of the Presidency were to reduce the cost and direct environmental impact of the meeting and events, to share best practice and to promote the business benefits of making the Presidency more sustainable. In order to achieve this, the Danish Government and leaders from the Danish meetings industry formed the ‘Danish Sustainable Events Initiative’ (DSEI) consortium to improve the environmental, social and economic sustainability of the Presidency and the Danish meetings industry in general (Danish Sustainable Events Initiative, 2013).
The Danish government, supported by the DSEI, committed to delivering all Presidency meetings and events to ISO20121 standard (State of Green, 2012b). Over six months the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs organised over 100 meetings, including 10 high level meetings with ministers and other VIPs and up to 90 meetings on the expert/civil servant level. The Presidency attracted more than 15,000 participants (including 400 ministers and 2000 press) to Copenhagen and the city of Horsens in central Jutland (State of Green, 2012a). The meetings ranged from large conferences to small workshops; the minimum attendance at any event was 60 participants and the largest was 900 (Danish Sustainable Events Initiative, 2013).
Sustainability was an integral part of the logistical planning and execution of the Presidency, which was delivered at a fraction of the total cost of past EU Presidencies, saving €40million through the integration of the sustainable event management system (while the cost of hosting the Presidency varies depending on the host nation, previous hosts have spent up to €110million (EurActiv, 2011; Danish Sustainable Events Initiative, 2013). This was achieved through collaborating with suppliers, entering into sponsorships with clean-tech companies (such as the Danish Wind Industry) and limiting free delegate merchandise and ‘gifts’.
"The Danish Government has been dedicated to organize a sustainable Presidency. We are the first presidency, which is planned and carried out sustainably… By rethinking all the processes and by constantly focusing on doing things smarter, we have reached our goal of being certified. An important lesson we have learnt is that you can get very far by demanding more of your suppliers, but even more important close cooperation with suppliers is a prerequisite for success. Many of our suppliers have launched sustainability initiatives in connection with the Presidency, and it is precisely this ability to collaborate and innovate, that makes it possible for Denmark to organize such a big event in a sustainable way" Minister for European Affairs Nicolai Wammen (Sustainable Events Denmark, 2012a).
A number of sustainable initiatives and KPIs were established to achieve the ISO20121 standard for the Presidency, the most high profile being the substitution of bottled water for tap water at all meetings and events which led to it being referred to as the ‘Tap Water Presidency’ (State of Green, 2012b). Other initiatives undertaken during the Presidency include (Sustainable Events Denmark, 2012a):
- Environmental Certification of conference facilities
- All guests stayed at hotels covered by eco-labels
- Use of public transport where possible
- Limited gift policy
- Sustainable meals
- Sustainable office consumables
- Carpets made from corn sugar polymers
- PVC-free cables
- Reuse of admission cards and lanyards
- Free bicycles for all delegates in Horsens and at selected hotels in Copenhagen
- Optimisation of motorcade driving - fewer cars were sent on the road
- CO2 compensation of flights with SAS, Wideroe and Blue1 and green take-offs and landings in Copenhagen (Sustainable Events Denmark, 2012b)
In June 2012 the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs became the first organisation in the world to achieve externally verified certification to ISO20121 sustainability standard (Sustainable Events Denmark, 2012a). Following the Presidency, a report detailing learning and best practice from the event was released. ‘Driving Change Through Collaboration’ is written in parallel to the ISO20121 standard, detailing how each stage of the standard was carried out to achieve certification, and containing a full appendix of ‘Performance against Objectives’ (Danish Sustainable Events Initiative, 2013).
The EU2012 Logistics Team and its DSEI partners collected the IMEX Green Meetings Award 2013, the chief international award recognising environmental awareness amongst meeting organisers, in recognition of the sustainability outcomes of the Presidency. The DSEI has also launched an English-language web portal providing best practice case studies and resources to integrate sustainable event standards, even on a tight budget, for the Danish national and international events industries (Danish Sustainable Events Initiative, 2014).