Where Sustainability Meets Walkability: Bruges as Your Low‑Impact Conference Destination

In Bruges, sustainability is embedded in every step of the conference design and realisation process. With venues within walking distance, Green Key-certified infrastructure and a strong commitment to accessibility, the city facilitates responsible events. As Kathy Van Wambeke of Visit Bruges Convention Bureau points out, choosing sustainable venues in Bruges also means creating meetings that leave a positive impact on the community.

Sustainability is the central theme in the meetings industry. It is no longer a “nice-to-have”, but a must. Bruges is easily accessible by train in just 80 minutes from Brussels Airport. On arrival, all venues are within walking distance. Whether you are visiting the state-of-the art Bruges Meeting and Convention Centre (BMCC) – pictured below – an elegant four-star hotel or a historic venue, you don't need to take a shuttle bus to get from one location to another. No time wasted and maximum enjoyment is the message. The car-free area in the city centre has been expanded to make the area even more pleasant to walk. A bike excursion in the green belt is a healthy activity to include in your conference's social programme. A recent survey by Tourism Flanders, in which Bruges and six other Flemish conference cities participated shows that conference organisers give Bruges a score of no less than 9.5/10.
 

Sustainability at its best

Bruges is the destination par excellence for those looking for heritage, quality, sustainability and innovation. The UNESCO World Heritage city strives to meet these criteria in collaboration with its partners.

• The Flanders Heritage Venues 2.0 successfully passed a thorough quality audit and were assessed on criteria such as sustainability, experience, accessibility, digitisation and well-being.
   
• The Green Key locations are recognised for their efforts in the field of sustainable and responsible entrepreneurship. No fewer than 15 MICE locations hold the Green Key label, with Hotel Navarra Brugge, Ibis Styles Brugge Centrum and B&B Everelmus being the most recent ones. By choosing a Green Key location, you are contributing to sustainable MICE tourism.
   
• The Provincial Palace in Bruges is the first location in Flanders to receive the M++ label, the highest accessibility label for meeting and conference venues awarded by Tourism Flanders. Following its recent restoration and refurbishment, a strong focus was placed on accessibility for everyone: 3 new lifts, adapted sanitary facilities and a changing place (care-accessible toilet with extra space and aids) were installed.
   

We asked Kathy Van Wambeke, Sales Manager of Visit Bruges Convention Bureau, a few questions:

How can an association organise a sustainable conference in Bruges?

Kathy: They can start by choosing a sustainable conference venue. Our two main conference venues both have the Green Key label.

The Bruges Meeting & Convention Centre is a nearly energy-neutral (BEN) building with a green roof that buffers rainwater, purifies the air, regulates indoor temperature, and provides a home for 100,000 bees, producing around 80 kg of BeeMCC honey per year. The BMCC uses renewable energy through heat pumps and solar panels and offers charging stations for electric vehicles. Catering partners adhere to a sustainability charter, and waste is efficiently sorted.

Concertgebouw Brugge (below) installed LED lighting, nesting boxes for swifts were placed on the roof and 12.000 ton of CO2 emissions are reduced per year by planting their own forest. The venue now investigates options for renovation with Building Integrated PhotoVoltaics (BIPV), which means that the facing bricks contain cells that can generate solar energy”.
 

How can a conference leave a positive mark and give something back to the community?

Kathy: A good example is the 7th World Conference on Marine Biodiversity (WCMB 2026) that will be organised by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) from the 17th till the 20th of November 2026 in Concertgebouw Brugge. The overall theme of the Conference is “The marine biodiversity insights we need, for the ocean we want” and will contribute to the overall UN Ocean Decade vision. In order to extend the conference’s impact well beyond the academic community, a public event featuring a documentary on marine biodiversity introduced by a short expert panel will be organised.

  
Contact:
Visit Bruges Convention Bureau
Kathy Van Wambeke, Sales Manager
T: +32(0)50 44 46 66, E: meeting@brugge.be
 

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