IAPCO Pledge against Single-Use Plastics

In 2018, for IAPCO’s 50th Anniversary, the ‘Not Just a Drop in the Ocean Campaign’ was launched with the mascot ‘Ticky the Turtle’ whose purpose was to promote the adverse effects that single-use plastics were having on the oceans and seas around the world.

IAPCO felt that the meetings and events industry was, at that time, not as aware of this global issue as it should have been, so felt that a campaign to raise awareness to our membership of over 133 companies with combined workforce of over 9200 employees was important to do. Our members delivered over 18,660 total meetings around the world that year so the potential of single-use plastics being used and then discarded to enter into the oceans and onto beaches was massive.

The objective was quite simple: to inspire 50 organisations to take the IAPCO Plastics Pledge, and commit to making real measurable change to their use of single-use plastic at their event and their organisations by the IAPCO Annual Meeting in Vancouver in February 2020.

Ticky the Turtle has inspired an incredible number of organisations, including government funded convention and visitor bureax, events agencies, events venues and hotels and, of course, our professional congress organisers members to join our IAPCO Pledge to consciously reduce the use of single-use plastics at conferences, meetings and events and their offices. The link between Ticky and the UN Strategic Development Goals, specifically UN SDG14 – ‘Life Below Water’ is obvious.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #14: Life Below Water

Therefore, IAPCO is proud to leverage Ticky’s popularity to support and promote the UNSDG’s objectives. Together, with your pledges, we can all do our part to support the United Nations Strategic Development Goal (UN SDG) #14 – Life Below Water.

The next steps for Ticky the Turtle is to further develop this campaign in the near future to include measurement tools for IAPCO members and to also extend our support to other UN SDG’s.

17 Goals to Transform Our World – The Sustainable Development Goals are a call for action by all countries – poor, rich and middle-income – to promote prosperity while protecting the planet.

List of completed IAPCO Plastics Pledge received:
1. KW Conferences, India
2. Conference Partners, Ireland
3. ICMS Pty Ltd, Australia
4. Podium Conferences, Canada
5. AIM Group International
6. AFEA Travel and Congress Services
7. OIC Group
8. Hamburg Convention Bureau
9. Business Events Toronto
10. CPO Hanser Service GmBH
11. Erasmus
12. ESRA
13. Kenes Group
14. MECI
15. Parthen Meeting Essentials
16. MCI France
17. Kuoni Congress
18. Ega worldwide congresses and events
19. C-IN
20. Edmonton Convention Centre
21. Arinex
22. MCI Australia
23. MCI Group
24. BCO Congresos
25. Abbey Conference & Events
26. International Conference Services (ICS)
27. MCI UK
28. MCEC
29. Hong Kong Convention Exhibition Centre (Management) Limited (HML)
30. Conference Compass
31. MCI Middle East
32. AsiaWorld-Expo
33. The Conference Company
34. Venue West Conference Services
35. Pacto Convex
36. Congrex Switzerland Ltd.
37. Congress Corporation
38. JPdL Events
39. Vancouver Convention Center
40. European Academy of Paediatric Societies (EAPS)
41. DIS Congress Service A/S
42. Cankarjev Dom
43. European Academy of Paediatrics Societies
44. Japan National Tourism Organisation
45. ESID-22-20th-Biennial-Meeting-Plastics-Pledge
46. INTERPLAN Congress, Meeting & Event Management AG
47. Pledge from ESPGHAN – organised by Kenes Group
48. Pledge for FRPT2023 congress – organised Kenes Group
49. Helsinki Partners
50. European Society of Endodontology (ESE) 2023 – 21st Biennial Congress
51. Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre (Messukeskus)