More than two in three teens (68 percent) say that adults don’t do enough to set a positive example when it comes to helping those in need.

In the survey of teens (conducted by Harris Interactive for children's nonprofit World Vision), most respondents (76 percent) say it's primarily the responsibility of churches or religious organizations to help address hunger in the local community, with two in three teens (66 percent) saying that the responsibility lies with them. More than half of the teens (56 percent) say social media sites (Facebook, Twitter) have made them more aware of the needs of others—a huge increase from 2011, when just 44 percent said their use of social media made them more aware.

Meanwhile, World Vision is doing its part to mentor these teens. From now until April, it's hosting a 30 Hour Famine (30HF) drive to raise funds and hunger awareness. 30HF has more than 31,000 Facebook friends. Since 1992, the event has raised more than US$150 million to fight world hunger. This is the first time 30HF funds are being designated to fight hunger here in the U.S. 

This weekend, World Vision will give control of its 30HF website to teens across America so they can use social media to fight world hunger. While many will do 30HF in February, others will participate April 26-27. Teens go without food for 30 hours to get a taste of what the world’s poorest children face. Prior to the event, teens raise funds by explaining that $1 can help feed and care for a child a day. Teens consume only water and juice as they participate in local community service projects at food banks and homeless shelters. Last year 30HF raised $9.8 million to fight hunger. This year’s goal: $10.5 million.

Ask any teens you know how they can help. And remember: These kids are your future delegates.

The MPI Foundation has completed the third and final phase of its benchmark Thought Leadership research study on corporate social responsibility (CSR), the results of which were presented at IMEX America 2012 in Las Vegas.

For meetings and event professionals, the findings will enhance their understanding of CSR and demonstrate ways the policy can be put into practice ahead of consumer demand.

The research is based on more than 2,300 surveys representing businesses and delegates from more than 150 countries and 90 interviews.

Among the findings:

• 80 percent of industry professionals feel that customer expectations for CSR will increase in the coming years
• 77 percent of delegates say it pleases them to buy from ethically and socially responsible organizations
• 68 percent of delegates say they will pay more to buy the products of a company that demonstrates its care for the well-being of society

“The study delves into CSR at its deepest level, including the barriers and challenges to achieving it, best practices and engagement with formal and accredited programs,” said Cindy D’Aoust, COO and interim CEO for MPI.

The study was conducted by researchers from the International Center for Research in Events, Tourism and Hospitality at Leeds Metropolitan University in the U.K. and was made possible through a generous investment by InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG).

“The importance of this study cannot be understated," D'Aoust said. "The industry is clearly making strides in sustainability. Now we need to communicate our CSR credentials and commitment to stakeholders."

Earlier phases of MPI’s research on CSR focused on current business environments, CSR market drivers, case studies and programs. These latest findings presented at IMEX America, will be followed by the release of a series of related research papers focusing on specific CSR topics.

For more information visit www.mpiweb.org/csr.

The Scandinavians are at it again. In 2010, Denmark released the Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Protocol, following its COP15 event. Now, the ICCA Scandinavian Chapter has published a Scandinavian Destination Sustainability Index analyzing sustainability performance across 16 cities and 5 countries. And even though Scandinavian cities are miles ahead of many other destinations in the area of sustainable meetings, there remains potential to improve, according to the study conducted by MCI Sustainability Services. 

The research used 16 performance indicators to measure and benchmark the sustainability commitment and performance of city governments, destination infrastructure (recycling, renewable energy) and the sustainability commitment and performance of the local meeting industry. The index is just one of the deliverables of a multi-year ICCA Scandinavian Chapter project to create the world´s first sustainable meetings region. 

Already more than 50 organizations including CVBs, destination marketing organizations, venues and agencies have signed the Scandinavia Sustainable Meetings Accord launched in March 2012. The accord outlines 10 specific actions that advance sustainable development within the meeting and event industry.

How really cool!

If you measure budget, content satisfaction, attendance and even website hits, you should be measuring the sustainability of your events, according to our own CSR expert Roger Simons, who presented a short session to a standing-room only crowd of about 50 today in the Sustainability Hub at IMEX. And the process doesn't have to be difficult, he said, thanks to the newest version of MPI's Sustainable Event Measurement Tool—which now allows suppliers to join their planner peers in measuring CSR. The tool is one of several offered as part of MPI's Corporate Social Responsibility initiative (supported by the MPI Foundation and IHG), including case studies, white papers and research. Our most recent case study on a sustainable KPMG event also includes the company's green meeting guidelines and hotel questionnaire.

According to estimates based on current rates, the world population will reach 9 billion by 2050, at which time humans will use two-and-a-half planets’ resources, which will continue to decline as consumption rises. 

And associations will have a major role to play in reversing the tide. IMEX took on the education task this year during its Association Day today at the Messe Frankfurt Conference Center. 

Guy Bigwood, past present of the Green Meeting Industry Council and MCI sustainability director, and Lucy Goodchild, communications manager for the Global Reporting Initiative, presented an interactive session on sustainability as a driver for successful associations. (Yes, MPI has a GRI report!) 

The two shared different ways that sustainable policy can help associations increase member value, accelerate change and drive efficiency in the areas of talent, operations, products and services, education, communication and governance. But I also got some really neat takeaways from our group discussions, including these.

• Use Twitter hash tags to eliminate association emails and create networks of interest.
• Be a leader in the field of social responsibility to teach members who don’t necessarily accept the practice.
• Don’t forget that labor is part of sustainability. How do you treat your employees and volunteers?
• Think of CSR as collective, not corporate, social responsibility.
• You won’t be judged on how much you make, but how you make it.
• Showcase your members’ work in social responsibility with video and written case studies.

Just weeks after hosting its meeting industry debut (which earned rave reviews from visiting media and meeting professionals), the Omni Dallas Hotel has outdone itself, achieving the LEED Gold New Construction certification, making it the first and only LEED Gold hotel in Texas and the largest LEED Gold hotel in the U.S. outside of Las Vegas. 

The designation speaks to the hotel's use of recycled and regionally-sourced materials, reduced construction pollution and water conservation initiatives. 

There are the stories about colleagues during the Cold War bringing extra blue jeans when traveling to the former USSR. Or candies and comics for children in Mexico. And all over the industry, we're already donating used hotel soap to be given a new life with those in need.

It's now a good deal easier to determine which specific items you could bring along on your next trip to donate with the most impact. Howso?

Step 1. Visit Pack For a Purpose

Step 2. Select your destination

Step 3. Learn about local organizations and items needed that you can bring along--y'know, since you're already headed that way and have 10 pounds of extra weight allowance in your luggage.

Step 4. Scale the program to fill out all of your meeting/convention/trade show shipments with supplies that will change the lives of those in your host destination.

Image (CC) CharlesFred

Following an overwhelmingly positive inaugural endeavor, SXSW Eco dates have been announced for 2012, so book for flights to Austin for Oct. 3-5.

I met many unparalleled sources for eco-smarts and innovativeness at SXSW Eco 2011--check out this month's One+ feature on Employee Engagement and Sustainability to hear from some of them (story will be live online later this week).

So back to this year's SXSW Eco. Only one keynote speaker has been announced (director Annie Leonard), but considering how the event was pulled off last year, I'm not concerned about their speaker quality.

Now, about curating the event...that's your task:

Programming proposals are now being accepted through the popular PanelPicker interface, an innovative online tool that allows the SXSW Eco community to have a significant voice in programming the upcoming conference activities. PanelPicker is a two-step online system. Step one encourages the community to submit proposals for programming through the online interface. Submissions will be accepted from May 1 - June 1. Step two allows the community to browse all of the ideas and rate which of the proposals will best fit the October event. Voting will begin on June. 11. The major themes for SXSW Eco 2012 will be "Replicating Success: Solutions that Scale;" "The Social Sphere: Activating Cultures and Institutions;" "Engineering Advancement: Technology and Design;" "People, Planet, Profit: Economies that Work;" and "A Better Future: Vision and Opportunity."

Shannon Whitehead and Kristin Glenn are founders of {r}evolution apparel, a women's clothing line focused on sustainable and versatile design. In 2011, the company raised more than US$60,000 on Kickstarter with the launch of its signature piece—making {r}evolution apparel the highest-funded fashion project in Kickstarter history.

Their business is centered around a single idea: that everything we do has an impact. 

"It's been said that the flutter of a butterfly's wings can cause a typhoon halfway around the world; similarly, each decision we make in sourcing our products has an unforeseen effect somewhere, to someone," Whitehead and Glenn said. "Business is full of choices that impact future generations (Should we serve bottled water at our fashion show? Should we source locally at a higher cost?). And the first step in making that future better is realizing the power of a single decision to do good." 

Whitehead and Glenn's presentation, "Sustainability + the Butterfly Effect," will take place during Flash Point at this year's World Education Congress in St. Louis, July 28-31. And please watch the video below to learn more about {r}evolution apparel.

Guest Blog By Susan Prophet, chair of the MPI Foundation Canada Council

Events for Communities of Sustainability, or ECOS, began in 2009 as a collective project with MPI, the MPI Foundation and our sponsor, AVW-TELAV. All eight Canadian chapters embraced the mission of building human connections in their communities and focusing on significant areas of food, water, shelter and education.

Through the diligence of the volunteers’ countless hours, more than 37,000 pounds of food were distributed in 2011. Already this year, four of the Canadian chapters distributed more than 11,000 pounds and others have helped more than 100 families, whose main income was impacted from a local resort fire.

There are also breakfast programs in place at local schools, helping children get a good start to their day. More than CAD$25,000 was raised in mid-February to support 160 school breakfast programs.

We have more sustainable events supporting ECOS in the spring…so stay tuned.

In the second year of the project, from 2010 to 2011, there was an uptick of 8.8 percent more food collected, which helped to increase the total value of goods by 24 percent.

ECOS is thriving this year across Canada, and with the help of the MPI chapter members and AVW-TELAV, there is a lot being done. We have captured the essence of ECOS by connecting to the local marketplaces in which we do business.

Our hopes are to build this into a global ECOS mission and engage MPI chapters around the world to embrace this vision by creating a positive community profile that facilitates both acceptance and recognition of our industry and helping others in need.

We are now adding our ‘ECOS Local Hero’ award to the project this year, and we encourage each chapter to choose a local individual who has gone above and beyond. Chapters will present this award to a deserving individual at spring meetings. My organization, Tourisme Québec, will be donating the awards.

ECOS is a framework to support sustainability in the communities where our members live and where we do business. It is a guide to help us focus specifically on building elements, which have a direct relationship to the meeting and event industry.

Let’s all do our share and support this great initiative. I am reaching out to all the MPI chapter leaders to join us on this mission.