Support the mia’s plastic pledge at The Meetings Show

The Meetings Industry Association (mia) will be encouraging visitors to The Meetings Show to support its #20PercentLess campaign to help eliminate single-use plastics from the industry.

The campaign, which launched earlier this year, has already secured widespread support with dozens of organisations signing the mia’s pledge wall and committing to reducing single-use plastic by a minimum of 20% each year for the next five years.

Visitors to The Meetings Show, which takes place on 26 and 27 June at Olympia, London, will be able to add their support to the campaign by pinning their organisation’s name to a live pledge wall located in the mia Pavilion (F700).

Organisations signing the mia’s #20PercentLess pledge commit to eliminating single-use plastic from their business by 2025. Suggestions include removing plastic bottles, pens, stirrers, cups and cutlery from the business, sourcing sustainable alternatives and influencing the supply chain.

Jane Longhurst, chief executive of the mia, said: “We have already gathered amazing levels of support for our campaign from both mia members and the wider industry and we are hoping to engage further interest and support from visitors to The Meetings Show.

“Thanks to programmes such as the BBC’s Blue Planet II we’re acutely aware the impact the world’s reliance on single-use plastics is having on our planet and its occupants, which is why the mia is supporting the business meetings and events industry to eliminate them from their organisations.” 

Members can download the mia’s #20PercentLess paper, which outlines the initiative and provides tips and advice as well as case studies and a framework from the association’s portal.

Also featured in the mia Pavilion will be AIM accredited venues, destination and suppliers including British Airways i360, Congress Centre, Conference Eastbourne, Conference English Riviera, No11 Cavendish Square, Elite Hotels, Hever Castle, Hiscox, Kia Oval - Surrey Cricket Club, London Stock Exchange, Staffordshire Conference Bureau, The Grand Brighton, Wembley Stadium and Wyboston Lakes, who will be demonstrating how the UK’s only benchmark assessing quality and professionalism against strict criteria, provides huge peace of mind to buyers.

www.mia-uk.org