Thailand plans greener MICE sector
Thailand is planning to reduce the carbon footprint of its meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition (MICE) sector.
The Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) has formed a new partnership with the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization (TGO) to develop a set of environmental guidelines for the MICE industry.
“This cooperation will assist operators in the exhibition industry to evaluate the impact of carbon emissions from each exhibition, manage each exhibition in a way that actually reduces the destruction of the environment, which includes saving energy, reduction of raw materials, and proper recycling,” said TCEB committee member, Thongchai Sridama. “Moreover, it will help strengthen the competitiveness of the Thai exhibition industry at the international arena by being more than just a platform for products.”
As part of the project, TGO has created a set of guidelines for exhibition organisers to calculate their carbon footprint. Once the emissions have been calculated, TGO will aim to create public awareness in an effort to draw more MICE operators into the scheme.
“If all MICE operators realise the heart of this issue and adopt the carbon footprint assessment as part of their business operation, it will definitely help create business opportunities particularly among customers — may it be from the from European Union, the United States, Japan and other countries that are keen and watchful on the operations related to global warming and climate change. TCEB, as its next step, will expand the direction of carbon footprint assessment to cover other fields of MICE, namely the convention and incentive industries,” Thongchai added.