Meeting Experts Green Award

Bregenz Festival House has won the Meeting Experts Green Award in the category “Sustainable Event Centre”. The award was presented for the first time by the European Association of Event Centres (EVVC) and by the German Convention Bureau at the conference “green meetings and events” in Darmstadt.
The award was accepted by the General Manager of Bregenz Festival House, Gerhard Stübe. The congress and convention centre on Lake Constance has thus won another significant award for its activities as an event organizer.
 
Over the past few years, Bregenz Festival House has become more and more strongly committed to the concept of sustainable events. It has already won the quality seal “Green Meetings” from the Austrian Ministry of Life for environmentally aware management and social action. Moreover, the premises occupied by Bregenz Festival House are certified by “Ökoprofit”, an initiative promoting sustainable environmental management and cost-cutting ecological improvements in Vorarlberg’s businesses.
 
Ranking joint second in the same category were Alpbach Congress Centre and mainzplus Citymarketing GmbH, the brand representing the Mainz Congress Centre among other entities. Other awards were presented in the categories of energy management and resource conservation, sustainable events, sustainable personnel management, and sustainable company and organization. The winner was selected by an independent jury on the basis of the following criteria: degree of innovation and originality, feasibility and transferability, meaningfulness and relevance, cost-benefit, evaluation and documentation.
 
“The case of Bregenz demonstrates very impressively that successes in sustainability entail not only costs, but also and above all gains for all concerned,” said the jury in its decision. The question of sustainability with all three elements – the environment, cost-effectiveness and social commitment –has been permanently on the agenda of Bregenz Festival House since 2008, and in all three areas there has been continuous work on specific proposals for improvements, it said.
 
“Caterers are contractually obliged to use sustainable products, a waste management concept has been developed specifically for Bregenz Festival House, a project on the town’s biggest photovoltaic plant has been launched, sport and health programmes are available for staff, social initiatives and charities are supported – to name but a few examples of the application of sustainability principles. For the past three years Bregenz Festival House has been certified by Ökoprofit as an environmentally aware hospitality institution and has been authorized for two years to certify Green Meetings itself,” the two organizations behind the award said in a statement.
 
“Ecological sustainability will become more and more important for business and for business management in the years to come. Bregenz Festival House has been aware of this for some time and that’s part of the reason why they very deservedly won this award, on which I would like to congratulate them very warmly!” the mayor of Bregenz, Markus Linhart, commented.
 
“This latest award for Bregenz Festival House not only proves the sustainability of the ecological measures to reduce energy consumption, but above all it confirms the social commitment towards the staff and the concern for their health. In this way, sustainability brings success in the sense of cost-effectiveness as well as gains for all who work at Bregenz Festival House or implement events. I am proud and grateful that the management and staff have been following this path consistently for years now. It’s your award,” declared Michael Rauth, chairman of the supervisory board of Bregenz Festival House.
 
In responding to the award, Bregenz Festival House director Gerhard Stübe emphasized: “This award is one of the most significant endorsements of recent years, since organizing sustainable events has been a central concern of Bregenz Festival House for a long time – before it became a trend. The award also represents an obligation for the future. And for this reason we’re going to set up a working group of “Green Keepers” who will push this topic much more intensively than before. I would like to thank everyone that’s already supporting us in this issue and has thereby made an important contribution to the award.”