In this episode of Associations NOW Presents, guest host Teri Carden chats with Virginie De Visscher, executive director of business events for Destination Canada, and Amy Hissrich, MA, CAE, vice president of international affairs at ASAE, to explore the role of DMOs in driving sustainability efforts. They discuss the economic and reputational benefits of sustainable event planning, innovative strategies in transportation and local sourcing, and the power of collaboration in designing impactful, eco-friendly gatherings. Tune in to learn how associations and DMOs can work together to make a lasting difference for both the environment and local communities.

Check out the video podcast here:

https://youtu.be/qVljyQJkqsc

 

This episode is sponsored by Visit Omaha and New Orleans & Company.

Associations NOW Presents is produced by Association Briefings.

Transcript

[00:00:00 ] Teri Carden: Welcome to episode eight of Associations NOW Presents, an original podcast series from the American Society of Association Executives. I'm Teri Cardin. You may have seen me around the association world as founder of non-A Palooza, AMS Fest and Review My AMS , but these days I'm sidekick it with co-founder of Higher Logic, Andy Steggles with his newest product called Insight Guide.

Some days I feel like a chicken with my head cut off as we manage our 20 plus clients. Yes, I'm throwing ASAE in the mix as one of our newest clients and all the implementations we have going on, but my real. Title is VP of Marketing and Client Success. Folks, I can tell you right now, it's a lot of fun to be me these days helping associations invent and deliver new tools to help their members make smart buying decisions.

How about enough about me? Let's jump into today's conversation about [00:01:00 ] events and sustainability. First of all, I do want to thank. Our episode sponsors Visit Omaha and New Orleans and Company. Today I am thrilled to welcome Virginie De Visscher, executive Director of Business Events for Destination Canada and Amy Hissrich, Vice President of International Affairs at ASAE. Hello, ladies. So let's jump into today's conversation. I'm absolutely excited to talk about this topic. It's actually a topic that's personal and close to my heart. I'm actually a full-time van Lifer. I collect memories, not things. So I naturally am over conscious about Mother Earth as it's truly an extension of my home.

I feel like it's pretty easy for me to adjust my lifestyle so that I'm thinking about the future of our environment and our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren to come. But when I think of [00:02:00 ] nationwide organizations like Destination Canada, it seems daunting. Like how in the world I. See what I did there.

Do you support more localized DMO with sustainability efforts? It does truly feel like a monumental task for conferences and events when there are literally millions of people involved. So Virginia, let's get started with you. 

[00:02:28 ] Virginie De Visscher: That's a great question, Teri, because Canada's the second largest landmass in the world, right?

And Destination Canada really plays a unique role as a, I call it a national conveyor or convener, and a and a catalyst. So we're not A DMO ourselves. We work to build capacity, we create alignment, and we try to support our local partners in advancing sustainable business events. Some of the ways that we do that are, for example, training and education.

We've launched a national initiative [00:03:00 ] where right now actually we have about 50 individuals across the country that are taking the Sustainable Event Professional certification in partnership with the events industry council, and that gives Canadian d os that foundational knowledge to integrate sustainability into their event strategies.

We support Canadian cities in joining the Global Destination Sustainability Index. The GDSI that helps them assess and benchmark themselves and improve their sustainability performance over time. We also see ourselves as bringing collaboration and and tools together, so d os and venues and partners can share best practices and co-create tools around sustainability calculators, storytelling assets.

Finally, I believe in a national alignment. So we make sure that strategies reflect Canada's broader commitments. So Destination Canada has a 2030 tourism strategy so that all those collective efforts can be future facing, that can be consistent and and scalable. [00:04:00 ] So it's more about continuous improvement and sustainability is embedded in destination marketing in how we do business events across the country.

[00:04:11 ] Teri Carden: So there's a saying, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. And it sounds like you've got lots of single bites going on at one time to make a huge impact. And it makes a lot of sense bringing in those benchmarking and certification, you know, and delivering those or offering those up or providing those resources to those groups.

Excellent. Amy, did you wanna add on to that? 

[00:04:34 ] Amy Hissrich, MA, CAE: Can address this more from the association perspective. So some of the first things that associations would want to think through when they're starting down their sustainability journey is really the why. So are they framing the conversations with their boards as to.

Does sustainability align with their mission? Is it part of their mission to embrace sustainable practices? And [00:05:00 ] the other thing they might wanna think through there is the component of risk and resilience when you're looking at sustainability. So sustainability has three pillars, environmental, social, and economic.

But there are real. Potential downstream business risks. So when we look at the World Economic Forum in 2025, they produce a risk report. Two out of the top 10 risks are environmental. So much like Virginia talked about being a convener. Associations are conveners and we. As part of what most associations do, we have conferences, congresses events, an inability to convene because of extreme weather events represents a real and significant business risk for associations.

So in addition to some association having a mission mandate, all associations may be impacted and will want to think through the risk and resilience process for sustainability, and then work towards that.

[00:06:00 ] Teri Carden: Well, it sounds like there are some big factors that are coming down the pipe for associations to be making sustainability a massive priority, and it sounds like they know it too.

So that's good news. Okay, so onto the next question. What are the biggest challenges, associations and DMO face when implementing sustainability initiatives? Amy, in our early conversations about this, you know, we talked about like millions. You know, are coming and going for education and events and there are monumental challenges that organizations are faced with and you know, how are you coaching around those challenges to the associations and DMOs as they work to implement some of these sustainable strategies and initiatives?

[00:06:48 ] Amy Hissrich, MA, CAE: We're going, again, back to fundamentals first, making sure that we have the upfront conversations with our board so that we know strategically where the alignment is. How far the organization is [00:07:00 ] prepared to go, because then when you have that buy-in, then you can do a holistic plan that executes against that buy-in.

So then you can start to say, we are committed to this work. We're focusing a lot these days on work over words, and so making sure that we then roadmap the actions we want to take. For most associations, their biggest. Impact initiative will be their meeting conference, congress, or event. And so making sure that they are looking at that event as far as the sustainability impact there is likely where they're gonna wanna start.

It's also where they can start building those quick wins. So we see a lot of examples of associations really trying to look at, while sustainability has those three pillars, environmental, social, and economic. They often do look at the environmental impact of that meeting as a place to start. It is quantifiable.

They can measure their progress. So oftentimes associations will [00:08:00 ] start there. 

[00:08:02 ] Teri Carden: Great. So it sounds like, it is very similar in any area that association is seeking change, right? You've gotta start small, you've gotta do something. And I loved your framework of a work over words, right? You know, actions do speak louder than words.

And it sounds like, you know, even educating associations that they need to start the conversation and then do something small is a huge gain and a huge win. And then when they see those analytics or those. Stats come back that they're making change it, it, it can only snowball effect. So, Virginia, how about you?

Same question or did you wanna add anything to what Amy mentioned? 

[00:08:40 ] Virginie De Visscher: Absolutely. I mean, I think we're so aligned on this one because, you know, fundamentally I think associations and DMO want to be sustainable, but it's how do you translate those good intentions into actual actions? Because at the end of the day, we all face budget concerns.

We face data gaps that you mentioned, and stakeholder [00:09:00 ] alignment. Like how do you get all the partners involved in an event to. Move in the s