Sustainability

A Community at SITE

Overview of the SITE Sustainability Community

SITE’s Sustainability Committee became an active community in 2020 following Vancouver, BC SITE Global Conference. The late Miek Egberts, founding chair of the committee, with her poignant beliefs in Sustainability, propelled this committee to start advocating Sustainability Principles to our global chapters. Her passion for the balance between humans and mother nature along with enthusiastic committee members as Ambassadors & Mentors together inaugurated the SITE Sustainability Chapter Certification. The certification process was created as an internal guide & process to bring about awareness of our industry’s global impact.

Mission & Vision

Our Mission: To advance sustainability awareness and certification for incentive travel & motivational experiences with SITE Global Chapters, communities, and members.

Our Vision: To be the leading industry voice for sustainability transformation of incentive travel & motivational experiences through the implementation of standard practices in planning and delivering events that support environmental, societal and economical endeavours, locally, regionally and globally while promoting our pillars of people, planet, purpose and profits.

Our Purpose

To create a global community and advocate global citizenry by educating the incentive & motivational industry to reduce carbon & water & food footprint, lower the impact of climate change and positively impact environmental, societal, and economic endeavours, locally, regionally and globally.

2024 Update from Committee

Our SITE Sustainability Community celebrates its 5th Anniversary this year. It has been a journey of learnings, realizations and insights for the volunteers and chapters over the years. We are thrilled that our 2023 year met its many goals, perhaps the more significant milestones is the Sustainability Chapter Certification of ALL the existing global chapters and the awareness that our community exists, and we commit to providing on-going support to our SITE Global Community and beyond.

This year, 2024, we have raised the bar for even more exposure through our web page, our key communication outlet, by means of providing over the next several months, relevant, meaningful and practical material, such as articles, white papers, recorded webinars, recommended NGO’s and Organizations (with a key focus on Sustainability) and Education Initiatives where will be sharing the stage at Global Conference 2024 and IMEX Frankfurt plus a live Webinar in Q3.

At Global Conference, during our Interactive Gathering we engaged in insightful discussions and exchanged ideas with roundtable topics including Sustainability Strategy with Courtney Lohman, CSR Events with Katrin Naumann and Kate Cardoso, Measurements with Tanya Wick and Hotels with Kim Napolitano and Harith Wickrema; our Frankfurt Session will be a grassroots approach focusing on the Sustainable “6Rs” Rule: Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair.

SITE has added two new chapters, Northern California and Arabia. Our team will be working diligently with these chapters so they will receive the Sustainability Certification by the end of 2024. As the chapters have had their Sustainability tutoring through the certification process, a blueprint is now being created to recommend on-going practices to install Sustainability mindset in each Chapters’ DNA.

Earth Day is quickly approaching on April 22. However, the Sustainability Community sees it a “Every Day is Earth Day”. In 2023, we initiated a lofty goal for Earth Day, a veritable Global Plant-Based E-Cookbook. We are proud to launch it in March along with our 2024 initiative and recommendations.

And we continue to “walk the talk: of our Purpose Statement: To create global communities and advocate global citizenry by educating the incentive & motivational industry to reduce carbon & water & food footprint, lower impact to climate change and positively impact environmental, societal, and economical endeavours, locally, regionally and globally.

Sustainability Committee

Chair

MaryBeth Reeves

McVeigh Global Meetings and Events

Atlanta, GA, USA

Committee Member

Ana-Maria Cartas

Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI)

Committee Member

Candy Campbell Scott

Longmont, CO, United States

Committee Member

Catherine Pascaud

Servitours

Paris, France

Committee Member

Harith Wickrema

Harith Productions

St. John, VI, USA

Committee Member

Julianne Cassidy

Failte Ireland

Dublin, Ireland

Committee Member

Katrin Naumann

another konzept

Barcelona, Spain

Committee Member

Liz Akey, CMP

E.M.A. Marketing Ltd

Oakville, ON, Canada

Committee Member

Mackenzie Dierks

ITA Group

West Des Moines, IA, United States

Committee Member

Sheba Gurm

Four Seasons

West Des Moines, IA, United States

Committee Member

Stijn Huijbers

Hilton

London , United Kingdom

Committee Goals

Promote the SITE Sustainability Committee as an educational & resource to the wider SITE community
Establish dedicated SITE Sustainability social media groups (LinkedIn, Facebook) to provide education and build an online community
Publish sustainability related content via this webpage
Enhance recognition of Sustainable-Certified SITE Chapters
Work with ALL chapters to get them certified

Content and Education

SITE Sustainability Community attends SITE Canada Golf Tournament

This event was more than just a golf tournament—it was a demonstration of how thoughtful choices can make a meaningful difference. Thank you to everyone who helped us swing into sustainability action with the return of the exciting and hugely successful Annual Golf Tournament. Thank-you to Natalie Lowe, Founder of TSEF – The Sustainability Events Forum for compiling the detailed report. Read more about the tournament here with insights from committee member, Liz Akey.

Earth Day initiatives

On Earth Day 2023, we planted the seeds of inspiration and nurtured collaborations resulting in our Global SITE Plant-Based E-Cookbook. Our cookbook is available to all SITE members and the community at large.

Access here.

In 2024 we launched a Scrapbook. The Scrapbook allowed us to spotlight your Earth Day initiatives to share our global community. It was an inspiring reminder of the global impact we achieve when we come together with a shared purpose. The initiative was a memorable reminder of the steps we are taking together towards a Sustainable World!

Scrapbook coming soon …

EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive

SITE is proud to announce the launch of a new sustainability guide, largely focused on the EU’s recent Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.

Funded by SITE Foundation, this member-driven project initiated by industry stalwart Bruce Bolger is one of the first guides of its kind prepared specifically for MICE professionals.

With sustainability gaining increased attention across the business travel landscape, Bolger’s work is particularly timely, with its overview and commentary on new reporting standards set out by the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).