Las Vegas. In line with its principles of consistently reducing environmental impact, organizers of IMEX America, the IMEX Group, have announced key results from the inaugural Las Vegas show’s first sustainability program. The report was conducted by IMEX America’s sustainability consultants, MeetGreen.
During the debut of IMEX America in October 2011 in Las Vegas, the IMEX Group set out to collect extensive baseline data against which it could set sustainable benchmarks and report environmental achievements and progress over future years. The measures included creating programs and partnerships with all major constituents of the trade show including sponsors, exhibitors, attendees, and vendors/service providers. They also incorporated a range of other business activities such as back-office functions.
As promised, the IMEX America show featured a number of meetings sustainabilty best practices at the Sands Expo and in various partner hotels. They included the use of show badges and hosted buyer luggage tags made from recycled paper, badge lanyards made from plant silk and sustainable badge holders. Show bags were reusable and made of recyclable polypropylene, exhibitor waste baskets were reused or recycled, signage was sourced within 100 miles of the event and 99% of those signs are now being stored locally for re-use next year.
To expand the reach of IMEX America’s green and CSR efforts to the local community, and around the globe, IMEX partnered closely with the IMEX America headquarters hotel and convention center The Venetian, The Palazzo and Sands Expo. The company also worked with local non-profits, additional hotels and global non-profit organizations in Las Vegas.
“Our mission going into the show was to reduce, reuse, recycle and respect,” said Carina Bauer CEO of the IMEX Group. “We think we made some very positive strides towards doing these things right out of the gate and are looking forward to making our performance even stronger at the 2012 show through more innovation, more partnerships and more knowledge about the best way to implement sustainable practices in Las Vegas.”
To establish green and CSR goals for the 2012 IMEX America show, IMEX and its Sustainability Partners, MeetGreen, now have some important benchmark data on which to measure success. For example, recycled material from The Venetian The Palazzo and Sands was clocked at 66.4 tons and food donated to a Las Vegas food emergency service amounted to 156.5 lbs. The carbon footprint avoided during the show amounted to 1.52 metric tonnes of Co2E.
IMEX America 2012 will take place at the Sands Expo, Las Vegas, Oct 9 – 11.
