DETROIT – Some 1,500 people from across the globe are expected to attend the Sustainable Brands conference this week at Cobo Center, which was recently recertified to the American Society for Testing and Materials International Venue Standard, the premier global sustainability standard for the meetings and event industry.
Cobo Center, Detroit’s main convention and exhibition venue and center piece of the downtown civic center was recently chosen to be the host site for SB’17, billed as the largest global convening of brand leaders and sustainability practitioners.
“Sustainable Brands is excited to partner with suppliers and venues like Cobo who demonstrate a commitment to sustainable practices,” said David Fiss, Executive Producer Live Events for Sustainable Brands. “Doing so helps our event meet our sustainability goals, educate our attendees, and encourage other suppliers to the meeting and events industry to do the same. A sustainable event is more thoughtful and creates a better participant experience.”
Fiss is also a member of the Convention Industry Council’s Sustainability Leadership Council.
A number of leading companies and organizations are supporting the Sustainable Brands event, including Ford, Dow, General Motors, The Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan, the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, BASF, Kellogg’s, Fiat/Chrysler Automobiles, thinkstep, Guardian Sustainable Business, NatureBank, and the Detroit Experience Factory.
Cobo Center was initially certified in 2015 to the ASTM Standard pertaining to the Evaluation and Selection of Venues for Environmentally Sustainable Meetings, Events, Trade Shows, and Conferences, and was the 9th US facility to do so. The Venues standard is one of the nine standards developed by the meetings, conventions, exhibitions and events industry to provide event planners and suppliers with specifications for producing events in a more sustainable manner.
