Vienna (OTS) – On 16 January, Environment Minister Josef Pröll will open the “Greening Events” conference at the Hofburg in Vienna. International and Austrian experts will discuss new ways to successfully organise large-scale events such as the 2008 European Championships, the European Culture Capital Linz 2009 and the Roskilde Festival (one of the world’s largest music festivals) in an environmentally friendly, socially just and, at the same time, economical way. Since the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, political conferences dealing with environmental issues, and above all large-scale sports and cultural events, have been established as the international norm. The ideas range from waste management, catering with regional and seasonal biofood and “fair-trade” products to specially designed access facilities for disabled persons. With the slogan “Greening the Austrian EU Presidency 2006 - Greening Events”, the Austrian EU Presidency has set itself the task of organising its events in a sustainable manner.
The conference will focus on key questions, such as: How can public administration promote the organisation of green events? What decisive areas of action are available to organise events in a more environmentally friendly way? Can the booming event market be used to communicate sustainability aims?
These questions will be dealt with in six workshops with a limited number of participants. Hartmut Stahl (Öko-Institut Darmstadt) and Dirk Leibfried (WM Büro Kaiserslautern) will tackle questions on the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The challenges posed by the Roskilde Music Festival will be dealt with during discussions in Workshop 2 by its Environmental Manager Thomas Niebuhr. Tzila Katzel (Re-Action Consulting, South Africa) and Txema Castiella i Viu (Barcelona) will reiterate the achievements of the World Summit in Johannesburg in 2002.
Events in Austria will be discussed on Tuesday. Gerda Forstner (Linz Kultur), among others, will put forward ideas on how Linz can successfully achieve sustainability as the European Culture Capital 2009. In addition, Martin Weishäupl (brainbows informations-management) will chair discussions on the 2008 European Championships in Austria/Switzerland and the 2011 World Ski Championships in the events town of Schladming. Together with the workshop participants, André Philippe Hébert (COP11/MOP1 – Montreal) will discuss methods of organising all types of conferences in an environmentally friendly way.
To round off the conference, Wolfgang Lorenz (Director of Culture Capital Graz 2003) and Monika Zimmermann (ICLEI International Training Centre Freiburg) will comment on the feasibility and conference aims.
Information booths will be available to answer specific questions. The Environment Ministry will present the idea of EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) and the Austrian environment logo and ecolabel; “Fairtrade” will inform participants about fair trade products; the “environment consultancy” and BIO Austria will provide information on the advantages of biofood and meat from livestock reared in the appropriate conditions. For questions on optimum energy use, which is also on the agenda of the Austrian EU Presidency, the “Ecoenergy and Building Contracting” stall will be on hand; the initiative of Styria “G’scheit feiern – die neue steirische Festkultur” (Celebrate sensibly – the new Styrian festival culture) understands how regionally based festivals can be staged in an environmentally neutral way.
The results of the conference will be compiled in a final document which will contain recommendations on specific steps for organising green events.
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