American Express Meetings & Events has announced the launch of a suite of sustainable meeting and events solutions to help customers measure and reduce their carbon footprint. The suite of solutions launches as in-person meetings are returning, with more than four out of five (81%) meetings and events professionals expecting events this year to have a face-to-face element.

Increasingly, organisations are making sustainability a priority: 83% emphasize the importance of embedding sustainability in meetings and events.

Milton Rivera, VP Global Business Development, Global Client Group & APAC region for American Express Meetings & Events, said: “Today, the true value of meeting face-to-face is more profoundly and widely recognized than ever. The world has changed: organizations want smarter travel and meetings and they want to work with responsible, sustainable and inclusive partners who can help achieve them.”

The suite currently contains two components: the Sustainable Meetings Program advisory solution allows customers to benefit from the expertise of highly skilled teams who will help them assess their meetings program and develop an end-to-end sustainability strategy, aligned with corporate sustainability goals. This includes setting measurable objectives, implementing systems to plan sustainable meetings and events, and measuring and reporting on an event’s carbon impact.

The Carbon Neutral Events solution helps organizations reduce, measure, and offset meetings and events emissions. The proprietary GBT event carbon calculator identifies the carbon footprint and other sustainability metrics to help customers understand the relative impact of each event category. With this insight, customers can calculate the amount of offsetting measures needed to achieve carbon neutrality.

Gerardo Tejado, SVP Value Development and GM Meetings and Events at American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT), said: “Travel, meetings and events are a force for good, bringing people together to power economic, social and environmental progress. We believe our sustainable meetings and events solutions are game changing. They enable customers to cascade their corporate sustainability goals to their meetings and events and reduce carbon emissions. The solutions are underpinned by our commitment to high standards of integrity and business ethics, while operating in a sustainable manner. This is incorporated in best practices throughout our operations, services and supply chain.”

The launch of the sustainable meetings and events suite of solutions is the latest Amex GBT initiative to help customers reduce the environmental impact of corporate travel and meetings.

In the last 12 months, Amex GBT has formed an alliance with Shell Aviation to help increase the supply of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF); partnered with Cvent to lead an industry-wide program to embed corporate responsibility objectives in hotel sourcing; and unveiled its Green Compass capability, designed to enable corporates to decarbonize travel while continuing to benefit from business travel.