Greengage has responded to demand from venues, bookers and their clients to launch the EVENTsmart Impact Portal to address ‘the missing gap’ – the lack of carbon measurement for approximately 80 per cent of all business events: small meetings.
There is potential for the portal to make a significant contribution in understanding the hidden environmental impact of small and medium sized meetings. Currently fewer than 5% of these meetings have any form of carbon measurement or environmental impact tracking. This means that the vast majority of business-related emissions from meetings are completely invisible to organisations trying to meet their scope 3 carbon reduction goals.
The Impact Portal is the first portfolio-wide event carbon calculator designed specifically for small and mid-sized meetings of between 2 and 100 attendees, but it can measure meetings of all sizes.
Using the portal venues can provide clients with a simple online overview of carbon emissions or upgrade to provide more detailed reports based on individual factors specific to different locations. Additionally they can provide clients with QR codes to facilitate self-reporting and measurement of the whole event including elements such as travel that are not the responsibility of the venue.
Greengage has an ever growing portfolio of ECOsmart certified properties, but corporate bookers have the option to incorporate all properties they work with on the portal and measure the carbon footprint of all meetings.
The Impact Portal enables bookers to make data driven decisions. For example they can get an indication of the carbon footprint of a meeting at the planning stage when there is still time to consider changing venues or locations to reduce emissions.
Carbon offsetting has been integrated into the portal through Greengage’s chosen partner Carbon Footprint.
The portal also allows for green transportation planning and community impact measurement.
Louise Boyse, Greengage’s commercial director, comments: “When we talk about sustainable events, the conversation typically revolves around large conferences, trade shows and corporate gatherings. Until now small meetings have been a massive blind spot that actually have a huge impact on emissions from the meetings and events sector.
“It’s easy to consider boardroom sessions, team catch-up, client presentations and workshops as insignificant but collectively they represent an enormous carbon footprint that has remained largely unmeasured and unaddressed.
“With the Impact Portal we can now measure the carbon footprint of each and every meeting and clients can make an informed decisions about how to reduce it.”
Read more on this in Greengage’s latest blog.
