How our people and offices are reducing their carbon footprint
Moving towards net zero is about more than reducing the environmental footprint of our events and venues. It’s about creating a sustainability-focused work environment. It’s about our 20 offices and 820 people taking action, together.
However big or small, we believe every step towards sustainability has a meaningful impact. Whether it’s adopting eco-friendly practices, optimising our energy consumption, or promoting green commuting options to event attendees – it all adds up. And it starts with raising the awareness and knowledge of our team members to empower them to take action.
Raising awareness
Easyfairs has launched several initiatives to raise awareness and drive action among our talents:
ESG Online Day
Our journey began with a successful internal event in 2022: the ESG Online Day. This full-day online training gathered team members from all of our 20 offices. It included an introduction to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, keynote speeches on environmental and social topics, presentations of actionable strategies, and interactive workshops.
ESG Academy
In January 2023, we introduced the ESG Academy. A dedicated online learning channel offering bi-monthly educational materials and video tutorials produced in-house. These include practical training on reducing our carbon footprint and promoting social responsibility in event management. We also conduct face-to-face training sessions and workshops,
fostering a deeper connection and understanding of sustainability topics among our team members.
ESG Objectives
In the 2022-23 financial year, we added ESG into our core Objectives Framework, making it a part of our employees’ variable compensation criteria.
ESG Academy Award
After adding ESG to our core Objectives Framework, we introduced a brand new Academy Award. This recognises teams that have demonstrated significant ESG initiatives.
ESG Committees
To localise and amplify our efforts, we’ve set up ESG Regional Committees across various regions. These include team members from diverse departments, all with one shared mission: to apply group sustainability strategies and make a positive difference to our planet and local communities.
Making commuting and business travel more sustainable
From 2022-2023, we worked hard to make our business travel more sustainable:
Company green fleet
We’re encouraging green mobility and switching our fleet to green vehicles in all regions. By 2028, our car fleet will be 100% electric.
Strict travel policies
Since COVID, we’ve significantly reduced the number of on-site meetings that involve taking a flight. The rule is to limit these meetings to those that are absolutely necessary.
Green mobility infrastructure
We’re installing charging stations and bike parking at all our venues and offices. We added 50 charging stations to the Flanders Expo in 2022. Plus, Antwerp Expo, Gorinchem and Hardenberg venues all have EV chargers and bike parking.
Sustainable hotel partners
We only select and promote hotel partners that have sustainable policies.
Reducing energy consumption
In 2022-2023, we introduced strict energy efficiency plans in all our venues and offices.
Lights & heating schedules
We’ve reduced our consumption by controlling the hours we keep the lights and heating on.
Central control systems
We installed central control systems where we didn’t already have them.
Remote work policy
The post-COVID move towards remote working has also helped lower our energy consumption.
Tracking our progress
We’re proud of our progress so far. Our 2022-2023 carbon footprint revealed that we’ve reduced our total group CO₂ emissions by 33% since 2018-2019.
We’ve also reduced Scope 1 and 2 group emissions across all venues and offices by 37%. And we’re only just getting started.
Making conscious choices the only choice
When it comes to our own events, we choose suppliers and partners that make the most sustainable choices.
“Reducing our carbon emissions is not just a technical challenge — it’s a human one.”
True progress can only be achieved when team members are informed, passionate about the cause and considering the environment in every aspect of their work. This is why fostering a corporate culture that prioritises the well-being of our planet is at the heart of our strategy.