CHICAGO — Net Zero Carbon Events (NZCE), the Strategic Alliance of the National Convention Bureaux of Europe and Gevme collaborated to launch the Sustainability Hub for Events. The new platform utilizes AI to simplify sustainability guidelines into actionable steps for events.
Sustainability Hub for Events works by indexing events’ data to create customized recommendations based on specific needs, which is generated by using industry best practices and guidelines. With more user interaction and feedback, the platform can continue to improve its accuracy and performance of offerings and services.
The sustainability platform also leverages the NZCE Roadmap and the Strategic Alliance’s sustainability framework to provide users with industry expertise and actionable insights.
“Sustainability is a complex topic. The NZCE initiative already developed a wide base of theory covering a wide variety of environmental sustainability aspects for business events industry,” said Alex Alles, Executive Director of the Joint Meetings Industry Council, which leads the NZCE campaign. “There are hundreds of pages to read, and we recognize that it might be beneficial for organizers to use an AI platform to make it easier to understand and overcome this data overflow. We hope that this beta version will be used widely so that we can test as much as possible and eliminate potential bugs before the official rollout.”
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There are a variety of tools within the platform that event organizers can take advantage of, including: green cleaning, maintenance and waste management best practices, sustainability goal setting align with industry roadmaps and milestones, seamless integration of guidelines into event planning and execution, and venue sustainability assessments and optimization guidance.
“We are happy to see that the platform already found an immense interest from the business events community. We see representatives from all stakeholder groups testing it, including venues, organizers, suppliers, convention bureau and others. This is exactly what we wanted, and we invite others to register and give it a try,” Alles said. “The registration is rather easy and there is no specific data needed to use the services. Users can ask the system in a simple way what they are keen to know and will get an instant reply. We are happy that the platform works in over 20 languages, which helps users in all parts of the world.”
“In record time, the Net Zero Carbon Events Initiative has sourced and vetted hundreds of best practice cases on how we can all decarbonize our industry,” said UFI CEO Kai Hattendorf. “Even with all the work streams and roadmap structures in place, these are thousands of pages of material — I guess the biggest and best catalogue of actions available for everyone in our industry.
“But navigating all this information can be challenging, and that is where this new AI-driven solution comes in. Think of it not as a search engine, but as a solutions engine. In the current beta phase that JMIC is running as the host and facilitator of NZCE together with Gevme, everyone can help to make this the best tool on the planet for our industry to reduce carbon emissions in your own business, and to drive forward this largest and most inclusive global industry initiative ever.”
Reach Kai Hattendorf at kh@ufi.org
