Topics such as environmental protection or green energy are also taking on great importance in the MICE industry. Not only organisers pay attention to offering events, congresses and conferences that are as sustainable as possible. Participants and venues also want "green" meetings.
Fortunately, numerous partners of the Munich Convention Bureau make sustainability their theme. For example, at the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Starnberg you can not only meet in green surroundings, at the gates of the city, but also do so in a certified environmentally friendly way. The Scandic, on the other hand, offers only in-house filtered water and fair-trade coffee and tea at conferences. The electricity for the presentations is 100 per cent eco. Motorworld München is even completely climate-neutral. And several hotels in Munich contribute to species protection - they have beehives on the roof. Meetings in Munich can be #simplygreen.
The Hilton Munich Park and the Hilton Munich City are committed to actively combating climate change. With the LightStay Meeting Impact Calculator, the hotels' event clients can calculate the ecological footprint of their event. Since June 2021, the Munich hotels have also been offering climate-neutral business meetings, which are made possible through a partnership with South Pole.
With the Carbon Neutral Meetings, the CO2 footprint of all business meetings of ten or more people is offset by so-called carbon credits. These credits benefit special projects, such as the construction of a geothermal power plant in Turkey to generate clean energy. Hilton also aims to double its investment in social projects by 2030 and halve the environmental impact of the company's activities.
www.munich-park.hilton.com
www.munich-city.hilton.com
The Vier Jahreszeiten Hotel Starnberg has been awarded Certified Conference Hotel®, Certified Business and Certified Green Hotel®. The barrier-free first-class hotel convinces with its successful overall concept. With the Meeting Package and the Green Upgrades, sustainable business events with fairly traded products and a contribution to Plant-for-the-Planet succeed. The Deutsche Bahn event ticket ensures climate-friendly travel. The hotel also attaches importance to a green footprint in the rooms area: sustainable coffee capsules from a regional partner are waiting in the room, and the Oliv's restaurant serves regional and seasonal cuisine. Guests can charge their e-car at the hotel's own charging points.
www.vier-jahreszeiten-starnberg.de
The Scandic is a pioneer in sustainability: as early as 1993, it was introduced in the Sandic Hotels that towels are only changed when the guests put them on the floor. Nowadays, this is common practice almost everywhere. Sustainability is an important part of the Scandic corporate philosophy. In addition to comprehensive measures to conserve energy and resources, operational processes are constantly scrutinised in order to constantly improve.
MICE guests can therefore now enjoy in-house filtered water that saves up to 160 tonnes of CO2 annually, FairTrade coffee and tea, 100 per cent green electricity in all German hotels, no disposables, many organic products at breakfast and the fact that 90 per cent of every hotel room is recyclable.
Industrial-historical charm and over 25 rooms for concerts, events, conferences and trade fairs, surrounded by driving culture and lifestyle and with state-of-the-art technical equipment - that is what distinguishes Motorworld München. Its centrepiece is the impressive, listed locomotive hall, where locomotives were once repaired. The internationally renowned event halls Zenith, Kesselhaus and Kohlebunker are also part of the ensemble on the 75,000 square metre site.
Probably the most diverse event location in the Bavarian capital, it scores with sustainability and relies on regenerative energy sources to meet the increasing demands of environmental protection and efficiency. It currently operates 1,100 kilowatt peak (kWp) photovoltaic systems and combined heat and power units with 360 kilowatts of electrical output. This produces a total of about 2.6 million kWh of renewable electricity per year, some of which is consumed directly, which corresponds to an annual saving of about 700 tonnes of CO2. This means: even with full event operations in the post-Covid era, Motorworld Munich can thus call itself climate-neutral. In addition, more than 450 bicycle parking spaces and several charging stations for electric vehicles make their contribution to the topic of sustainability.
Sustainable business and projects for environmental and climate protection are strategic topics for Messe München. The sustainability strategy includes projects in the areas of energy, water, mobility, biodiversity, social affairs, governance and resources. Important goals include making sustainability measurable, a zero-waste strategy (avoiding waste and closing resource cycles), establishing CO2 compensation options for customers, and making mobility offers internally and externally as low-carbon as possible. Messe München has set itself the goal of achieving CO2 neutrality by 2030 - 20 years earlier than envisaged in the Paris Agreement.
With its catalogue of measures, Messe München defines how it can meet its sustainable aspirations in terms of construction and logistics. In addition to the photovoltaic system, Halls C5 and C6 will be completely supplied by district heating fed by geothermal energy. Open spaces and some of the hall roofs are laid out as natural ecological areas. 220,000 square metres of green areas, around 2,500 trees, greened hall exterior walls and 35,000 square metres of green roofs - so the exhibition centre is literally "green".
Messe München is also promoting electromobility: as of now, Messe München customers can recharge their batteries free of charge at the exhibition centre - with green electricity from the trade fair's own photovoltaic system. More than 80 charging stations and one fast-charging station ("Supercharger") are distributed throughout the exhibition grounds.
Species protection is also extremely important for environmental protection. How dependent people are on animals like insects, for example, can be seen in the discussion about bee mortality. If there are not enough bees, the trees are not pollinated and so, for example, apples no longer grow. Some hotels in Munich actively help to prevent this from happening.
For example, the Pullman Munich, the Andaz Munich Schwabinger Tor, the Courtyard by Marriott Munich City Center and the Hilton Munich Park offer beehives a new home on their roofs. With its own herb and salad garden, the Courtyard Munich City Center offers plenty of food for the bees. MICE and other guests can usually not only visit the industrious colonies, but also enjoy the hotel's own genuine Munich honey for breakfast or tea during their break.
www.andazmunich.com
www.munich-park.hilton.com
www.marriott.co.uk
www.pullman-hotel-muenchen.de
