Sustainability in the global MICE/business events industry – the current state, and the road ahead

A record high 57.1 billion metric tons (GtCO2e) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions was reported by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) for 2023 (UNEP, 2024). China (16 GtCO2e), United States of America (USA) (5.9 GtCO2e), India (4.1 GtCO2e), European Union (EU) (3.2 GtCO2e) alone contributed to 55% or more than half of the world's total GHG emissions that year. Based on historical CO2e (1850–2022), the countries/regions with the highest contribution to GHG emissions are USA (20%), China (12%), EU (12%) and Russia (7%). At the broad industrial sector levels, the power (26%), transport (15%), industry (11%) and agriculture (11%) sectors were the largest polluters contributing almost two-thirds of total GHG emissions in 2023. The aviation industry (under the transport sector) – which is of particular interest especially to those in the tourism and meetings industries, contributed 2% or 1.14 GtCO2e in 2023.

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC)'s latest Environmental and Social Research revealed that travel and tourism accounted for 6.7% of all emissions globally in 2023, down from 7.8% in 2019 (WTTC, 2024). Importantly, the study highlighted the sector's economic contribution to be growing at a faster pace than the environmental impact.

The positive news is that many industries and communities have moved on from years of moral suasion to taking concrete actions. The negative news is that as companies and individuals intend to act, it is difficult to know where to start, because there is limited study that provides an overview of where industries are at with regards to sustainability efforts today. This applies to the global MICE/business events (BE) industry ^[1], as industry stakeholders remain uncertain how their initiatives contribute to the larger efforts within and outside of their industry, including those in tourism and hospitality. There are no baseline studies on the industry's carbon emissions. It is also difficult to map individual sustainability efforts against the larger context and initiatives around the world.

There are different definitions and endless disputes over the terminologies used for the industry that centres around meetings and business events, the clarification of which is not the purpose of this study. For simplicity, the term MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) and BE (business events) will be used collectively in reference to the meetings industry's sustainability efforts. What is less contentious is the significant size of the MICE/BE industry. According to a Custom Market Insights report on inbound MICE tourism (CMI, 2024a, b), the global MICE market value is projected to almost double from US$547 billion in 2024 to US$1 trillion by 2033, or 7.8% of the projected global tourism value in 2033. Mapped against the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s projected 2033 world GDP of US$86 trillion (OECD, 2021), the MICE/BD industry is estimated to contribute 1.2% of the world's GDP by 2033. The study of the current state of sustainability in the MICE/BD industry is thus important considering the size and significance of the industry.

A search on Scopus based on the key words “MICE”, “business events” and “sustainability” yielded a mere 15 articles. Of these, 12 were city/country specific with topics ranging from carbon footprint estimation (Kitamura, Karkour, Ichisugi, & Itsubo, 2020), choice of green event venues (An, Kim, & Hur, 2021), sustainable event management and best practices (Buathong & Lai, 2017; Nawarathna & Arachchi, 2024; Fernandez-Zamudio, Zarzo, Pina, Soriano, & San Onofre, 2024). Two of the 15 articles were regional or involved comparisons between cities, with topics on green convention guidelines (Kim, Moon, Chu, & Yoon, 2020), and MICE destination benchmarking that involves sustainability messaging (Kang, Lee, Kim, & Jeong, 2024). One article was specifically helpful with literature review on the topic of sustainability in the MICE/BE industry (Wee, Mustapha, & Anas, 2021). Wee et al. (2021) selected articles by sourcing from five online databases – Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scopus, MDPI and Emerald, before an extensive filtering process which eventually yielded 20 articles that met all the inclusion and exclusion criteria established. All 20 articles focused on best practices in the MICE/BE industry, involving (1) choice of green event venues (Buathong & Lai, 2017), (2), green accessibility (Wang, Chen, & Li, 2019), (3) green advertising and promotion (Kim, Malek, & Roberts, 2019), (4) green food and beverage practices (Wong, Wan, & Qi, 2015) and (5) green waste management (Garin & Jarumaneerat, 2017).

Further searches by adding key words “global”, “events industry” and “carbon emissions” did not yield any articles that attempted to quantify the global MICE/BE industry's carbon emissions, nor identify main MICE/BE supply chain contributors to carbon emissions. There was an article on environmental sustainability of the events industry (Cavallin Toscani, Vendraminelli, & Vinelli, 2024), which analysed 247 articles on mega to small-scale festivals' environmental sustainability and categorised them into four major themes – (1) events' environmental impact, (2) green event management, (3) environmental policy and guidelines and (4) environmental psychology of event stakeholders.

Despite the good academic research on the topic of sustainability in the MICE industry, all studies are either regional and country specific, with limited broader examination of the global MICE/BE industry's state of sustainability. As such, this paper adopts a content analysis review method by combing through existing reports from global MICE/BE industry bodies. The two largest umbrella organisations for the global MICE/BE industry are Events Industry Council (EIC) and the Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC). EIC is a non-profit federation of more than 30 US and international MICE/BE organisations representing close to 104,000 individuals and 20,000 companies involved in MICE/BE activities around the world. Its members include major associations like Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE), International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), Society of Independent Show Organisers (SISO) etc. JMIC is the other major body representing the interest of the global MICE/BE industry, and include members like International Association of Convention Centres (AIPC), China Business Events Industry Committee (CBEIC), International Association of Professional Congress Organizers (IAPCO), Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI) and several others represented on EIC as well including ICCA and SISO. The selection criteria of MICE/BE industry reports is thus centred around those by EIC and JMIC and their members. Two other organisations with a primary focus on sustainability in tourism/MICE/BE are also selected – Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), and Global Destination Sustainability Movement (GDS-M). In addition, reports from adjacent industry bodies that have wider impact on the MICE/BE industry like the International Air Transport Association (IATA), International Maritime Organisation (IMO), International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and International Energy Agency (IEA) are selected for further study.

The intent is to frame and summarize the current state of the global MICE/Business events (BE) industry's sustainability efforts, by answering the following six guiding questions:

1. What is the global MICE/BE industry's total carbon emissions, and as a percentage of the world's total carbon emissions of 57.1 GtCO2e?

2. What are the “dirtiest” components in the supply chain of the global MICE/BE industry?

3. What are the “easy wins”, that is significant components that are within the influence of the industry stakeholders and governments?

4. Are there appropriate and sufficient sustainability standards and certifications in place?

5. How is innovation and technology aiding the progress of sustainability efforts, and is there a best practices reference guide?

6. Is there benchmarking and recognition for leading destinations and industry players in sustainability best practices?

The six guiding questions provide the basis for a conceptual framework that examines whether there are industry and research gaps in the areas of (1) measurement, (2) standards and certification, (3) innovation and technology application and (4) benchmarking and recognition. – see Figure 1.

It is encouraging that every single MICE/BE industry association and sustainability-related movements are doing something about sustainability for the industry. A summary of the major initiatives is outlined at Table 1.

The main findings are categorised into four sections – (1) measurements (specifically to tackle questions 1 to 3 above), standards and certifications (question 4), innovation and technology (question 5) and benchmarking and recognition (question 6).

The Net Zero Carbon Events (NZCE) remains one of the most comprehensive reports that frames the quantitative issues for sustainability in the MICE/BE industry. An open-source reference that continues to evolve, the NZCE roadmap was officially released at the UNFCCC COP27 meeting in November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The current findings confirmed that attendee travel/transport is the single largest contributor to carbon emissions – more than 65% for the French events industry, and 85% for the US and Canada exhibitions industry. Despite its dependence on a single source of data (French events industry), the usefulness of the findings is in that it recognises that different event types contribute to carbon emissions differently, and thus provide a starting position on the major activity categories to focus on depending on event type – see Table 2.

Another useful concept introduced by NZCE is its prioritisation framework, based on (1) influence (by any events industry stakeholders), (2) size of emissions and (3) significance (stakeholder expectations for action). The recommendation is for the events industry to prioritise and take immediate action on categories that are assessed to be “high” or “medium” on all three fronts. Based on this framework, categories that require immediate action are – (1) on-site venue energy, (2) general and production waste, (3) stands production, (4) production of F&B, (5) freight transport.

The third major contribution by NZCE is its upfront position on including attendee travel when calculating an event's overall carbon footprint, but excluding attendee travel from a company's scope 3 (value chain) emissions in the interim. This is in consideration of the low level of influence that events industry stakeholders have over attendee travel. Instead of an extreme position of halting all travel (akin to a recommendation that suggest that all of us should stop consuming food and drinks because F&B is a major contributor to carbon emissions), it recommends that the events industry start by focusing on what's within its control, that is influence over categories that are of substantial size and significance.

This leads to NZCE's fourth major contribution, which is the emphasis on cross collaboration and awareness of efforts by other industry bodies. The positive news is that many other industries have embarked on their own commitment and pathways to Net Zero, including several industries that are closely related to the events industry – see Table 3.

The efforts above would lead to carbon emissions reduction for attendee travel (aviation), freight (shipping), venue energy, F&B, accommodation, space design and production (energy). In summary, NZCE's measurement efforts and recommendations (if implemented), allow stakeholders to take concrete action (instead of mere discussions) in areas where there is influence, size and significance. This would positively complement the efforts by other industries/individuals/governments.

As governments, industry bodies, companies and individuals decide on the “what” – categories in the events value-chain to act on, it is equally important to figure out the “how” – the most efficient and effective way of getting the work done. This is where standards and certifications come in. As ISO – the International Organization for Standardization puts it simply, they exist to answer a fundamental question – “what's the best way of doing this?”. There are several standards today related to MICE/BE industry sustainability standards, including ISO 20121:2024 (event sustainability management systems), ISO 14001:2015 (environmental management system), Event Industry Council (EIC)'s Sustainable Event Standards, GSTC's MICE criteria, etc. There are even more certifications available – see Table 4.

The ISO 14001 is the mostly widely used ISO standard for environmental sustainability. More than 500,000 organisations in over 180 countries around the world have been ISO 14001 certified, including the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Airport Council International (ACI) and Marina Bay Sands Singapore. It is applicable for organisations that wish to reduce their environmental footprint through resource efficiency and waste reduction. On the other hand, the ISO 20121 is more for events, by providing a framework to improve events' social, economic and environmental sustainability. Some of the major events that are ISO 20121 certified include the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)'s 10^th Annual Meeting and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress 2025 hosted in Abu Dhabi.

The EIC sustainability standards and certifications are tailored more to the needs of stakeholders in the MICE/BE industry. This is made apparent by the fact that the International Association of Exhibitions and Events Industry (IAEE) and PCMA have chosen the EIC sustainability event standard for their certification purposes. At the same time, the EIC Sustainable Event Professional Certificate (SEPC) is structured for individuals who wish to be certified for their individual capabilities in designing and hosting sustainable events. For Green Tourism, it has thousands of members mostly in the hospitality sector, including accommodation providers, attractions and experiences, restaurants and pubs, tour and transport operators etc. Earth Check is another certification and advisory group with more than a thousand members largely in the travel and tourism sector.

The business case for MICE/BE industry certification is increasingly clear. In ICCA's 2023 Meeting Needs Survey, 44% of international associations plan to update their Request-for-proposals (RFP) to include sustainability and legacy criteria (ICCA, 2023). The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) – one of the largest associations and organisers of scientific conferences in the world, has incorporated sustainability-related questions in all its event-related RFPs, with the objective of motivating changes in suppliers' practices and delegates' behaviours (IEEE, 2025). In Singapore, government procurements via demand aggregation (DA) contracts now mandates sustainability requirements to be included in contracts for both products and services (e.g. energy efficiency labelling), and suppliers (e.g. a venue's sustainability certification). These top-down approaches/requirements will further push industry stakeholders to take up sustainability certification.

A post-pandemic event today looks every different from those held before 2020. To illustrate the application of technology into themes, one way is to adopt the delegate's journey, which comprises pre-event, in-event and post-event “themes”. Before the commencement of an event, it is common today to have “touch-less” registrations, where delegates sign in via QR codes included in the invitation letters, and print their own re-cyclable badges where appropriate. Agenda are often not printed, as they can be read from the delegates' own digital devices. During events, presenters on stage can leverage on AR/VR tools to enhance content delivery and improve the entertainment value of event experiences. Simultaneous translations are also easily available. Post-event, reports can be generated immediately after the event, for example by using SnapSight – the world's first AI-based real-time content summarisation tool. Post-event analysis can also result in reduced food wastage in subsequent events. For example, a company called Lumitics in Singapore worked with commercial kitchens to use image recognition, AI and data analytics to gather insights into what is being thrown away by the kitchens. With the knowledge, kitchen management is then able to adjust and optimise their kitchen processes to minimise waste and cost. The innovative applications of technological advancement by the MICE/BE industry meant less event carbon footprint (less printed materials, less F&B wastage), less manpower being deployed for regular tasks (e.g. registration, translation, content reporting) and thus freeing up resources for in-person networking, business knowledge exchange or just fact-checking on AI-generated reports.

Despite these advancements, sustainability efforts across the globe have largely been done in silos with limited sharing of knowledge and best practices. One need not look very far for examples on the power of knowledge sharing and collaboration. Launched in January 2025, DeepSeek's eponymous chatbot was developed based on an open-source approach which significantly reduced cost, manpower, time and energy consumed (i.e. reduced carbon footprint). In the process, it also democratized access to advanced AI technologies and allow a wider spectrum of developers and users to use, learn and contribute. Mafengwo – a popular online travel platform, is one of the first travel-related companies to collaborate with DeepSeek by integrating the latter's large language model with Mafengwo's AI services (China Travel News, 2025). The initial applications include itinerary creation, hotel recommendation and transport coordination, saving time and resources in the process. There are no known MICE/BD industry stakeholders that have leveraged DeepSeek's capabilities as yet, though the potential is immense.

Before 2023, there is an obvious lack of a consolidated knowledge base or platform for the global MICE/BE industry to come together to learn and share on sustainability-related topics. It is thus commendable that the GDS-M initiated the inaugural GDS-Forum in 2023 which gathered global destination leaders and sustainability champions to discuss, learn and share sustainability practices. The PCMA took the ambition a step further with its inaugural Convene 4 Climate in 2024, positioning the conference as the “COP for the MICE/BE industry” with its focus on exploring future scenarios, growing knowledge and devising creative solutions around the intersection of climate-tech and the MICE/BE industry. In collaboration with the Strategic Alliance of the National Convention Bureaux of Europe (SANCBE), Convene 4 Climate is more of a movement (than an event) to inspire and rally for more in the MICE/BE industry to operate sustainably and co-crate a pathway to a regenerative future. Many are hopeful that this would be a movement with concrete outcomes – for example, an open source for best practices in sustainability, including the application of climate technology for the business of events.

It was highlighted earlier that a clear gap today is the lack of a CO2e baseline for the MICE/BE industry, which could provide an indication of the industry's contribution to global warming. Within the industry, it is similarly useful to have benchmarks on how each of the industry stakeholders is doing in comparison. This is where the Global Destination Sustainability Index (GDS-I)'s efforts are useful. Co-founded in 2016 with 15 cities in participation, the GDS-I is a sustainability performance benchmarking exercise for event-based tourism destinations. Through a rigorous quantitative and qualitative assessment to track destinations' sustainability practices over time in a measurable manner, the findings provide crucial data points for destinations to act on, and with clear industry-specific directions. By 2024, the GDS-I has grown to more than 100 cities coming together to benchmark, learn and improve on sustainability efforts and performances. Participating cities gain access to relevant data, toolsets and skill sets to act, measure and report on broad areas of relevance for the respective cities – socio-economic, environmental, destination supplier and destination management performances.

One suggestion for GDS-I is to gradually move more of its content and learnings to an open-source format, where more destinations can learn and along the way consider a more in-depth participation. A second suggestion would be to extend or lead a separate benchmarking exercise for other key players in the MICE/BE industry, for example venues, booth stand contractors etc.

With the above findings, the current state of sustainability in the MICE/BE industry and the opportunities ahead are summarised in Table 5.

In view of the current state of sustainability in the MICE/BD industry, the opportunities ahead are outlined as follows:

1. The global MICE/BD industry should come together and work on quantifying its total carbon emissions. This would contextualise its percentage contribution to the world's total carbon emissions, and more importantly, establish a baseline from which incremental efforts and outcomes can be better measured.

2. The MICE/BD industry would do well to focus on what's within its sphere of direct influence. Excluding air travel, the reduction of GHG emissions in (1) F&B, (2) accommodation and (3) stand design and production – the three “dirtiest” components in its supply chain, are well within the influence of industry stakeholders, and thus present themselves as the “easy wins” or “low lying fruits” which the global MICE/BE industry can focus on.

3. With an increasingly clear business case for sustainability in the MICE/BE industry (44% of international associations ^[2] in 2023 highlighted the intent to update their RFP to include sustainability and legacy criteria), the demand for and supply of MICE/BE sustainability standards and certification are healthy. New standards and certifications should aim to add value and fill existing gaps, instead of replicating what are already available.

4. While there is sharing of knowledge and best practices on the application of innovation and technology to aid the progress of sustainability efforts in the MICE/BE industry, the respective efforts are largely done in silos. There is a need for the respective sustainability efforts to scale and be combined, into one broad global MICE/BE industry sustainability movement and platform that commands the attention, resources and respect of all within and beyond the MICE/BE industry. Convene 4 Climate, and a few other platforms have the potential to kickstart this ambition. A starting focus could be on content and its application, for example an open-source best practices reference guide that continues to build through contribution from users.

5. There is benchmarking and recognition for leading destinations in sustainability, in the form of the Global Destination Sustainability Index (GDS-I), though similar benchmarking for MICE/BE industry players like venues, booth stand contractors, event organisers etc. can also be considered in the future.

There is a clear scope and opportunity for future research, especially longitudinal studies that compare past and current sustainability efforts with new ones in the coming years. For example, in May 2025, the EIC and JMIC have announced a new collaborative effort to join forces to advance sustainability work for the MICE/BD industry. This will leverage on EIC's Sustainable Event Standards and JMIC's Net Zero Carbon Events (NZCE) initiative. Studies that examine wider industry collaboration and results achieved would be helpful for greater adoption across the MICE/BD industry. In June 2025, the Better Stands initiative was launched and supported by the International Federation of Exhibition and Event Services (IFES) and hosted by NZCE, which promotes and drives the transition from single use to reusable stands. Considering that stand design and production is one of the three “dirtiest” components in the MICE/BE supply chain, future study on the progress in GHG emission reduction in this area would also be useful.

In conclusion, there are reasons to be optimistic for the future. Booking.com's 2024 sustainable travel report revealed that 75% of travellers want to travel more sustainably going forward (Booking.com, 2024). An action-based approach that focuses on efforts within one's sphere of influence, coupled with a wider inter-governmental and inter-industry collaboration, could well make net-zero by 2050 a possibility.