42 | THE COP15 SUMMIT
no facility anywhere in Denmark that could arrange an event of that magnitude. The congress and expo centre was convinced that this was a decisive argument. They already made money and were successful. “We asked them to let a consultant with a greater insight look into what could be done to create even better prerequisites, and to put forward a proposal for investment projects that would give Return On Investment in just a few months.” When the inspection was completed the congress centre’s management team decided to invest €3 million. They would not only comb home the money in a very short time, they would also be able to show that it created several way of saving money. In addition, carbon dioxide emissions could be cut by 20 per cent from 2007 up to today. Clear leadership goals were also drawn up at the Bella Center, which proved to be one of the crucial success factors in the improvement and change work. As an example, Jan-Christoph Napierski takes up the negotiations that ensured that Bella Center Catering only serves fair trade labelled coffee. Their argument was crystal clear: ‘Our machines can’t cope with this coffee so we can’t serve it.’ “But we turned it around and now the centre not only gets better PR, they also sell more coffee.” Another discussion that cropped up was whether or not the centre would sell bottled water. Consideration was taken to the transport, collection of bottles and jobs generated by the handling of glass bottles and bottled water was dropped in favour of tap water stations. “The congress centre previously had a long contract with a bottled water supplier that they quickly cancelled when they realised the MEETINGS INTERNATIONAL No 3 2009
gain in offering tap water instead. The centre not only saves money, it makes more while doing something good for the environment. Sometimes we need help to create a waste management system. The City of Copenhagen’s own experts have told the centre management that it is not advice they are giving but a direct order to carry out the changes that we propose.” Jan-Christoph Napierski takes the lighting at the centre as another
example. Stage spotlights were needed because the old style lights generated too much heat. Today there are LED spotlights with 80-90 per cent lower energy consumption. This in turn facilitates much thinner cables, which saves a lot of money, not to mention an improved working environment for those who work with the lighting. But the Bella Center could not afford to buy new lighting, the new LED spotlights are very expensive. The solution was to hire