Making Incentive Canada 2024 Sustainable & Carbon Neutral

Warmly welcoming, Canada continues to deliver incentive rewards with meaning. Through the Incentive Canada program, top international meeting planners are invited to take part in only-here, only-now, and only-with-us experiences to honour the best of the best of their teams. While taking part in these unique experiences, as well as exclusive one-on-one access to Team Canada Partners, planners get to learn first-hand about the beautiful and authentic winter incentive opportunities across the country.

Expanding the impact of this program, Incentive Canada 2024 – Winter Edition will be the second ever carbon neutral Incentive Canada event! Significant effort has been taken to select the most sustainable options available and incorporate initiatives wherever possible in planning and executing this event.  These efforts align with Destination Canada’s overarching strategy to leverage its signature programs to make meaningful contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are part of “[the] 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, [the SDGs] adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 [provide] a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future” (United Nations). 

We’ve identified the SDGs and Targets we could impact the most and incorporated a multitude of initiatives throughout the planning and execution of the events. This includes efforts to minimize carbon emissions and offset any that can’t be mitigated, making these events carbon neutral.

Lessons learned continue to be incorporated into the sustainability plans of current and future events. Measures to reduce, track and offset the carbon footprint serve as benchmarks for future events and important case studies for Canada’s first business event sustainability plan. Click here to learn more about this plan, which already has 16 destinations engaged and learning how to reduce the carbon footprint of their own events.

Our Sustainability Goals

  1. Invest in local talent, ecosystems, and economies by facilitating high quality introductions between Canadian and global changemakers in Canada’s sectors of priority
     
  2. Foster Engagement with local communities, and Enable Learning opportunities around local traditional culture and heritage
     
  3. Take Action toward meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by producing sustainable, carbon neutral events through incorporation of evidence-based initiatives wherever possible
     
  4. Spread Awareness around sustainability and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Empower event stakeholders to continue learning how they can take steps to incorporate sustainability in their own communities and daily lives
     
  5. Be Transparent in tracking and reporting our successes and challenges, and share our learnings publicly to help destinations and businesses across the business events industry to make changes and produce more sustainable events

Sustainability in Action at Incentive Canada 2024 - Winter Edition

Here are just a few of the steps we are taking to make Incentive Canada 2024 – Winter Edition a sustainable, carbon neutral event:

  • Make sustainability a dedicated agenda item during each internal planning meeting between Destination Canada, its event contractor, and Partners
  • Prioritize vendors implementing sustainable practices, and highlight those practices to Attendees
  • Serve seasonal menus made from local, sustainably-sourced ingredients, and prioritize vegetarian options 
  • Prioritize reusable materials while eliminating the use of single-use plastics
  • Walk to venues with a commute of 20 minutes or less, and source group transportation for longer distances
  • Use the innovative TRACE software to track the event’s carbon footprint and set benchmarks for subsequent events
  • Offset the event’s carbon emissions by investing in CSA Standard-certified Canadian projects 
  • Encourage Partners to offset their travel by investing in reputable and third party-verified projects
  • Increase stakeholder awareness around the sustainability initiatives we are taking, and offer suggestions for how they can further increase the sustainability of the event while reducing their individual carbon footprints
  • Share our alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with stakeholders to further spread awareness around sustainability and encourage additional learning and action toward sustainable development

Initiatives incorporated at Incentive Canada 2024 – Winter Edition are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Based on learnings from prior carbon neutral events, efforts have been focused on the Goals and their Targets where the greatest impact could be made. Click on the images below to learn more about the actions being taken to contribute to each:

Building a Sustainable Business Event Ecosystem in Canada

Aligned with the mission and vision of the plan, Canadian cities from coast-to-coast-to-coast have joined the Global Destination Sustainability Index (GDS-Index) — the world's leading sustainability performance program for business tourism destinations around the world — at the close of 2022.

The GDS-Index cements Destination Canada’s position as a global leader in business event sustainability and positions Canadian destinations as changemakers accelerating progress toward the industry's 2050 net zero targets. 

Resources on Business Event Sustainability