IUCN is dedicated to leading by example and committed to organising events more sustainably. The IUCN World Conservation Congresses in 2016 (Hawai’i, USA) and 2021 (Marseille, France) earned ISO 20121 certification from the event sustainability management system, an international recognition for efforts to minimise their environmental impacts. To ensure that best standard practices are aligned across IUCN events, IUCN is currently drafting a best-in-class global sustainability policy. This policy will cover travel, venue operations, catering, waste, digital waste, among other topics.

Sustainability at IUCN Leaders Forum 2023

The latest IUCN Leaders Forum held in Geneva in October 2023 underscored our commitment to environmentally conscious convenings through the integration of an event sustainability approach into our planning process. This approach was developed in collaboration with the Global Destination Sustainability Movement and communicated to all the stakeholders involved in the organisation of the Forum.

To set event sustainability objectives and goals, monitor progress, measure performance and identify areas of improvement, IUCN determined several KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) with the aim of assessing the Forum’s environmental, social, and economic impact post-event.

As part of the action plan to reduce the overall footprint the event:

• Was paper low: no paper handouts were allowed during the event, display copies of publications could be available onsite but IUCN favours digital communication tools (Mobile App, QR Codes, etc.) and encouraged their use at the Forum to reduce environmental impact.
• Banned single use plastics: no single-use plastic items were available onsite. Water fountains were available throughout the venue to allow participants to refill their reusable water bottle.
• Aimed to reduce waste to the maximum extent possible: residual waste generation was avoided where possible and remaining waste was reused, recycled and/or composted. Biodegradable paper cups and cutlery were replaced by reusable items to reduce the amount of waste produced.
• Aimed to reduce its carbon emissions by removing meat from lunch options available onsite.

Offsetting carbon emissions

For the IUCN Leaders Forum, we invited participants to contribute to nature conservation by offsetting the carbon emissions associated with their participation in the event. This included the emissions generated by travel as well as those generated onsite by the event itself.

The calculation was based on the average Carbon Footprint per person from the previous IUCN Leaders Forum held at the International Convention Centre in Jeju, South Korea, in October 2022 as well as on the city of departure and the means of transportation of each delegate.

During the online registration process, participants were required to contribute to one of the selected UNFCCC or Gold Standard certified projects.