In the moment
IMEX sustainability strategy
Introduction
Sustainability strategies often lose people because they focus on a distant future: 2050 feels a long way off and the scale of the task can feel overwhelming. But where the long-term big picture feels remote, this strategy is designed to bring sustainability back to something real and within reach.
In the Moment is the mindset that grounds sustainability into something people actually do, not something they hope to achieve one day.
Built on one of our core values, In the Moment puts people at the center of our sustainability strategy. It encourages all of us to focus on what’s right in front of us, and to make practical, impact-led decisions, before, during and after engaging with our shows.
In isolation, these moments may seem small, sometimes even unnoticeable as “sustainability actions.” But when thousands of people take them, across multiple moments, their collective impact is powerful.
Delivering a people-first strategy
We believe our strategy will be strongest if it builds on what we already do well, so we’ve grounded it in something core to IMEX: enriching experiences.
We always strive to be better than before, finding new ways to enhance the quality and value of the experiences we create for all our stakeholders. This has been part of who we are from the beginning.
We enrich experiences through connection, creativity and learning, and through the sense of community our shows create each year. This gives us a practical way to consider how our decisions, interactions and touchpoints can be enhanced or add value for our stakeholders and our team, while moving with focus toward our sustainability goals. Applied consistently, this approach creates experiences that feel more meaningful, more intentional and more impactful for everyone involved.
A data-driven approach
Although this strategy is distinctly human, it isn’t based on instinct or guesswork. Every element has been shaped by evidence: by what we’ve learned from our audience, by the carbon data we’ve collected over several years and by the decades of action already taken.
In November 2025, we surveyed almost 1,000 IMEX stakeholders and in December 2025, we established our carbon baseline. Combined with clear direction from climate science, this gives us a clear picture of where we are today, where to focus our efforts and where the biggest opportunities for progress are.
This means the outcomes we’re aiming for aren’t being defined in a vacuum. They’re grounded in what the data tells us.
Because the strategy is evidence-based, we can also track progress. We’ll have a clear line of sight between the choices made in the moment and the impact delivered over time. We’ll be able to see whether we’re on the right path and where we may need to adjust as new information becomes available.
A strategy that works for IMEX
For this strategy to succeed, it needs to be understood and used—giving our team and our stakeholders the clarity and confidence to act and to make better decisions every day.
By grounding our approach in both evidence and our core values, it becomes a natural extension of how we already work. It shapes choices, conversations and behaviors in ways that feel intuitive and genuine, bringing sustainability into the everyday decisions that define our shows.
In doing so, the strategy moves off the page and into practice, becoming part of how we operate and how our events are experienced. It keeps us focused on what we can do now, while building toward the future we want—even when that future might feel far away.
Who we are
Our shows bring the global meetings and events industry together in one place, twice a year. Thousands of buyers and suppliers from around the world have been building meaningful business connections at our shows in Frankfurt since 2003, and in Las Vegas since 2011.
We welcome global decision makers, event professionals, meeting planners and incentive travel buyers from agencies, corporates and associations alongside hospitality and event management students and academics, and the global meetings industry press.
Our exhibitors include national and regional tourist offices and convention bureaus, major hotel companies, conference and exhibition venues, cruise lines, airlines, spa resorts, technology providers, event management specialists and many more.
Since launching IMEX, our aim has always been to be more than a trade show. Our purpose is to build better human connections worldwide—connections that help business to go beyond borders, enable global networking and support strong, lasting working relationships. In doing so, we champion a thriving global events industry focused on positive change.
Our values
Our values sit at the heart of this strategy and are embedded in how we work.
Put people first: We empower one another, choose kindness, and trust our community and each other.
Achieve together: We are curiously creative, deliver innovation and create positive change.
Lead the way: We cultivate joy, challenge expectations and grow together.
These values guide how this strategy is delivered. They shape how we lead, collaborate and enable action, ensuring progress is not driven by us alone, but shared across the community we serve.
The moments before—and what we’ve learned
Before stepping into the next moment, it’s important to reflect on how we’ve approached sustainability to date. Our intention isn’t to list achievements, but to reflect on what we’ve done, what those actions represented at the time, and how they’ve shaped the organization we are today.
Our sustainability journey has never been linear. It has unfolded through a series of intentional actions responding to what felt necessary at the time; shaped by experimentation, learning in public, moments of conviction and moments of uncertainty.
What follows is a reflection on some key actions we’ve taken, the context behind them, the measurable—and often anecdotal—impact they’ve had, and what we’ve learned in the process.
Making sustainability visible, early
Before sustainability was widely demanded or expected, we recognized it as an emerging issue for the sector. Our early efforts focused on visibility and awareness, creating space for sustainability within the show environment and signaling that it mattered.
This included:
Launching the Green Meetings Award at our first show in Frankfurt in 2003
Providing a booth for the Green Meetings Industry Council in the early years of the show
Gradually embedding sustainability into the education program as interest grew
Publishing annual sustainability and impact reports
These actions helped normalize the conversation, test appetite and give the topic legitimacy.
Our learning
We learned that intention alone is not enough. Making sustainability visible is a critical first step in normalizing action, but without clear direction and shared strategy, progress risks becoming fragmented and losing momentum.
“When the show started in 2003, we recognized that sustainability would become an important issue for the sector, so we made a conscious decision to begin by educating our audience. We started small, with a booth for the Green Meetings Industry Council.
In the early years, engagement was limited, but we understood that change takes time. By year three, interest started to grow.
As we saw more examples of what others were doing—particularly through initiatives like the MeetGreen awards—we began to learn, adapt and apply those ideas in our own work.
Over time, sustainability became embedded in what we do, evolving alongside our education program and as part of how we operate.”
Carina Bauer, CEO, IMEX Group
Taking a position
Over the last decade, we began taking bolder steps and setting expectations for how our shows are delivered. This marked a shift from sustainability as optional to something we were prepared to stand behind and act on.
Examples include:
Mandating renewable electricity for all exhibitors at IMEX Frankfurt
Removing beef and lamb from menus
Launching the People & Planet Village
These actions reflected a growing confidence to lead—and a willingness to make decisions on behalf of the whole, even when not everyone would choose the same path.
Our learning
We learned not to assume how people will respond to sustainability decisions. Where actions are grounded in evidence, clearly communicated and reasonable in practice, stakeholders are far more willing to accept—and often support—change.
“When we made certain decisions for sustainability, we were concerned how they might be received. We had a gut feeling that making changes would alienate or upset people. But we found this to be quite the opposite.
When we made renewable energy the only option for exhibitors, we had no push-back. The same was true when we removed red meat from the menus.
It helped us build confidence in taking a position and reinforced our role in setting expectations.”
Roger Lehner, Senior Operations and Sustainability Executive, IMEX Group
Designing out waste, not just managing it
As our understanding deepened, our focus shifted from managing sustainability impacts to questioning how they were created in the first place.
This is where we began to examine systems, design choices and operational norms.
Key actions included:
Participating in the Better Stands pilot
Assessing space-only booths to understand where disposability was built into design
Identifying structural barriers to reuse and circularity
In 2022, at IMEX Frankfurt, we designed assets to deliver four years of value, including our People & Planet Village in Hall 9, highlighting the importance of circularity
This represented a move from surface-level interventions to systemic questioning.
Our learning
While we can act within our own operations, the greatest opportunity for impact sits in exhibitor participation. Modeling better practice is important, but progress at scale requires engaging and supporting exhibitors to make lower-waste, more circular choices.
“We’ve moved from trying to manage waste to questioning why it exists at all. When you look at how exhibition booths are built, many of these are single-use or disposable by design.
Some exhibitors are starting to make braver choices, but it’s not consistent yet and many decisions are still driven by habit.
Change doesn’t just come from new materials or better products. It comes from expectations. Because of our position, we can influence suppliers—and we’ve seen that happen. Suppliers have absorbed costs to meet new standards and then taken those solutions to other clients.
There’s a responsibility to keep supporting that kind of approach, because the next breakthrough isn’t about tech or products—it’s about attitudes.”
Mark Mulligan, Director of Operations, IMEX Group
Seeking external expertise and challenge
At key moments, we recognized the limits of working alone—and sought external expertise.
This included:
Early collaboration and ongoing work with MeetGreen to evolve sustainable practice
Working with One Stone to broaden our understanding of sustainability beyond environmental impacts and to shift from passive awareness to active accountability
Appointing isla as our sustainability partner to support the development of an environmental sustainability and decarbonization strategy
Each partnership reflected a different need at a different moment, from education and challenge to structure and depth.
Our learning
Technical expertise, like greenhouse gas accounting or circular design is essential, but it must be integrated with our operational knowledge and decision-making to ensure solutions are practical, relevant and embedded.
“Impact means different things to different people. Our role hasn’t been to define it, but to create a shared lens to understand it.
For a long time, sustainability and impact mattered within the business, but they didn’t have a clear home. There was progress, but it wasn’t strategically led.
What we’ve learned is that this isn’t something that sits on the side. It requires ownership, accountability and active participation across the whole organization. Without that, it loses momentum.
It’s not always easy, but there’s a real desire across the team to engage—to understand what good looks like, and to know that what we’re doing genuinely moves things forward, both within IMEX and across the industry.”
Natasha Richards, Director of Impact and Industry Relations, IMEX Group
From awareness to accountability
One of the most significant shifts has been the move from knowing sustainability matters to treating it as a business issue that requires ownership. Our measurement work marked a turning point in how we understood our role and influence.
Key moments included:
Becoming a Net Zero Carbon Events (NZCE) signatory
Beginning carbon measurement using TRACE by isla in 2022
Deepening analysis and insight through IMEX Frankfurt-level consultancy work in 2025
Gaining clarity on where we can intervene to meaningfully reduce emissions
Recognizing that delivery depends on system-wide collaboration, not isolated action
Sustainability being formally recognized as a business risk and assigning accountability at CFO level
This period surfaced important truths about ambition, realism and responsibility, and how measurement data plays a key role in driving our decarbonization strategy.
Our learning
Progress depends on ownership. Moving sustainability into formal business accountability—including CFO-level responsibility—shifted it from an aspirational goal to a managed, strategic priority. Insights from consistent measurement showed us that progress is not about doing everything, but about doing the right things. Measurement has helped us pinpoint our most material emissions and identify the specific interventions that can meaningfully reduce them, giving us clear and practical actions we can take to deliver meaningful results.
“Sustainability had been embedded in our operations for some time, but it was the increase in UK and EU reporting requirements that brought it firmly into senior leadership focus.
The need to understand our emissions and our exposure prompted a shift in the way we approach sustainability. What began as compliance evolved into a broader understanding of sustainability as a core business issue—one connected to risk, regulation and long-term resilience.
As that understanding developed, it also became clear that strong sustainability performance can be a source of competitive advantage. The challenge is to balance these dynamics—managing increasing regulatory requirements while also recognizing the opportunity to strengthen the business through how we respond.
From that point, it became clear that this required clear ownership at leadership level, supported by robust governance and oversight, to ensure sustainability is fully integrated into how the business operates.”
David Harrison, CFO, IMEX Group
The current moment: where we are today
We’ve been working on sustainability for many years. We’ve now reached a clear point of recognition: this cannot be the responsibility of one organization alone. The scale of the challenge, and the way impact is distributed across the business events industry, means progress now depends on participation from everyone we work with.
There is widespread recognition across all stakeholder groups that the climate crisis is urgent. However, our research shows a disconnect between those delivering events and those setting the agenda. Around 70% of event practitioners view the climate crisis as extremely or very urgent, compared with around 60% of event leaders. Those closer to implementation are less confident that the industry is responding at the pace required, while leaders are more likely to feel fatigued by sustainability language and disengage from it.
This gap matters because decisions flow from the top. When leaders disengage, action stalls—no matter how motivated others may be. This isn’t a question of willingness—it’s a question of visibility. What good looks like is not always clear, and much of the progress being made is not yet visible at scale.
This is reinforced by the biggest frustration identified in our stakeholder survey: 31% of respondents said sustainability feels like "all talk, no action." Without visible evidence of progress, momentum is difficult to build—and even harder to sustain.
Momentum builds through action and action requires direction
At the same time, the data shows something encouraging. As people learn more about sustainability, their empathy grows, along with their willingness to engage. Alongside this sits a clear and consistent signal across all groups: a strong appetite for practical support—clarity on what to do, how to do it and where to focus.
When asked what support would be most valuable, respondents prioritized:
- showcasing organizations demonstrating measurable progress
- providing practical resources, frameworks, guides and case studies
- delivering learning and development
- enabling knowledge and data exchange
The strongest message in our research is clear: 84% of respondents—attendees and exhibitors alike—believe we should set sustainability standards for exhibitors, signaling a clear expectation for leadership.
The message is consistent. People are ready, but they need clearer guidance, stronger examples and visible proof that progress is possible.
Beyond measurement to intervention
Alongside audience sentiment, our measurement work has allowed us to move beyond assumption and better understand where intervention is both possible and meaningful.
While we’ve made significant progress within our own operations, expanding our measurement and accounting boundaries to include participant travel has shown that most of our footprint sits beyond our own operations. Based on current data, approximately 90% of travel emissions are linked to aviation. At the same time, we have limited visibility into how exhibitor booth design, materials and build practices contribute to overall impact.
In the near term, this highlights two clear areas of focus:
- Within Europe: where there is a significant opportunity to shift travel behavior from short-haul flights to rail
- Exhibitor booths: where improving visibility into materials, design and lifecycle impacts is critical to reducing waste and emissions
Improving performance and insight in these areas is essential. Without this, we cannot effectively target interventions or support change at scale. More detail on our measurement approach and findings can be found in our decarbonization pathway
We take our role as leaders seriously
Bringing audience sentiment together with measurement insights gives us a clear picture of where we are today:
- an industry that is ready and willing to act, but needs clearer direction
- progress that is underway, but not yet visible
- clear opportunities where focused intervention can make a meaningful difference
This strategy responds to that reality—turning intent into action and action into progress.
Crucially, we recognize the need to experiment, to try new approaches, test ideas and even fail at times.
For us, leadership has never meant waiting for certainty. It means being willing to act early—trying things, learning publicly and improving through iteration rather than chasing perfection. We’ve built our reputation on this kind of leadership and maintaining it requires continued boldness.
As our CEO, Carina Bauer, puts it, “You’ve got to try things if you’re going to be at the front.”
Our next moments—where we go from here
Our next moment is shaped by what we’ve learned and by the reality of where we can act now. It bridges where we’ve come from and where we need to go—grounded in evidence and designed to be practical for both our team and the wider industry to engage with.
While carbon remains a central focus, it’s not the only lens through which we approach sustainability. The way we design our shows—systems, spaces, processes and choices—directly influences environmental outcomes. Waste, materials, circularity and resource use are all shaped by design decisions made every day.
Our measurement has helped us identify where immediate intervention is possible—particularly in travel behavior and exhibitor participation. At the same time, our audience insight shows a clear need for guidance, clarity and visible progress. Together, these inform where we focus next.
This next phase is about maintaining momentum and turning intent into action. It requires us to prioritize what matters most, to design for better outcomes, and to create the conditions for our teams and our audience to act. How we design our strategy is as important as how we design our shows—and both will shape the impact we deliver.
An ongoing commitment to rapid decarbonization
Our commitment to the Net Zero Carbon Events (NZCE) initiative remains unchanged. We continue to support the ambition to reduce emissions to as close to zero as possible, as quickly as possible, and to play a meaningful role in decarbonizing the global events industry.
Over the past five years, we’ve made progress across our own operations. However, as our understanding has deepened, it has become clear that the scale and complexity of our commitments are greater than we originally understood.
When we signed the pledge in 2021, it was with genuine intent. At the time, achieving net zero by 2050—defined as a 90% emissions reduction from a baseline year—felt distant but achievable, and the interim goal of a 50% reduction by 2030 appeared within reach. Since then, our understanding of the scope of that commitment has evolved. We have expanded our emissions boundary to include participant travel, which we now recognize as a significant part of our overall footprint and an area where we have responsibility to act.
Through more rigorous measurement, deeper engagement in carbon accounting and consultancy-led strategy development, sustainability has emerged as a critical issue for business and sector continuity, not solely an environmental one.
One of the most important insights we’ve gained is that achieving a 50% reduction in emissions associated with our shows by 2030 would require a fundamental shift in our operating model. As an organization whose purpose is to bring people together—creating shared value through in-person connection, supporting more than 80 employees, and contributing to the industry and wider economy—removing the core activity of convening is neither realistic nor aligned with our mission.
This insight hasn’t weakened our resolve. It has sharpened it. We now recognize that reducing our own operational footprint is essential, but not sufficient. Developing a sustainable meetings and events industry—and contributing meaningfully to global emissions reduction—requires us to enable, influence and support others to act.
Our strategic goals reflect this broader understanding: to reduce our own impact wherever possible, while focusing our greatest effort where we have the most influence—shaping behaviors, strengthening standards, building capability and supporting progress across the industry we serve.
Goal 1: Reduce IMEX’s carbon emissions by 20% by 2030
To set our strategy and decarbonization pathway, we’ve examined our data to identify where interventions are possible, where leverage exists and where targeted effort can deliver meaningful change.
These opportunities sit primarily in areas such as attendee travel and exhibitor participation—where relatively simple interventions can meaningfully reduce emissions without compromising the purpose of our shows.
As a business operating within the global business events industry, our carbon footprint is shaped primarily by aviation. Based on the data we currently have, approximately 89% of our measured carbon footprint comes from participant air travel. This means that achieving a 50% emissions reduction by 2030—the level set out in the Paris Agreement—is not achievable for us (or, arguably, any global event business) without rapid, sector-wide aviation decarbonization, which sits outside our direct control.
This does not remove our responsibility to act. While the decarbonization of aviation is beyond our control, travel to our shows is the single most material driver of our emissions—and one we can influence. By shaping how people choose to travel and encouraging lower-carbon alternatives where possible, we can begin to drive meaningful behavioral change and reduce emissions in practice.
We have therefore set a trajectory for reducing travel emissions that we believe is realistic and achievable. This focuses on incremental shifts in behavior, including a targeted move from short-haul flights to rail travel for Frankfurt. This equates to an approximate 3% reduction year on year to 2030.
This represents the first 12% of our 20% reduction target, grounded in areas where we have clear visibility, influence and the ability to act.
The remaining 8% represents our ambition. It reflects our commitment to learn from actions already underway, measure their effectiveness and accelerate progress through iteration across show cycles. It also reflects our intention to explore, design and launch new initiatives that help close the gap.
These includes opportunities such as prioritizing local supply chains, transitioning to hotels powered by renewable energy, and improving how exhibitor participation is designed and delivered. Achieving this further reduction will require creativity, collaboration and continued exploration of where additional opportunity lies.
Our intended outcome
This goal is designed to deliver meaningful emissions reductions within the limits of our operating reality, while building the evidence, insight and confidence needed to accelerate future reductions. It’s about reducing emissions where we can, proving what’s possible and using that evidence to strengthen the longer-term roadmap.
This target is based on a carbon inventory that reflects our full accountability as an event owner and organizer.
It includes all IMEX-operated activity and extends beyond this to capture emissions such as participant travel and exhibitor booths. We believe this provides a more accurate and responsible representation of the emissions involved in delivering our shows. This approach aligns with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and the current NZCE measurement methodology.
Further detail on the methodology, boundaries and assumptions can be found in our decarbonization roadmap
Goal 2: Drive circularity in exhibitor participation
Exhibitor participation often relies on short-term, temporary infrastructure, generating significant waste and emissions.
Even with the best intentions, most exhibitor booths are delivered within a predominantly linear system: materials are extracted, produced, transported, assembled for short periods, dismantled and discarded, even when they could be reused. This isn’t due to poor decision-making by individual exhibitors or contractors, but rather a consequence of the systems our industry operates within.
Linear systems create unnecessary emissions, additional cost and increased pressure on waste and recycling processes.
By contrast, circular approaches—focused on reuse, longevity and recovery—can reduce emissions, ease pressure on waste and recycling infrastructure, and lower costs over time. They also open up new opportunities for services, solutions and business models that strengthen commercial viability.
Driving circularity in exhibitor participation therefore requires more than setting expectations. It calls for engagement, collaboration and shared problem-solving across our ecosystem.
Our goal is to work alongside exhibitors, contractors and partners to explore how more circular approaches can be designed, tested and adopted in practice. This work has already begun through the implementation of Better Stands at our shows, as well as by supporting exhibitors to measure the emissions associated with their booths. Alongside this, we will create space for dialogue, support learning and capability development, and work collectively to identify solutions that are both practical and commercially viable.
We do not yet have a single defined pathway for achieving this. Our intention is to combine data-led insight with ongoing audience discovery, and our 2026 Design Matters Talking Point to use what we learn to shape interventions grounded in real-world constraints and opportunities.
To move meaningfully toward circular approaches at scale, we must first address a fundamental gap: visibility. Today, we lack sufficient insight into how exhibitor booths are designed, built, transported and managed across their full lifecycle. Without this understanding, our ability to identify the most effective interventions is limited.
How our shows are constructed matters. The materials used, how they’re transported, how long they remain in use, and what happens to them after the show all influence the carbon footprint and waste profile of booth design. We believe there are multiple opportunities to reduce both waste and carbon in this area—but only if we understand them clearly.
We also recognize that this is a priority for our exhibitors. Many are actively seeking ways to design lower-carbon, lower-waste booths that are also more cost-efficient. By improving visibility and supporting better approaches, we can help exhibitors make more informed decisions, reducing impact while delivering commercial benefit.
To support this, we’ve set a sub-goal to measure emissions from 60% of exhibitor booths across our 2026 shows.
Increasing measurement coverage will allow us to move from assumptions to evidence-led strategy development, identify practical interventions and support deeper emissions reductions over time. This also contributes to Goal 1.
Our intended outcome
With a clearer understanding of booth impacts, we will be better positioned to inform industry dialogue, share learning and uncover workable solutions.
Organizing shows that bring together hundreds of exhibitors and booth contractors, means we’re well placed to create the conditions for greater circularity. This work is about enabling better outcomes: supporting exhibitors in reducing waste, designing more efficient booths and potentially lowering costs, while contributing to a more effective operating model for the industry.
By approaching circularity as a shared challenge rather than an individual burden, we can help shift exhibitor participation toward practices that are better for business, better for the industry and better aligned with long-term sustainability goals.
Goal 3: Strengthen leadership alignment on sustainability
Our data points to a disconnect between different parts of the industry. Many leaders express confidence in the sector’s ability to respond to sustainability challenges yet are more likely to feel fatigued by sustainability language, view sustainability as peripheral to their role and disengage from sustainability-related content. In contrast, those closer to implementation tend to see greater urgency—and have less confidence that the industry is responding at the pace required.
This gap isn’t about resistance or lack of intent. Rather, it reflects differences in how sustainability is understood, discussed and applied at different levels within organizations. Sustainability is a core business issue—closely tied to resilience, risk, regulation and long-term value—but it’s often framed in ways that feel abstract, tactical or disconnected from commercial priorities.
As a result, sustainability can sit alongside leadership decision-making rather than being embedded within it, making it harder for leaders to engage with it as a strategic driver of business continuity and growth.
In response, our goal is to help create the conditions for more effective leadership engagement. This means supporting clearer, more commercially grounded conversations and providing the structure, insight and context leaders need to act with confidence.
This will include creating space for dialogue, sharing evidence of what works in practice, and enabling more informed decision-making across the industry. It’s not our aim to provide all the answers or to own the sustainability narrative, but to support better questions, stronger alignment and more effective action at leadership level.
Our intended outcome
By creating the right conditions for more aligned leadership engagement—through clearer framing, relevant language, practical guidance and shared understanding—we can help shift sustainability from intention to application. This enables deeper conversations, more grounded solutions and more effective collaboration across the industry. It also helps leaders in integrating sustainability into strategic decision-making and long-term business prosperity.
Goal 4: Support profitability through sustainability-related opportunities
We operate within clear constraints with physical, in-person shows. Our ability to grow the show floor isn’t infinite; we’re bound by space, infrastructure and geography. Within this reality, sustainability isn’t only a values-led commitment—it’s a strategy for long-term business prosperity. For us to continue investing, innovating and accelerating progress on decarbonization and circularity, sustainability must also support commercial resilience.
When approached effectively, sustainability creates the conditions for smarter use of resources, unlocks new value, and strengthens our ability to adapt and respond to change.
This requires a shift in how sustainability is understood across the organization. While some actions may carry cost or sit as standalone initiatives, sustainability is also a driver of better decision-making and more resilient business models. To be effective, it must sit within the psyche of the business—shaping how we identify, evaluate and act on opportunity.
Our goal is to actively explore and develop sustainability-related opportunities that strengthen both environmental outcomes and commercial performance. This means identifying where sustainability can unlock new value, improve efficiency, and support more resilient ways of operating—both at our shows and across the wider industry.
Our intended outcome
By doing this, we aim to demonstrate that sustainability isn’t an additional “thing to do”, but a way of sustaining and strengthening the business itself. This includes uncovering underexplored opportunities, making better use of existing assets and capabilities, and supporting solutions that deliver both environmental and commercial value.
In doing so, we can advance our own strategic goals while also modeling how sustainability can support profitability, resilience and innovation across the wider industry.
What this means in practice
Taken together, these goals represent a shift in how we approach sustainability. Rather than treating it as a series of initiatives or isolated actions, this strategy will guide how decisions are made across the business—grounded in data, aligned with our values, and focused on where we can have the greatest impact.
This means moving to a more intentional and coordinated approach, with sustainability as a whole-company effort. It will be embedded into how we plan, design and deliver our shows—shaping priorities, informing trade-offs and helping us focus on what matters most.
We’ll continue to build on the insight provided through our measurement and decarbonization work, using it to direct effort, test interventions and learn over time.
Monitoring, learning and iteration
Across our goals, we’re committed to an active cycle of monitoring, learning and iteration. This strategy isn’t static. It’s designed to evolve as we learn more about what works, where impact is being created and where further intervention is needed.
Progress will be tracked internally through a combination of evidence, data and defined measures of success, aligned with team objectives and responsibilities. We’ll assess the effectiveness of our actions, learn across show cycles and use these insights to refine and strengthen our approach over time.
This commitment to continuous progress is embedded in our governance implementation plans, developed in parallel with the strategy itself. This ensures our actions remain aligned with our intent and that progress is actively reviewed rather than assumed.
Our intention is to report credibly on what we set out to do, what we did, what worked, what didn’t and how our approach continues to evolve—ensuring the strategy becomes part of how we operate, rather than something that exists only on paper.
Our experience over the past 25 years has shown us that meaningful sustainability progress is rarely linear. It requires testing, iteration and adjustment—informed by data, grounded in experience and reviewed regularly.
Progress toward our goals and decarbonization targets will be reported annually, with our first progress report published in early 2027.
Our strategy is an invitation
Our strategy is an invitation—to learn, to participate and to act in the moment. It’s an open call to everyone in our community to move with us, use the tools available and play a part in shaping a more resilient, creative and sustainable events industry.
We’ll continue to share what we learn, make our progress visible and offer practical guidance that helps turn intention into action. We’ll also keep grounding our work in evidence, collaboration and the lived experiences of our shows, our team and the wider industry.
We invite you to join us: explore the insights, follow our progress and help shape the decisions that come next. Together, we can build momentum—moment by moment—toward the future we want.
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