The Scandinavian Sustainable Meetings Accord was developed in 2010. As of August 2014, there are 23 cities involved in the project across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden (MCI, 2014). Each city council that has signed the Accord agrees to enable and support sustainable events within their jurisdiction and collaborates with external organisations to support the program, including Convention Bureaus, venues and hotels. Each signatory to the Accord commits to taking ten actions to advance sustainable practices within the meetings and events industry (ICCA, 2012):
- Publicly declaring participation in the Scandinavian Sustainable Meetings Accord and using our personal and business networks to encourage member organisations to sign this Accord.
- Engaging our clients, partners and other interested parties in dialogue about economic, environmental and social sustainability for our industry.
- Educating interested parties, sharing knowledge in sustainable business practices and recognizing ICCA members for their best practice and efforts in sustainable business.
- Encouraging and supporting private-public collaboration with other destinations to share Scandinavian best practices and solutions and, in turn, to learn from others.
- Providing resources to planners to identify responsible, sustainable and certified suppliers in our community in order to help planners create more sustainable events.
- Advocating efficient, equitable and more sustainable use of resources.
- Facilitating the increased use of environmentally friendly transport through better communication with visitors and collaboration with transport providers.
- Calculating the CO2 footprint of a defined Scandinavian meetings industry and aiming to reduce this by 20% by 2020.
- Upholding the highest standards of honesty and fairness and thus maintaining a society with integrity and strong ethical standards.
- Giving back to the community by proactively creating links between the meetings industry and social responsibility initiatives.
A benchmark of the social and environmental sustainability performance of the cities is published annually by the International Congress and Conventions Association (ICCA) in the ‘Scandinavia Destinations Sustainability Index’ (ICCA, 2013). The benchmark is divided into two areas: ‘hardware’ and ‘software’. Hardware assesses the sustainability commitment of the city government and performance of the local infrastructure; while software assesses the sustainability attributes of the meetings industry within each city, with a particular focus on hotels, venues and marketing. Göteborg topped the benchmark index in 2013, with an overall score of 83% (ICCA, 2013). In 2014, the Scandinavian Destinations Sustainability Index received the ‘Most Innovative Project Award’ at the 2nd United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO) Knowledge Network Global Forum (MCI, 2014).