Leaders from the Danish Meetings Industry collaborate with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deliver sustainable events for the 2012 EU Presidency. The collaboration targets certification to the ISO20121 event sustainability certification of the Government event management system. An innovative web resource www.sustainableeventsdenmark.org is explaining the enterprising initiative in more detail.

Denmark plays host to the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from January to June 2012. As a result, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is organising over 100 meetings attracting more than 15,000 participants visiting Copenhagen and the city of Horsens in central Jutland.

Private and public stakeholders affiliated with the Danish Meetings Industry collaborate to create an ambitious national sustainability project: the “Danish Sustainable Events Initiative” (DSEI) to showcase and improve Danish actions to profit from sustainability in action.

The DSEI leverages momentum of the 2012 EU Presidency to inspire businesses to greater collaboration, innovation and sustainable development. The progress of the DSEI can be followed on its dynamic website www.sustainableeventsdenmark.org - a web resource created for the benefit of both Danish national and international events industries.

Steen Jakobsen, Convention Director - Wonderful Copenhagen CVB, says:

“The transformative power of the DSEI project is a showcase for Danish leadership in sustainable event infrastructure and approach. The dedicated DSEI site helps strengthen the competitive positioning of Copenhagen as the “Capital of Sustainable Meetings” and Denmark as a ‘first choice’ sustainable meetings destination.”

Project partners of the DSEI are: The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, VisitDenmark, SAS – Scandinavian Airlines, HORESTA (The Danish Hotel & Restaurant Association), VisitAarhus CVB, VisitAalborg CVB, Inspiring Denmark, State of Green, City of Copenhagen, Bella Center Copenhagen, Wonderful Copenhagen CVB and MCI.

Not least since staging the COP15 event in Copenhagen in December 2009 and the succeeding launch of the “Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Protocol” (CSMP), the number of sustainable and certified hotel rooms in Denmark has increased to a notable 43% nationwide and 63% in Copenhagen.

Andreas Clausen Boor, Head of Logistics for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs shares:

“The success of greening COP15 provided us with a strong foundation for taking our sustainable event approach to all of Denmark. The Sustainable Events Denmark web portal is another crucial step towards bringing together planners, suppliers and destinations around the world to advance sustainable solutions. The case studies on the site, for example, can be a resource for planners everywhere to integrate sustainable event standards, even on a tight budget!” 

Danish Sustainability Events Initiative - contact persons are:
- Steen Jakobsen, Convention Director - Wonderful Copenhagen CVB,
Tel: +45 33 55 74 04, stj@woco.dk
- Andreas Clausen Boor, Head of Section – Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, andboo@um.dk  
- Guy Bigwood, Sustainability Director – MCI Group, Tel: +34 669 76 26 34, Guy.bigwood@mci-group.com 
- Anne Seeberg, International Marketing Coordinator - Business Tourism, VisitDenmark, Tel. +45 32 88 99 87, as@visitdenmark.com