In an attempt to promote greener meetings, the UNEP/MAP set an awareness raising booth during its Focal Points meeting held from 13 to 16 October in Athens. The awareness raising activity included the use of a short “paperless” digital presentation that provided details showing how to properly plan an event to reduce its ecological footprint and paper consumption, to implement certifications (such as ISO 20121 for sustainable management system), and to use a simple web-based tool to successfully calculate the CO2 emissions generated from every meeting.
Participants lent their ears and eyes to the content of the presentation and provided excellent feedback for future ideas and implementation. They all acknowledged the importance of such initiatives and the need to replicate such an activity in their meetings. “This is a great initiative, we should all go for greener meetings from now on”, said one of the participants.
The booth comes as one of the initiatives of the MAP Sustainability Task Force, aiming at implementing a more sustainable, greener approach, and reduction of environmental footprint in the daily operations and the meetings organized by the MAP System.
The Task Force was launched at the beginning of year 2015 and consisted of UNEP/MAP Secretariat and its Regional Activity Centres Plan Bleu, PAP/RAC, SPA/RAC, REMPEC, INFO/RAC, and SCP/RAC located in France, Croatia, Tunisia, Malta, Italy and Spain.
