A newly launched toolkit from the International Congress and
Convention Association (ICCA), developed in partnership with food-waste
consultancy LightBlue, aims to help association event planners significantly
reduce food waste and promote sustainable gastronomy at their events.
Inspired by the Bangkok Protocol on Sustainable Gastronomy,
which was introduced at the 62nd ICCA Congress in Bangkok in 2023, the ICCA
Food Waste Toolkit for Associations provides ‘strategic guidelines and
actionable steps’ to transform food and beverage planning. The initiative
builds on ICCA’s commitment to sustainability and follows the success of the
63rd ICCA Congress in Abu Dhabi, which became the first global event to achieve
the Zero Food Waste to Landfill Event Standard*.
According to the UN’s
Global Waste Management Outlook 2024, 1.05 billion tonnes of food were wasted
globally in 2022, with food loss and waste accounting for 8-10 per cent of
global greenhouse gas emissions. If food waste were a country, it would be the
third-largest emitter of GHGs. Meanwhile, 783 million people worldwide suffer
from hunger.
'Associations are not food waste specialists, but they can
partner with venues and destinations committed to making a difference,' the
report states. 'No matter the size of your conference or your team, every
association can contribute.'
"Only by working together can we create more sustainable meetings," said Dermot Ryan, ICCA head of Association Engagement while presenting the Food Waste Toolkit for Associations at ICCA’s Global Association Forum (GAF) in Granada in July 2025.
The toolkit outlines how food waste occurs at every stage of
an event from overproduction during preparation to plate waste during service
and spoilage post-event. It offers practical solutions such as improved
forecasting, live cooking stations, staggered servings, and culturally
sensitive strategies that frame waste reduction as ethical hospitality.
To support implementation, the toolkit encourages
associations to include food-waste management in their RFPs, ask venues about
donation strategies, and track key metrics such as total food consumed,
donated, repurposed, and sent to landfill. At the Abu Dhabi Congress, 1,115kg
of food were diverted from landfills, 928 meals redistributed, and 928kg of CO₂
emissions avoided.
*The scheme only applied to catering at the host venue –
ADNEC. Neither the welcome dinner at the Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi Grand Canal nor
the gala dinner, which took place at the Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental
Hotel, were included.
