Sustainable development is a critical and longstanding focus of the events industry. Principles of sustainability are firmly embedded within industry practices and client expectations has long been a rallying cry for our industry. RX announced in November 2021 that it had 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. The pledge was presented at the Global Climate Summit COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 10 2021. 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. The commitments of the pledge are aligned with the targets of the Paris Climate Accord.
The RX Sustainability Commitment for Events
As a founding member of this initiative, we will be able to make swift and essential progress towards reducing the overall carbon footprint of events through continued collaborative work throughout the events sector. In fact, we are committed to being Net Zero by 2040 in line with our parent company RELX, which has signed the Climate Pledge.
Later in Year 2023, RX will publish our Pathway to Net Zero, setting out our carbon reduction strategy to achieve net zero by 2040, with key milestones for all our shows.
As a first step, we have released the ‘RX Sustainability Playbook’ in February 2023 to support all of our event and operations teams in making more sustainable choices – be it through switching to digital catalogues, using sustainable badges and lanyards, recycling waste within the local community, or any number of other transformative opportunities. The Sustainability Playbook will provide our event teams with practical guidance and actions that can be implemented right away. These range from easy to the more complex and cover the entire show lifecycle from measurement to waste, stakeholders to travel – it’s a step-by-step guide on how you and your event can play your part in achieving net zero across RX.
As a leading event organiser we bring whole industries together which can advance sustainability – playing a role in educating and influencing behaviour with a large number of stakeholders. In China，RX launched S-Future Platform in 2021 to help our various trade shows and customers to drive transformation across the value chain, and to explore and identify solutions, business opportunities and cross-sectoral collaboration under the context of low-carbon transition and sustainable development.
Our approach is guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, prioritising those where we can have the greatest impact and demonstrating leadership through programming and content across our events.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals
Environmental
We want to ensure responsible consumption and production throughout the value chain of our events. Our priorities include reducing waste and eliminating materials that cannot be reused or recycled. We are committed to working with our suppliers and exhibitors to ensure sustainability is considered at all stages of an event and seek to select suppliers and partners who demonstrate a responsible approach to managing their environmental impact.
We are committed to reducing our contribution to climate change by reducing the carbon intensity of our operations and by working in partnership with venues, suppliers, exhibitors and delegates to better understand and achieve emissions reductions across our industry.
We will work with each of the industries we serve to provide content that supports their own priorities to decarbonsite their operations.
Social
We believe that our events are important platforms for the industries we serve to visibly progress their goals of gender equality and the empowerment of all women. As the Organiser, we are committed to ensure each of our events has content, leadership and engagement to further gender equality.
Equality enables business progress. Different perspectives bring innovation, new ideas and greater discussion, leading to better decision-making and outcomes. Our events are platforms for the industries we serve to demonstrate where people feel valued, have equal opportunities and benefit from equality, regardless of their gender, gender identity, national origin, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age or disability status. Through this we will reduce inequality within and across countries.
Economic
Our events have a role to play in promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. We are committed to supporting productive activities, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encouraging the formalisation and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises through our face-to-face and digital platforms. We respect labour rights and work to provide a safe and secure work environment for all those involved in the delivery of our events.
We believe that our events have an important role to play in advancing understanding, debate and action across industries in support of the Goals. We are committed to inspiring action, fostering partnerships and demonstrating leadership through sustainability programming across our events.