Melbourne’s premier meeting venue has hosted the largest environmental exhibition of its kind in the country with a who’s who in the industry represented. ENVIRO 08 was launched by the Environment Minister Gavin Jennings at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC).

Now in its fifth year, the three day event, held from 5 – 7 May, brings together representatives from the water, waste, energy and environmental fields.

It attracted more than 5,000 attendees, including renowned Australian climate change expert Professor Ian Lowe AO and president of the Australian Conservation Foundation Dr Chris Mitchell, along with experts from the CSIRO and the Green Building Council of Australia.

The MCEC supplied the event with ‘green power’, where equivalent power usage is purchased from a renewable energy source, recycled all food waste into compost and collected all other waste, which was then taken off-site and individually separated and recycled.

Exhibiting at the event, Visy recycling national public affairs manager Geoff Potts said the convention centre’s facilities, environmental policies and location provided a great platform for companies concerned with sustainability.

“The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre is in a great precinct of the city. With this type of supportive venue and city, and the growing interest in sustainability, the event can only go from strength to strength.”

Exhibiting from New Zealand, AWT senior environmental engineer, Richard Brice said that Melbourne is light years ahead of New Zealand in its environmental thinking.

“That makes it a great location to showcase our business, which we’ll now look at setting up in Melbourne later this year.”

Veolia Environmental Services national communications manager Renee Fry said that this was the fourth event they had attended and they would definitely be back.

“Melbourne is a great location in terms of ease to get around and progressive as far as environmental awareness.” She added that the venue itself shone with exceptional service and catering.   

Exhibitor Grundfos Pumps business development manager Rodney Norman said the venue, service and attractive location, made Melbourne a prime location for this type of event.

“Not only is the venue easy for delegates to access, but most delegates want to be able to explore the city they’re in when travelling to this type of event and Melbourne makes that easy, and to top if off it’s an environmentally conscious city.”

Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre chief executive Leigh Harry said that the event is synonymous with the centre’s own environmental philosophy.

"As a team we are dedicated to ensuring our business is conducted in an environmentally friendly way - this covers everything from the way we recycle and/or dispose of waste to how we educate our clients to ensure they too are thinking about the environment in the way they run their meetings, events or conferences."

MCEC is the only convention and exhibition venue in Australia with both Green Globe and Waste Wise accreditation.

In addition to this, the new Melbourne Convention Centre, opening in 2009, has been awarded a ‘6 Star Green Star’ environmental rating, the first in the world for a convention centre.