"On September 20 last year, Messe Frankfurt's management decided to seek EMAS certification." This, or something very similar, is how Christofer Starke, in his role as EMAS Project Manager and Sustainability Manager of Messe Frankfurt, initiated a series of workshops with various departments over the past few months. "The workshops were about introducing colleagues to EMAS and raising their awareness of how to define targets for improving environmental performance for their own area of responsibility, which can be achieved in the first EMAS validation cycle. These targets are intended to help the departments, and ultimately the entire company, to gradually make our business climate-neutral by 2040 at the latest," reports Starke.
The workshops are based on our company's Sustainability Board's decision that the EMAS targets for the individual disciplines of our company can only be assessed and defined by the respective experts in the departments. This is because only the experts know the relevant data on which the targets are based. "In the workshops, it was also important for us to sensitize our colleagues to the fact that the transformation to greater sustainability cannot be carried out 'from the top'. Rather, our respective company experts are required to initiate the change process from within the individual teams across all disciplines. As a consequence, the responsibility for achieving the goals also remains in the respective departments," says Doreen Richter, Sustainability Manager of Messe Frankfurt.
"In part, we notice that it is difficult for us to step out of our usual way of thinking and doing business in order to take new paths and decisively advance the transformation. On the other hand: movement is discernible and there are also already very pleasing results of discussions. For example, some EMAS goals can already be recorded that we consider to be groundbreaking," observes Stefan Jakob, Sustainability Manager.
Among other things, the departments have formulated the following measures, with which they are building on their previous efforts and which will be included as goals in the EMAS certification process.
- Our subsidiary accente will offer one to two additional meat-free dishes in the Cucina each week. It also aims to use ten percent less disposable tableware.
- Our infrastructure services department sets the goal of increasing the waste separation rate in our administrative operations at the home site. At the same time, we want to improve the recycling rate of towel paper in the restrooms. The aim is also to significantly reduce the amount of waste generated at our own events. Event-related waste avoidance concepts are to be developed and implemented.
- Basic electricity consumption is to be reduced by a further ten percent by 2025 (compared with 2019, when we had already achieved a 25 percent reduction compared with 2014).
- In terms of logistics at our exhibition center, there are also further sustainable developments: The share of renewable energy in our bus shuttles is to be increased by the end of 2024 through increased electric or hydrogen drive.
- Our colleagues in the purchasing department have set themselves the goal of reviewing the status of the sustainability measures of relevant service partners on the exhibition grounds and evaluating future orders accordingly. For example, Edel, our partner for advertising on the site, will completely switch its indoor banner materials to sustainable alternatives.
- Our subsidiary Messe Frankfurt und Service GmbH is working on CO2 balancing for system stand packages.
And what's next? The audits for EMAS certification are scheduled for September and November. To get all employees ready for the audits, our company has set up a training course that you can access via our internal Group training platform MF Campus. Participation is mandatory for all employees.
In addition, the agreed targets are to be expanded to include medium-term goals, so-called interim targets, so that we can move closer to the long-term goal of climate neutrality by 2040 at the latest. "By the end of the year, we would like to complete this process and map it out in a sustainability roadmap for Messe Frankfurt. The Sustainability Board & Management will continue to support the departments during the process of defining targets and measures. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to all those who are helping to draw up the targets and are thus making an important contribution to EMAS certification," says Philipp Kaiser, who is also Sustainability Manager at Messe Frankfurt.
Further information on Messe Frankfurt's sustainability strategy and philosophy can be found here.