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Sustainability in Action: A Holistic Approach to Events · Associations NOW Presents

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  From ASAE, this is Associations NOW Presents, a podcast for
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  association professionals tackling issues and challenges
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  that affect our community. I'm Michelle Mason, CEO of ASAE. We
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  hope you enjoyed this episode. Now let's tune in and hear what
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  the experts are discussing.
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  Kiki L'Italien: All right, we are live. Do you hear this
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  background noise? We are live at ASAE annual, at the Super Bowl
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  of meetings in Cleveland, Ohio. I am Kiki L'Italien, and I am
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  guest hosting the inaugural, inaugural podcast episode of as
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  a news podcast, usually a podcast over Association Chat. I
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  got a chance to jump over here. And with me is our inaugural
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  podcast guest
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  Virginie De Visscher: Virginie De Visscher.
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  Kiki L'Italien: I wish you could say that as well as you do. You
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  see it, and it's Virginie with the last name, with
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  L'Italien, and you think I'd be better at this. But anyway, I'm
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  so glad that we're here. I'm so glad that we're talking and I
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  saw you on stage today, and can I just say you were fantastic.
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  It looked like you were like born, doing just dominated the
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  stage. You were radiant. I
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  Virginie De Visscher: think I was inspired by who we were
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  introducing, Amanda Gorman, I
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  Kiki L'Italien: know. Who are we on? Amanda Gorman is not just
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  inspirational. I do believe she's a magical being. I think
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  she's just he wrote, really, what do you just visit olmer?
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  You though, let me tell you, you had an important message, and
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  Team Canada has an important message. That's why you're here.
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  Let's talk about the keyword sustainability, sustainability.
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  We could say it together, so the same ability. So I'm super
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  excited to talk to you because for several reasons. One is
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  because I love Canada, but the other is because this is the
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  inaugural episode, inaugural episode of the first ASAE
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  podcast, and they're launching it here. This is supposed to be
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  something the different format than all of the rest. We get to
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  be the lucky ones. And I'm looking at this list of
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  questions, but all I can do is stare across at you right now
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  and see that you're beaming. You're radiating. I saw you on
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  stage this morning with Amanda Gorman also sharing the stage
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  opening keynote. And you're up there and you're talking about
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  sustainability and being maybe when people hear the word
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  sustainability, they don't think of it as being particularly
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  exciting. But at the same time, a lot of travel here was
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  disrupted because of harsh climate conditions, right? We
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  had these horrible storms. People had a hard time getting
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  to ASAE Annual. Interesting that one of the big features that
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  you're talking about for Canada is Destination Canada is doing
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  some amazing things with sustainability. So I want to go
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  into that. I want to open with that and talk about the fact
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  that it is a really important topic. It is something that I
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  think more and more event planners are finding to be
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  increasingly important for the way that they decide where
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  they're going to post their meetings. And I think that when
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  people start looking for is there something meaningful
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  behind the word sustainability that's happening? They're going
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  to ask these questions. So sustainability, what's
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  happening? Why is this such a focus for you and Destination
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  Canada? And what's got you fired up about it right now?
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  Virginie De Visscher: I think it's a combination of things.
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  It's a passion subject. First of all, it's a personal fashion
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  subject, but I think it's undeniable. Like you mentioned,
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  the recent climate events that impacted Cleveland, like these
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  are impacting all of us across the planet. In Canada, we're not
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  immune, and things are happening and we see it. We have a
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  beautiful country, and we want to make sure that it stays that
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  way. So events are disruptive in an ecosystem. By just bringing
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  large amount of species into another ecosystem, you're
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  disrupting the environment. So what can you do to keep less of
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  that disruption and on the opposite side, how do you
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  maximize the benefits that you bring into a destination with
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  events? Sustainability is a topic that we've really taken on
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  this Destination Canada, but as Team Canada is a whole effort
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  countrywide through a national sustainability plan that really
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  means a lot to us, because we want to still be there for
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  generations coming ahead. And I'm not saying that cliche. I
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  really mean it.
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  Kiki L'Italien: Yeah, I was talking with someone about the
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  fact that we were going to have this discussion, and her
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  association is focused on looking at how meetings use
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  their waste. And so she said, Are you going to ask any
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  questions about that? Are you going to ask, like, what they're
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  doing, how they're working with different meeting planners to
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  figure out how to create more sustainable meetings? And I
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  said, that's a really great question. Let me go ahead and
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  add that to the list. What are some of the ways that you're
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  working with different people, different a. Associations and
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  organizations that are coming in to have meetings in Canada.
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  There's lots
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  Virginie De Visscher: of different ways how you can
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  approach it, but first, maybe we should define sustainability.
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  Let's do that. Let's define it. When you say the word
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  sustainability, there's a big assumption that it's just about
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  environmental Yes, but it's not just that. It's not all the
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  green stuff and what you do in regards to saving the planet,
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  it's all about the people and the culture as well. So when we
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  define sustainability, we want to make sure that all three
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  pillars are encompassed into it. So of course, environmental
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  sustainability, but then it's the sociocultural and economic
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  side. So you want to have an impact on local economies when
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  you're coming to meet somewhere, but also that cultures are
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  thriving and people are healthy and people are there for the
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  long term. So when we really see it as all encompassing and not
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  just environmental, that was the first thing to do. But then the
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  realization was, everybody is a part of it. It just it's not put
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  the blame on someone, or don't think you can't do anything
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  about it. It belongs to everybody. We all live on this
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  planet. We all have people that we care about around us, or
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  future generations to come. So what can we do? And that was
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  when we started our national business event sustainability
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  plan. And keep in mind, we're a national organization, so we're
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  not necessarily in the city level, but it's very important
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  that we create that leadership for people to move forward and
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  our organizations to be more sustainable. I think covid
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  really impacted that way too, when meetings were all of a
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  sudden not happening. Sure the environmental footprint was
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  well, the environment benefited, right? Nobody was moving
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  anywhere, traveling. But look at all the negative impact that
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  happened. So many businesses shut down. People were not
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  thriving. Knowledge was not being shared, so all these
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  positive impacts and legacies of events were not happening, so
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  it's all about maximizing the benefits and minimizing the
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  negative potential environmental footprint. So then the birth of
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  the plan was to get all destinations on board to be more
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  sustainable for meetings.
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  Kiki L'Italien: Do you think that you're getting enough
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  questions about this? Do you notice that there is an
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  increasing amount of interest? I hear talk about it, right? I
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  hear people say that they're interested, but I don't know if,
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  in actuality, that the conversations have changed, have
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  they? There's
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  Virginie De Visscher: more questions. It's undeniable.
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  We've done a lot of survey on this, and it's quite visible
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  that right now, it is supplier driven. There's a lot of
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  barriers still to having more sustainable meetings. Cost is
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  one of those biggest barriers, and the second one is lack of
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  knowledge or what you can implement. And so on the
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  supplier side, they've really taken that on venues and hotels,
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  even airlines, to be honest, have taken a stance and been
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  more sustainable, offering more options, whether it's waste
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  diversion or the way energy or electricity is fed into the
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  building, or food and beverage options. So all of that venues
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  and destinations have really taken a stance on how they can
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  make that easier for associations to meet and
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  incorporate them. So while we're not seeing as much coming from
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  the association world and asking for sustainable practices. More
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  and more the responses from the destinations that are bidding on
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  these opportunities are including sustainable practices.
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  Kiki L'Italien: Yeah, I think everybody, when I'm looking at
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  associations, the executive directors reporting to their
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  boards, do we want more and more to be able to include this thing
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  that makes everyone feel like they're doing their part.
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  They're doing the thing that's going to make the planet better.
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  I hate to sound a little bit cynical, but actually, from a
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  bottom line standpoint, I think it actually ultimately is better
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  for everybody, even from the bottom, not a standpoint, to be
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  thinking about that bigger picture. Because if we don't
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  have a planet, we can't have more meetings. You know, we
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  can't continue to have associations. And so the other
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  part that you touched on was sustainability, talking about
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  these pillars, talking about being concerned about the
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  cultural side of things. How is Destination Canada showing
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  support and offering up opportunity means to support
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  those
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  Virginie De Visscher: measures. So that's a really fun one,
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  seeing that we have so many diverse communities in Canada.
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  We're a mosaic of people that have come from all over the
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  world, but also coming into a land where indigenous peoples
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  were here from time immemorial. And so how do we showcase all of
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  what Canada is made out of, and through sustaining those
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  cultures for multiple generations to come, and so
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  integrating them into programs for meetings is one way to do
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  it. So I'll give you an example for Canada night at ASAE, we're
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  actually going to have a fashion show, and what we're doing is
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  we're featuring an indigenous designer. So we fraud a Metis
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  company called Anne Mueller, and she's a beaker extremely
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  environmentally and socially conscious organization and
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  company, and she's actually going to be doing a fashion show
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  with the pieces that she's created, telling that story.
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  Stop. I
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  Kiki L'Italien: am so interested. I want to be there
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  and see this. This is amazing. I love this. So
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  Virginie De Visscher: one way is we're keeping the culture alive.
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  She can share her story through fashion, but at the same time,
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  we're economically sustaining her business. That's one way
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  that we're actually walking the talks. It's not just about
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  environmental that cultural and economic aspect is so strong in
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  all that we do.
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  Kiki L'Italien: So does that get frustrated when people only
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  focus on that because it is important. But it does seem to
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  be that everyone focuses on that one part and not all of these
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  other things. I
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  Virginie De Visscher: wouldn't call it frustrating. I would say
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  focus on the low hanging fruits first, and perhaps the
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  environmental side is just the lower hanging fruit. It's easier
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  to do the cultural side. You have to think it through a
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  little bit harder and getting the help of the local host
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  destination and what cultures they want to showcase are
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  bringing local art. We've had workshops doing local moccasins
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  and to bring that culture alive.
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  Kiki L'Italien: Oh, that's so fantastic. Okay, so
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  sustainability has been a major theme for you at this year's
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  ASAE meeting. What has motivated team Canada? They're so
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  abstract. So in 2022
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  Virginie De Visscher: when we launched the National Business
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  Event Sustainability Pplan, it was comprised of three sections.
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  So the first part was education and coaching. So what we
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  realized is that when people are uncomfortable or don't know the
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  terms around sustainability, they will be less likely to talk
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  about it. So phase one was really, what does net zero mean?
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  What does carbon neutral Maine, all these terms. So we rolled
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  out workshops and education sessions across the country,
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  just so many different partners. Phase two was knowing where we
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  were at. It was benchmarking. So we partner with the global
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  destination Sustainability Index, the GDS, and we had 16
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  destinations across the entire country. We're very big. We're
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  second largest landmass in the world. So we had 16 destinations
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  go through that entire benchmarking process to see
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  where are we at? Where can we improve? If you don't know where
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  you stand, you can't go up, right? So that's what we did.
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  And phase three is storytelling, and we're right in the midst of
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  that. So through this whole benchmarking exercise, we
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  collected stories, initiatives around sustainability across the
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  country, across these three pillars, and we are launching
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  today our storybook So sustainability storybook, which
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  has 30 stories from across the country, which are examples of
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  what you can bring in, like a virtual delegate bag or the
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  indigenous Fashion Show. There's also stories about incentives
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  into sustainability or different ways to impact the communities
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  that you're living in or having your meeting in. And that
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  storybook has been launched, and we also have a sustainability
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  stories pavilion that showcases eight of these stories here live
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  at ASAE. It's just perfect timing of where we wanted to
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  launch these initiatives.
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  Kiki L'Italien: So earlier, you said that this was something
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  that was personally important to you. Can you tell me a little
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  bit more about that? Why is sustainability particularly
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  important to you? You mean me as a person? Yeah, you as a human
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  being, an actual individual.
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  Virginie De Visscher: My background is in science and
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  engineering, and I've always been close to the environment in
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  itself. I've traveled around the world, lived in Africa for many
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  years, in Asia, and I've seen the impacts of the environment,
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  but also on people around the world and what we can do and the
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  changes over time. And I guess it's almost become a personal
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  passion of mine that I have to do something I believe, very
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  honestly, in whatever field you end up being, if it's medical or
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  signage or entertainment or even tourism, you can do something
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  about it. And so I'm in the tourism industry, I can do
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  something about it. So I'm using that voice and that passion has
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  to feel really
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  Kiki L'Italien: good. When you go home at night and you're
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  winding down, you have to feel like, wow, I feel like I'm
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  actively making a difference, I
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  Virginie De Visscher: wish, but it's a journey, and there's so
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  much more to do. So I think I will continue to be on that
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  path. I don't think we have an end point on that one.
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  Kiki L'Italien: Okay, we're on the journey together. So part of
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  that journey is people are coming into the pavilion.
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  They're experiencing that here. What's the next step that you
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  hope that they leave that pavilion? What do you hope that
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  they experience and walk away with from interacting with Team
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  Canada?
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  Virginie De Visscher: The way the pavilion is designed is that
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  for every story, there's a question, and it's a question
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  that hopefully asks for reflection. So it's, have you
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  thought about incorporating a cultural element in your
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  meeting? Have you thought about doing this or that? And so what
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  we hope is that booth, by the way, is staffed by a member of
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  Team Canada, all throughout which will be sharing those
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  stories. So it's a way to get people engaged, and maybe if one
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  of them, or every person that visits, goes away with one idea
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  that they can bring back to their meetings, whether it's a
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  local pop up market in the destination that they will be
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  needing to support different businesses that are local, that
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  would be just so amazing. So that's what we really hope to
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  spur and whether they need in Canada or not. Of course, we.
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  Want them to meet in Canada, but it's can we impact that change
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  in all of their meetings when
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  Kiki L'Italien: an association is actually going about trying
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  to implement sustainability practices or bring that on? I
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  think you touched on this a little bit earlier. What are the
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  challenges that they're facing? Are they trying to bite off more
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  than they pinch What do you hear that they're running into when
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  they're starting to go down that path?
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  Virginie De Visscher: There's a variety of reasons, and it's not
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  always the same for everyone, but here are some of the ones
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  that I've heard quite a bit. So one is and in no particular
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  order, it can be an afterthought. So you know, the
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  whole machine into sourcing next meetings is into place. RFPs
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  out, so we're ready to look and then few months before the
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  meeting, oh, wait a second, did we look at sustainability? Oh,
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  that thing, yeah. So it's much harder to then put back into the
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  meeting once you've gone so far adding it into the RFP and then
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  your sourcing process is one way to go about it. The other
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  challenge that we get is there's no one person to point it to. It
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  Right? It's only starting now that you're going to have an
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  organization's a sustainability person, so usually it ends up
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  being on the side of the desk of someone for another task to ask
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  to the meeting planner. And it becomes big, right? So if it's
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  not the part of the mission or vision of the organization, it
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  becomes secondary, so putting it as a priority and having a
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  person really dedicated to it can help, and that takes time to
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  create another one. Is definitely the cost. I mentioned
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  cost before, but by sourcing more sustainable venues and
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  sustainable destinations, sometimes that can be avoided
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  because they're already incorporated in the destination.
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  So there's ways to get around it. We're the sustainability
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  sponsor for this event, so that sustainability stations that are
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  around all the food stations, we support that because we believe
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  in that I have
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  Kiki L'Italien: my bottle of water over here, the diet
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  reusable bottle of water that I have so that I can refill it
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  periodically. And I do believe that I was reminded ahead of
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  time to bring that with me, yes, so that I could fill my bottle
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  with the water around fear, so that we wouldn't produce more
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  waste. Is that you're doing absolutely
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  Virginie De Visscher: we're supporting that. And since you
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  can bring your reusable water bottle to the sustainability
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  stories pavilion and get a free entry for a free registration
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  for next year's meeting,
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  Kiki L'Italien: oh my gosh, I think I missed that part
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  somehow. I think I missed it, but that's really amazing. And I
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  would be so curious to see I have seen a lot of these
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  reusable water bottles going around. So pretty incredible.
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  And what do you think as far as trying to get leaders to take
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  ownership of their role in bringing that awareness into
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  their strategy for their meetings, to think about
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  sustainability, so it isn't an afterthought. I know that
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  pavilion is part of that, but is there a way? Is there some sort
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  of magic that you're weaving that it can get them to think
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  about this stuff? It's
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  Virginie De Visscher: one person at a time. It really is. You get
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  one person inspired and saying, Yeah, I can do that. I can bring
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  that in. But I really hope, and maybe that's me, personally,
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  speaking, the way I really hope to change the organization,
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  world, association world, is understanding that no matter
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  what field your association is focused on, sustainability is
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  part of it, if you look at it, all encompassing. So yes, maybe
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  you're in a medical field, and saving the environment is
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  definitely not on your radar, but you're all about people. And
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  so there is something that you can do to save people, and if
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  you see it overall, as a company within sustainability, that
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  makes sense. On our sustainability pavilion, we've
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  actually aligned all the sustainability initiatives with
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  the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. So when you
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  look at the 17 un SDGs, everybody can relate to those.
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  It's a universal framework and blueprint. So by doing that, we
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  can put in a language that anybody can take regardless of
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  what field they're in.
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  Kiki L'Italien: I love that. I love that. And I feel like when
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  people see the structure behind it and that alignment, it makes
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  them feel safer to maybe do things that they'd haven't done
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  before, right?
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  Virginie De Visscher: It's all about starting. You know, it's
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  one little step at a time. Don't try to chew off the entire thing
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  at once, because that's really hard. Yeah, it's just one small
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  Kiki L'Italien: step. Okay, so I'm going to ask you the hardest
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  question ever, which is, because I know, get ready. You have so
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  many beautiful destinations, so many beautiful cities. I'm not
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  going to ask you to play favorites among your children,
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  but I am going to ask you for some examples. Do you have some
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  examples you could share with me about some of the fantastic
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  offerings that really emphasize the sustainability efforts that
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  Team Canada is putting forth? Oh my
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  Virginie De Visscher: goodness, there's so many of them. And so
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  if I start listing them, I'm sure I will forget some and then
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  I'm gonna have some unhappy partners.
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  Kiki L'Italien: Let me just disclaimer ahead of time, she
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  loves all of you like you're all loved all the destination
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  Virginie De Visscher: I do, but there's some really fun examples
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  out there, right? So if you look at first at venues and what some
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  venues have done, anything from green roofs to beehives on the
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  roofs. I'd be remiss. The Vancouver Convention Center is
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  absolutely amazing with some of the energy. I
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  Kiki L'Italien: didn't there. I was like, I actually had that
• 20:07
  experience and toured that and this was even, this is not a
• 20:11
  brand new thing, you guys. This is something that I don't know.
• 20:14
  Maybe it was 10 to eight years ago I went there, and that was a
• 20:18
  huge effort. So Team Canada's new to this game. You guys have
• 20:21
  been trying to do this for a long time. Yeah, for sure.
• 20:25
  Virginie De Visscher: So from the green roof fair to beehives
• 20:28
  in Toronto, to solar panels on the top of the convention center
• 20:31
  in Edmonton, to the recycling and sorting facilities at the
• 20:36
  panada conga in Montreal. There's so many amazing things,
• 20:39
  including the new BMO center in Calgary. They had a really fun
• 20:42
  initiative just recently when they did their opening. So they
• 20:45
  had listen to this one. This is really cute story. They had name
• 20:49
  badges that were made out of seed paper. And then they had a
• 20:53
  whole activity where they had a planter box where we could each
• 20:56
  plant our name tag, and so now our name tag would live as
• 21:00
  flowers forever on inside those planters.
• 21:04
  Kiki L'Italien: What I love about that is that we've seen
• 21:06
  like the sort of seed tags, but to actually have the ritual, the
• 21:10
  actual experience of doing that very reobang, it's moving. It's
• 21:14
  community building. Every time you're looking at what helps
• 21:17
  people to feel like they belong, whether it's to a meeting, to a
• 21:20
  community of Association Executives. It's like you're
• 21:24
  looking for that piece, and that is something that brings people
• 21:27
  to that. I need none of that. That's such a good example.
• 21:30
  Virginie De Visscher: Who's a beautiful example, but you have
• 21:32
  more and more. I was not so long ago at the Halifax Convention
• 21:35
  Center, and they had their food stations, and they had a sign in
• 21:38
  front explaining where the food was coming from. This food came
• 21:42
  from this particular farmer, and showed, really that locality of
• 21:46
  supporting local businesses into their food. So it was not only
• 21:50
  fresh, but it didn't have to travel miles to get there. Just
• 21:53
  more and more you're seeing those examples across the
• 21:55
  country, and that makes it super vibrant, and that's only
• 21:58
  touching the environmental side.
• 21:59
  Kiki L'Italien: So in some of these examples that you're
• 22:02
  giving me, people can go to the pavilion and they can, like,
• 22:05
  learn more about that sort of thing, and get those ideas, and
• 22:08
  get those stories as they're thinking, maybe considering,
• 22:12
  maybe exploring what's even possible. Because just as you
• 22:15
  were sitting here explaining some of these to me, I thought,
• 22:19
  I wish I could have just a compilation of everything that
• 22:23
  you're saying to you, like all of the examples, so that could
• 22:26
  go through and just be like, Chase, is this brilliant? Let's
• 22:29
  do this.
• 22:29
  Virginie De Visscher: So at the Pavilion, we can only showcase
• 22:31
  eight stories that are there, but in the storybook, you're
• 22:33
  gonna have 30 stories. And again, that's still just
• 22:36
  scratching the surface. So when you reach out to us and even to
• 22:39
  all of our team Canada, partners, each of them can
• 22:42
  really share what they have like in depth, because everybody
• 22:45
  wants a different side of sustainability. Maybe you're not
• 22:48
  into the food part of it so much, but the cultural side's
• 22:50
  super important. So it really is a discussion with the
• 22:54
  organization about what's important to them. Yeah,
• 22:57
  Kiki L'Italien: I think that sustainability is the key word
• 22:59
  here, but it's also about experience, and it's also about
• 23:03
  the feeling of belonging, of having a meaningful experience.
• 23:09
  When you're engaging with an event or a meeting and you're
• 23:12
  looking for something that is real,
• 23:14
  Virginie De Visscher: it's about being inspired. For example, at
• 23:16
  one of our events recently, instead of printing menus, we
• 23:19
  use little chalkboards. And so we just put the menu on the
• 23:24
  chalkboard, and then when we were done, we erased it, and
• 23:26
  then the next day there was the other menu. So there's just a
• 23:29
  little tidbit on how you just save a lot of paper. And people
• 23:32
  thought it was really cute. I love that. I think it's
• 23:34
  fantastic little ideas like that. And what happened is a lot
• 23:38
  of the clients that were that event were like, oh, like you. I
• 23:40
  love that. I'm gonna bring that back to my event. And so that's
• 23:44
  how the ideas spread.
• 23:45
  Kiki L'Italien: I don't know if this is in the pavilion, but
• 23:47
  maybe taking ideas too like it inspires you to have ideas. You
• 23:51
  build on them, and it's, Oh, I like that. And then building on
• 23:54
  that. Let me think of this. Is there a collective area? It's an
• 23:57
  idea. Absolutely
• 23:59
  Virginie De Visscher: question. Yeah, sources of best practices
• 24:01
  and things to bring forward.
• 24:02
  Kiki L'Italien: I love it. I love it. Is there anything that
• 24:05
  I didn't ask you to that shit? One thing
• 24:07
  Virginie De Visscher: I want to mention is the word
• 24:09
  sustainability itself. It's almost like an over loved term,
• 24:13
  right? Overused? And what happens with overused and over
• 24:17
  loved terms is that it gets people away from them. Oh,
• 24:20
  again, another talk about sustainability. But when you
• 24:23
  look, when you think about it, sustainability is sustaining
• 24:25
  something. It's maintaining status quo. And so is that
• 24:29
  really what we want? And so our thinking now, what's next for us
• 24:33
  is looking towards regenerative tourism. How can we actually do
• 24:37
  better, rather than staying where we're at? Ooh,
• 24:41
  Kiki L'Italien: so I'm very intrigued. I like, I love this
• 24:44
  idea of building on it, and like growing and it's like generating
• 24:50
  these new ideas. I think that's fantastic. I love that
• 24:55
  Virginie De Visscher: a 2030, Destination Canada strategy is
• 24:57
  aiming towards that, and maybe we'll have a. Another chat in a
• 25:01
  little while. I
• 25:01
  Kiki L'Italien: would love to have another chat about that. I
• 25:03
  like this idea of like the Oh, I'm getting inspired already. I
• 25:07
  love it. I love it. Okay. I am excited that we got a chance to
• 25:11
  be able to do this. We are so lucky. High five. You guys are
• 25:16
  hearing this clap, I hope in the background, because we just high
• 25:18
  fived for real, in person. It's unbelievable. The magic was here
• 25:23
  ASE annual doing this inaugural episode of ASCE Podcast. I'm so
• 25:31
  glad we got to do this together.
• 25:32
  Virginie De Visscher: Thank you so much.
• 25:36
  Michelle Mason: Thank you for joining us for this episode of
• 25:38
  associations now present, we hope the insights and stories
• 25:43
  shared today were valuable and inspiring. We look forward to
• 25:46
  having you join us again for our next episode, but until then, be
• 25:50
  sure to check out the latest from associations
• 25:53
  now@associationsnow.com don't forget to subscribe on Apple
• 25:58
  Spotify or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast so you
• 26:02
  never miss an episode until the next time. I am Michelle Mason,
• 26:06
  and this has been associations now present you.