Three of the world’s most renowned eco-friendly convention centres have joined forces to create a Global Green Alliance; this initiative was a direct result of relationships forged at the recent ICCA Congress in Florence. Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool, Cape Town International Convention Centre and Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre are the founder members of the new alliance, which aims to promote industry best-practice for hosting sustainable events.

Kerrin MacPhie, Head of Sales at the BT Convention Centre, part of ACC Liverpool, commented: “Event organisers have been under increasing pressure for some time now to meet CSR and sustainability targets.  With this new Global Green Alliance, we can not only offer clients an outstanding, eco-friendly venue here in the UK, but can now extend that offer to include partner convention centres across the world that we know will meet their sustainability targets as well as we do at ACC Liverpool.”

Esmare Van Tonder, International Sales Manager for Cape Town International Convention Centre added: “There is a lot of hype regarding the green agenda, which makes it difficult for organisers to distinguish veneer policies from tangible deliverables that truly have an impact on improving sustainability targets.  With this new alliance, we are setting the bar in terms of eco-venue standards and giving organisers a clear choice of partner organisations that can support their CSR needs.”

Anne Jamieson, Director of Sales at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre concluded: “The launch of this new alliance marks an exciting new era for the meetings and events sector, as we collaborate in developing new eco-friendly venue design features and packaged services.  We anticipate that event organisers will benefit from a significantly enhanced sustainable offer and the industry as a whole will see best-practice improved across the board.”

The alliance will initially focus on developing its combined offer and joint international marketing activities.  Over the coming months, the alliance will announce a range of service offerings and other initiatives to further strengthen relationships and share best-practice amongst partner venues.