The pledge commits organisations to achieve “net zero” by 2050, at the latest, and halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030
Global creative communications agency, DPRG is proud to announce they have signed the “Net Zero Carbon Events” pledge, a joint commitment across the events and meetings industry to achieve the targets laid out in the Paris Climate Accord.
CEO of DRPG, Dale Parmenter commented, “It’s part of a wider sustainability journey for us that has spanned the last 13 years, and whilst we’ve achieved some great things such as, becoming the world’s first creative agency to achieve ISO 20121 and ISO 1400, time is now critical, and we need wider efforts to make a difference. This pledge acts as the perfect next step in our road to a greener industry and we are confident in our own goal of becoming a net zero business by 2025.”
The “Net Zero Carbon Events“ pledge is the result of global collaboration throughout the events industry. Over recent months, facilitated by the “Joint Meetings Industry Council” (JMIC), more than one hundred stakeholders from across the sector drafted and finalised this commitment with the support of UNFCCC Secretariat (United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change). The pledge was presented at the Global Climate Summit COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 10. At the time of launch, there were more than 100 signatories, making this the most global and inclusive collaborative action tackling the challenges of climate change within the events sector.
DRPG is pleased to be joining this initiative, as it will be through continued collaborative work throughout the events sector that we will be able to make swift and essential progress towards reducing the overall carbon footprint of events.
Parmenter added, “The change in behaviour required to mitigate the negative impact from the events industry cannot happen from individuals in senior positions dictating what others need to do. The power must be with every single person in a business, to pioneer within their own teams to assess their own services and take a personal responsibility to be consciously eco-friendly.”
The commitments of the pledge are aligned with the targets of the Paris Climate Accord.
By signing the pledge, DRPG is committing to publish our pathway to achieve net zero by 2050 at the latest, with an interim target in line with the Paris Agreement’s requirement to reduce global GHG emissions by 50% by 2030. This work has to be concluded by the end of 2023. DRPG also will collaborate with partners, suppliers and customers to drive change across the value chain. To track the progress towards the targets, DRPG will measure and track its emissions of Greenhouse Gases according to industry best practice. Finally, DRPG will report on its progress at least every two years.
The Net Zero Carbon Events initiative brings together a wide range of event industry stakeholders to:
– Jointly communicate the industry’s commitment to tackling climate change and driving towards net zero by 2050.
– Develop common methodologies for measuring the industry’s direct, indirect and supply chain greenhouse gas emissions.
– Construct an industry-wide roadmap towards net zero by 2050, and emissions reductions by 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement and climate science, with support and guidance on key issues.
– Foster collaboration with suppliers and customers to ensure alignment and common approaches
– Establish common mechanisms for reporting progress and sharing best practice.
The next step of the “Net Zero Carbon Events” initiative is to develop the roadmap which will support the objectives outlined in the pledge.
More information about the initiative at www.netzerocarbonevents.org
