Pacific World has gone on a “ground-up” approach on sustainability with its #BringchangewithME initiative. (nito100/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS - Pacific World has unveiled details on its global sustainability initiative at IMEX Las Vegas this week, which help address social, economic and environmental issues.
The #BringchangewithME initiative is aimed at contributing to local sustainability goals and initiatives through hands-on activities at key destinations.
"There are many issues that we in the business events industry can directly address by modifying our approach to events," said Selina Sinclair, global managing director of Pacific World.
The destination management company sees opportunities to make a difference in climate change, plastic pollution, waste management and social sustainability, said Ms Sinclair.
"Mitigating or reversing the damage from these areas such as climate change and pollution can seem like an impossibly daunting task. But, we believe that, through the grassroots approach of the BringchangewithME movement, we start by empowering and inspiring people at an individual level," she added.
One of the areas that Pacific World has focused on is reforestation.
Spain, which faces the severe loss more than 500,000 hectares of its forested lands to fires caused by drought and overdevelopment, has seen gathering momentum on reforestation efforts.
To mitigate the effects, Pacific World is coordinating with local eco-social businesses and NGO's on local tree planting events and seeding programs as well as the creation of corporate gifts, like seedable paper and seed cookies, that can be planted anywhere.
In Seoul, Pacific World is working with local tree-planting groups on team-building activities to plant trees around the city, in a bid to contribute to the government's efforts to plant 30 million trees by 2022.
Non-biodegradable waste, another looming area for destinations around the globe, has seen a wave of efforts to reduce the volume of single-use plastics.
Pacific World has begun efforts in Bali to help clean up discarded plastics and promote the use of recycled and recyclable bottles and bags in line with the recently-enacted "no plastics" rule.
In France, which has committed to being carbon neutral by 2050, Pacific World will form teams to create up-cycled art from discarded objects and materials, like plastic, cardboard, glass, metal and more to further its efforts to recycle 50% of its waste by 2020.
In the area of social sustainability, Pacific World has introduced initiatives at Singapore and the UK, targeted at furthering support for its local community.
It is partnering with local social businesses like the Enabling Village, a project that celebrates Singapore's diversity of abilities, and organises bespoke experiences for meetings and events.
This is part of broader efforts by the country to support citizens with disabilities through the development of employment opportunities, investing $400 million over the next five years.
In the UK, Pacific World is helping to mitigate two problems - food waste and food insecurity. Each year, 13 billion pounds of edible food goes to landfill, while some 320,000 people are homeless and unable to afford healthy, nutritious food on a consistent basis.
To help combat this problem, Pacific World has collaborated to develop cooking activities that utilise overlooked ingredients to prepare home-cooked meals and distributing them to homeless shelters and soup kitchens.