The Austrian Ecolabel for Green Meetings and Green Events

The Austrian Ecolabel for "Green Meetings and Green Events" is the first national environmental label which allows the certification of a whole event. Organizers as well as participants and locations are involved and committed in the greening process to create a really sustainable event.

The quality label has been created in 2010. It demonstrates environmentally conscious as well as socially responsible management of a meeting and is committed to the preservation of the bases of life and pays attention to the well-being of participants as well as of staff members.

Which events can receive the Austrian Ecolabel?

Congresses, Symposia
Scientific or national conferences
Conferences, fora, colloquia
Company meetings, business meetings
General assemblies, board meetings
Closed meetings, seminars, further training courses, workshops
Business events, public events, galas and the like

Who can become a licensee?

PCOs (Professional Congress Organizers)
Congress and exhibition centres
Convention Bureaus
Congress and seminar hotels
Event planning and event management companies, public relations agencies, city marketing offices
Extracurricular institutions of further education and training

Criteria

On the basis of a comprehensive criteria catalogue a meeting must comply with requirements in the following fields: Offers of an environmentally-friendly mobility to the Conference venue, mobility on the spot and CO2 reduction, environmentally-friendly accommodations, requirements for the conference venue, catering and exhibition stand builders, environmentally-friendly procurement, material and waste management, social aspects and communication.

In addition to that the specific situation such as size, offer, equipment or location is addressed through the use of specialized criteria. Moreover, particularities are rewarded, such as the exclusive use of organic food in catering or special offers for persons with handicaps and their families. The event organizer has to show his sustainable mangement principles and sustainable office management.

Organisation

If an organiser carries out or wants to carry out environmentally friendly meetings or is interested in a licence the first contact would be with the "Verein für Konsumenteninformation" (Austrian Consumers Association). The second contact would be to a consultant who accompanies the entrepreneurs in the process of the implementation of the first meeting and supports them on their way to licensing. Corporate internal environmental requirements have to be complied with, a Green Meeting agent is to be appointed and the staff members are to be informed and partly to be trained. The organisation of a Green Meeting and the compliance with the respective requirements are to be laid down with the customer in a contract.

The use of the Ecolabel is granted for a period of four years, for events in which all mandatory criteria are complied with and a certain number of scores is reached from the directory proposals.

Every event within the utilisation period must be entered into a special "Green Meetings" online software and must be licensed by this software. The events are subjected to random-sample check-ups. After the expiry of the four years period an extension of the period of utilisation of the Ecolabel by means of a follow-up audit is possible.The website

The page meetings.umweltzeichen.at (German only) provides for the organisers a platform, where he/she can certify his/her events and present them publicly.