The document
Radisson Hotel Group and the Global Destination Sustainability Movement published a joint guide for associations and professional conference organisers. The title is "Accelerating Sustainable & Regenerative Events: A Guide for Associations & PCOs." It runs 12 pages. The cover reads "Prepared for Radisson Hotel Group by GDS-Movement." Antonia Alomar of GDS-Movement wrote it, and Radisson Hotels provided design and editing.
The guide names where its material came from. A session called "Translating Strategy into Practice: Inspiration for Association Events" ran at the Radisson Collection Hotel, Grand Place Brussels on 5 December 2025, with more than 30 representatives from the hotel, association, PCO, CVB and venue sectors. The session was co-hosted with the European Society of Association Executives and Copenhagen Convention Bureau.
The destination data a planner can price against
The guide draws its figures from GDS-Index destinations where Radisson hotels operate. 59 percent of hotel rooms in those destinations hold third-party certification, against 43 percent of PCOs and 74 percent of major congress venues.
86 percent of those destinations share sustainability information in RFP responses and sales materials. 100 percent provide sustainability tools and manuals, and 83 percent tell organisers how to cut the carbon impact of their events.
74 percent run a food donation programme and 62 percent a donation programme for surplus event materials. 74 percent list organisations that offer social support and volunteering, and 64 percent share a carbon-offsetting programme.
86 percent provide low-carbon mobility guidance. 45 percent offer free or discounted public transport to all convention and congress visitors, and 64 percent offer it for selected conventions and congresses.
77 percent of destinations offer subvention, per a September 2025 survey by Conferli, #MEET4IMPACT and the GDS-Movement. 20 percent offer fully integrated support packages and 29 percent facilitate partnerships between organisers and local stakeholders. Berlin pays 25 euros per in-person attendee for a one-day meeting with a minimum of 50 participants. Lyon runs dedicated helpdesks for organisers.
Radisson's own numbers
As of 2024, 58 percent of Radisson's hotel portfolio is verified under the Hotel Sustainability Basics standard or holds a third-party eco-label such as Green Key. Under the Think Planet pillar of its 2024 Responsible Business Report, the group reports a 33 percent reduction in carbon emissions per square meter and a 21 percent reduction in energy footprint per occupied room, both against a 2019 baseline.
The five actions
The release lists five actions for associations and PCOs. Collaborate with destination partners earlier in the planning process. Prioritise certified supplier networks and sustainability credentials. Integrate social impact and legacy initiatives into event design. Incorporate low-carbon mobility strategies for delegates. Implement sustainability-linked measurement, reporting and incentive frameworks.
The guide's own checklist
The guide's key planning priorities are worded differently. Integrate sustainability requirements into the RFP. Choose venues that hold valid sustainability certifications. Ask about the transport incentives you can offer participants. Request destination guides, toolkits and legacy-planning resources. Enquire about funding and support for sustainable events.
The guide adds one instruction to buyers: "Ask for the GDS-Index in your RFP; this will save you a lot of time assessing a destination's sustainability efforts."
The two figures the cited study does not carry
The announcement opens with three figures. It states that 66 percent of associations consider sustainability highly important. It states that fewer than 34 percent have embedded it into their operations. It states that only 3 percent report an advanced sustainability programme.
The 66 percent figure holds against the study the guide cites. The guide's footnote attributes its figures to "The State of Sustainability in Associations: ICCA/Destination Canada 2025," a survey fielded from May to August 2025 and published in November 2025. That survey reports 66 percent rating sustainability very important at 45 percent or extremely important at 21 percent, against 60 percent in 2023. The release itself never names the study.
The other two figures do not appear in that report. Its integration measures read 62 percent for event planning procedures, 50 percent for business and strategic planning, 38 percent for organisational policies, 34 percent for RFPs, 33 percent for an event code of conduct and 29 percent for a transport and travel policy. The report uses 34 percent once, for the share reporting no change in participant demand for sustainable options. It carries no advanced-programme measure, and its accountability figures are 12 percent for sustainability effort in annual reports and 20 percent for sustainability criteria in RFPs.
The indicator count differs inside the issuers' own documents
The release and the GDS-Index website state that destinations are assessed against 74 qualitative and quantitative indicators. The guide prints 76 twice. Page 4 reads "built on 76 qualitative and quantitative indicators" and then "76 qualitative and quantitative criteria." Both numbers are the issuers' own.
What to do with this
Ask the destination for its certification document and the indicator set behind it. The 66 percent figure survives scrutiny. The 34 percent and 3 percent figures come from the release's own paraphrase. Request the ICCA/Destination Canada 2025 report directly if a client needs either number for a bid.