MICEBOOK - POWER 50 GREEN CHAMPIONS COVER 1 - Flipbook - Page 12
Page 12
Faye Priestley
Guy Bigwood
Jade Woodall
Executive Project & Sustainability
Director, Identity
CEO and Chief Changemaker,
Global Destination Sustainability
Movement (GDS-Movement)
Senior Account Manager, mcm
Creative Group
Since October 2022, Faye has been the
driving force of the development and
implementation of a new Sustainability
Philosophy, Sustainability Policy and
Carbon Reduction Plan for large scale
agency, Identity.
Faye has built Identity’s overarching
Sustainability Philosophy which focuses
on three key areas: Planet: Protect our
environment; Human: Nurture our people;
Legacy: Safeguard our future. The
Philosophy is simple, memorable and
emphasises where Identity will focus its
efforts with initiatives to operate as a
purpose led business whilst
demonstrating thought leadership and
positive best practice to others
throughout the events industry.
Maintaining and constantly working to
improve Identity’s environmental
performance is an integral part of the
Sustainability Philosophy and overall
business objectives. Identity is ISO14001
accredited, achieved ISO20121 for G7 and
COP26 and Faye works with the project
delivery teams to apply these guiding
principles on all events.
She drives the development and
maintenance of sustainability objectives
for each critical department to meet
wider company goals and is working
closely with the procurement team to
implement a new sustainability
assessment of Identity’s extensive
supplier network. Faye has even been
approached by government clients to
deliver event brief and tender writing
workshops to educate internal client
teams to obtain more sustainable
proposals.
Faye now has a dedicated team in place
to support the embedding of the
Sustainability Philosophy and together
they are building an ambitious Carbon
Reduction Plan to reduce emissions by
50% by 2030 and to operate Net Zero by
2050 for both business operations and
the work they deliver on behalf of their
clients.
In 2009, when organising the COP15
Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Guy
Bigwood noticed that destination
management organisations were critical
to making the events industry more
sustainable and resilient to climate
change. However, there were very few
DMOs with a robust sustainability strategy
for their events industry.
In partnership with International
Congress and Convention Association’s
(ICCA) Scandinavian chapter, MCI, and 13
other pioneering cities, Guy facilitated a
workshop to engage and inspire the CVBs
to step up. As a result of this workshop, he
co-created the Scandinavian Destination
Sustainability Index in 2010 to measure
destination sustainability.
The GDS-Index delivered immediate
results and catapulted the development
of Scandinavian sustainable destination
strategies and leadership. Based on that,
Guy and the founding partner decided to
develop the collaborative partnership to
a global level to include ICCA Global, IMEX
Exhibitions, City Destinations Alliance
(CityDNA), MCI, and GUBI Consulting.
The GDS-Index today measures and
ranks 103+ cities across the world, guiding
them towards greater regenerative
destination management aligned with
the UN SDGs. In 2021, GDS-Academy was
launched in partnership with ICCA and
City Destinations Alliance offering training
and masterclasses. The team has grown
from 1 to over 18 changemakers, based
around the world, who have delivered
over 600 workshops, trained more than
50,000 people, and delivered over 300
sustainability projects.
Global leaders such as Gothenburg,
Copenhagen, Bergen, Glasgow, Sydney,
Montreal, Canada, and many more have
trusted the GDS-Movement to help them
develop and implement their climate and
sustainability strategy.
The impact of the GDS-Index cannot be
underestimated – the sustainability
performance in participating destinations
has improved by a staggering 33% in the
last seven years.
Recognising the absence of a dedicated
sustainability role at mcm, Jade
volunteered to develop sustainability
initiatives, build industry relationships,
commit time, and build a team while
managing her day job as Senior Account
Manager. She acknowledged the need to
up-skill, which began with participating in
the isla training modules and attending
sustainability-focused events and
webinars to connect with and learn from
like-minded suppliers and peers.
After Jade secured buy-in from senior
leadership, mcm became an isla member,
followed by the rollout of isla training
modules throughout the company. She is
the “go to” person for everyone at mcm
and always makes herself available to
support the team in having sustainability
conversations with clients. Jade has also
contributed to almost every new business
pitch that mcm has participated in over
the last 12 months from a sustainability
perspective.
All live and virtual event projects that mcm
delivers are now being reported on via
isla’s Trace tool. This means that clients
receive a detailed report of their
environmental impact from the event
(both pre and post event, the pre-event
report being offered with recommendations for emission reduction) to take away
and review. Alongside this, the agency
also offers clients the option to offset the
emissions.
Jade's dedication and remarkable results
have made a profound impact in
reducing mcm's environmental footprint.
Despite no prior experience, she has
revitalised the sustainability policy and
formed a team of five and in just over
eight months. Their initiatives have already
resulted in the avoidance of 515 tCO2e
emissions, demonstrating their tangible
impact. This has been achieved through
mcm’s membership with Ecologi.
The agency has committed to being a Net
Zero business by 2030, something which
Jade is driving forward already with a
detailed (work in progress) timeline of
each year and the milestones that need
to be hit and when.
