From the beginning of December 2021 every venue search on the venuedirectory.com site will put sustainable venues at the top of all venue results provided, both UK and international.
Venues that are accredited by Green Tourism’s Green Meetings, EcoSmart, Green Key and IACC will immediately be included, and venues approved by other globally recognised brand sustainability accreditation schemes will be added in the near future.
Michael Begley, CEO of venuedirectory.com commented; “We’ve done this because it is vitally important for everyone’s benefit. It is essential. We listen to our customers and this is what they are telling us. The mia Ignite conference just affirmed in my mind that this is the right thing to do. It’s right for our customers and for the planet.”
He continued “Matthias Schultze of the German Convention Bureau told us that 63% of meeting planners regarded sustainability as very important or important; Cate Trotter of Insider Trends confirmed that it is the trend that the industry needs to get on board with and focus its efforts on, and multigeneration expert Dr Eliza Filby called it the ‘Mega Trend’.”
Michael added: “Both venue managers and corporate meeting planners and buyers attending the event told me that sustainability is the number one project on their ‘to-do’ list and increasing the visibility of sustainable venues on the venue sourcing process is essential.”
venuedirectory.com has gathered and continues to add all the relevant sustainability accreditations for venues. The list is growing exponentially with thousands of venues already included.
Green Tourism, which has been working with venuedirectory.com for a long time, launched its Green Meetings standard earlier this year.
Scott Maclean, managing director of Green Tourism, commented; “We introduced the Green Meetings Standard in response to requests from the industry to help venues prove they are taking their environmental responsibilities seriously. It’s great to see this new initiative from Michael and the team at venuedirectory.com which puts sustainability at the forefront of the industry and reflects exactly what the corporate buyers are telling us they want from venues.”
Michael Begley summed up: “I am delighted that we have got the community starting to prioritise this important facet of our industry. It’s something I have been campaigning for since 2012. We are committed to not making this a competitive advantage and are happy to share our list of sustainability accredited venues absolutely free of charge with any agency or corporate body that wants them.”
