The Global Green Initiative (GGI) is now in full swing. It has big plans to help make the world a better place. It’s early days, but it’s rolling and gathering momentum all the time.
It came into being back in 2019 at the FIDI conference in Amsterdam. Here, the LACMANext Board, chaired by Luis Holst from Gridiron Forwarding in the USA, with Daniela Krumdiek from Express Transports in Peru as vice chair, joined forces with the FIDI 39 Club and the IAM YP with the primary objective of making conferences greener. The timing was unfortunate as only a few months later the world was plunged into lockdown so their ideas had to wait a while. But now, four years later, the brakes are off and the ideas are flowing freely.
The GGI is now headed by Luis, representing IAM, Daniela, representing LACMA and Michael Hughes from Arpin representing FIDI. “In 2019, it was the first time LACMA, IAM and FIDI had come together for an initiative,” said Daniela.
Michael agreed: “Many organisations are on the journey to a more sustainable way of doing business. We realised that everybody was doing amazing projects, and really cool stuff, but nobody is sharing information and encouraging collaboration. Sustainability is an important topic and everybody needs to do it. There’s a wealth of information, experience and resources organisations have uncovered with these types of activities. We need to all share the benefit and we're trying to build unity across all the associations. While there is no one-size-fits-all, having awareness and knowledge of the multitude of creative endeavours out there can break down barriers and act as a reinforcing element for many to get started.”
Luis explained that this is not just an initiative for the young movers’ groups, although it might have been inspired by them. “We are now trying to involve the whole of IAM, FIDI and LACMA, trying to influence the main boards. They are slowly getting more involved.”
The LACMA Conference was the first of the season. The GGI asked, as a first move towards greater sustainability, that instead of bringing business cards, delegates have just one card with a QR code that can be scanned with their contact details. It would also prevent cards being lost on the way home. At FIDI in Bangkok later in March the intention is to have the name badges printed with a similar QR code. In addition, LACMANext will not be providing drinks in plastic bottles during its conference events but encouraging participants to use reusable bottles instead. Snacks will be provided only in biodegradable packaging. The intention is for this principle to be adopted at conferences in the future ...
Photos:
Top: Michael Hughes, Luis Holst (inset) and Daniela Krumdick.
Bottom: LACMANext's beach clean-up operation in Miami.