Corporate and social responsibility at HLTH Europe

When deciding on a venue for HLTH Europe, we wanted to choose a city and venue that had values aligned to our own, and would be a place in which HLTH Europe could grow in a harmonious and sustainable way.

Amsterdam is a very forward thinking city with ambitious sustainability goals to deliver by 2030, many of which are well underway. You can see more on this here.

The RAI is conveniently located on major public transport routes, with easy access from Amsterdam Centraal station or Schiphol airport. Additionally, the RAI has numerous hotels in easy walking distance, all of which we have secured rooms at, for our attendees. Visitors to HLTH Europe can easily access the event without the need for transport.

We are proud to partner with the RAI to host HLTH Europe. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is central to RAI Amsterdam.

“We are committed to conducting all activities responsibly, striving to balance societal costs with positive contributions. Our CSR approach is centered around three key areas: our venue and surroundings, event facilitation, and our organisation.

Our primary goals include minimising waste, reducing water use, and cutting CO2 emissions, alongside addressing social considerations like traffic management and the well-being of our stakeholders. Through our “social matchmaking” initiative, we seek to transform underutilized business resources into community assets, aligning our operations with societal needs to maximise positive impact.”
RAI Amsterdam

You can see full details about the RAI’s CSR plan here. Key highlights are:

• RAI Amsterdam uses 100% green electricity
• A self-sufficient energy system that protect natural resources — fully switched to Amsterdam‘s heating network and use no gas for heating
• All lighting will be LED by 2025
• Energy Label A+ for RAI Offices
• No gas used for heating
• 0% landfill & 100% waste recycle, reuse or use for energy

The construction of our stage areas represents a significant aspect of our built structures, floor space, and investment. As such, it was important for us to appoint a partner who would collaborate with us to create designs that could be impactful in design, but circular in terms of construction and who could deliver everything locally, minimising the requirement for travel/ transportation.

Satis&fy are an international agency, with their Dutch branch headquartered in Hilversum.
“Sustainability has been a tradition for us since 2008. For all these years and in many initiatives, we have actively dealt with our responsibility both towards society and towards our employees. We let words follow deeds, sustainability can be tackled and implemented practically. The ecologically correct and socially responsible way to execute events is at the forefront of our efforts. But we also want to put our own activities on a sustainable footing and show that we take responsibility for our employees, customers, suppliers and partners. Corporate responsibility and long-term action have many facets with us.”
Satis&fy

You can see full details about Satis&Fy’s CSR plan here.

To help our sponsors participate in HLTH Europe efficiently, we offer a number of booth package and meeting room options, minimising the need for many sponsors to commission costly one off builds. Through choosing one of our booth packages, sponsors can take advantage of efficiencies in terms of cost, transport and labour and minimise the impact of their stand.

We have chosen to work with 2 contractors to deliver booth packages, and our wider show features; GES and the Design & Build division of RAI Amsterdam. Both are based locally in Amsterdam and use modular stand systems for all builds.

GES EMEA
“Our job is to leave a lasting impression on your clients, not our planet. We stand wholeheartedly behind this statement - which is why we’ve worked tirelessly to research and invest in truly sustainable materials and methods.”
GES

You can see full details about the GES’ ESG report here

Key highlights of the way in which we work with GES include:
Only carpeting main gangways and booths/ features, instead of doing blanket lay across the whole event space. This reduced the m2 of carpet needed for HLTH Europe 2024, by circa 6000m2.

Using rewind carpet for main gangways, features and sponsor booths built by GES.

“Rewind® carpet is a 100% polypropylene, fully recyclable alternative to traditional exhibition carpets. This sustainable flooring product is latex free, therefore no water is required in the production process reducing the energy required by up to 85% and a reduction in CO2 emissions of up to 55% when compared with standard cord carpet. Rewind® can be broken down into a highgrade mono-recyclate which allows for a second life for the product and helps to reduce demand for virgin polypropylene. Weighing less than standard event carpet equivalents, Rewind® also increases delivery capacity therefore reducing transport emissions”
GES

For 2024’s event, this saw savings of over 1,800 litres of water and 3.92 tonnes of carbon reduction. See further details here

For both GES & RAI booths the following principles apply:

• Using beMatrix stand system (stored locally in Amsterdam), for sponsor booths. The beMatrix system is constructed from lightweight modular frames, which can be reused for multiple events in many configurations and is more efficient to transport.
• Walling for booths is created from either stock wall panels, which are re-used across multiple events, or from printed fabric panels, tension stretched into the framework.
• Furniture for all booth packages is provided from a local furniture rental contractor, negating the need for any one off purchases.
• All lighting on booths is LED, reducing the power consumption.

HLTH events have a very strong identity, and we were keen to bring this to the onsite experience of HLTH Europe, whilst also being mindful of our resources and as such, were keen to appoint a supplier who could offer us ways to create impact without creating waste.

Partnion gave us the opportunity to do just that. As the venue’s preferred signage provider, based locally to the RAI, their extensive knowledge of the venue and high frequency of events in and out of the space enables them to create modular options which can be used across the venue for multiple events. Through careful scheduling, they are also able to optimise deliveries and labour to service multiple events, reducing transport needs.

“Sustainability is an important core value that is widely embraced within our organization. From sustainable production, to reducing transport moments, modular building, thinking about sustainable packaging methods, waste management and LEAN organizing processes. We know the trends and quickly implement innovative sustainable possibilities in our company.”
Partnion

Key highlights of the way in which we work with Partnion include:

• Using re-useable beMatrix frames for freestanding graphics and banners, with 100% PVC free materials.
• Using FSC Certified cardboard from responsibly managed forests for small print items
• Designing ever green assets for the 2024 event for feature areas and backdrop graphics, which Partnion store, for re-use at our 2025 event.
• Introducing digital signage options for stage timetables to remove need for daily prints.
• Printing, laundering and storage of our staff t-shirts for use from one event to the next.

Outside of our contractors, we challenge ourselves to consider the wider CSR impacts of any planning decisions, particularly around attendee experience.

At HLTH Europe, attendees enjoy a fully catered experience, with Food & Beverage being one of the event’s most significant areas of consumption. From the outset, sustainability has been at the heart of our planning. That’s why we’ve partnered closely with the RAI’s in-house catering team to ensure every aspect is approached as responsibly and sustainably as possible.

The RAI’s catering concept is focused around use of local, seasonal products, prepared freshly, onsite. This not only minimises the carbon footprint of the suppliers, but also reduces food waste.

At HLTH Europe 24, we offered the same menu across all event days, which further contributed to keeping stock levels tight, again minimising food waste.

Additionally, we had a dedicated Plant Based food station, and will be expanding on this for 2025, in response to attendee feedback, and to reduce the impact of more carbon intensive ingredients such as meat and fish.

In early 2024, the RAI introduced reusable ‘hard cups/ bowls’ with no single use plastics. Additional waste collection stations are provided by the venue to collect all items back after use, to ensure a circular supply.

See more about the RAI’s catering concept here.

For our 2024 event, we also introduced the following measures, to try to minimise our carbon footprint and encourage sustainable behaviour from our attendees.

• Offered all attendees complimentary tram, bus and metro passes, giving free travel across the city and limiting the use of cars
• Provided bikes for use by attendees during the event, offering the opportunity for attendees to explore like a local
• Provided buses and boats to transport attendees to and from our offsite party; HLTHfest
• Used the venue’s TV screen network for directional signage/ daily messaging, reducing the need for printed materials
• Promoted the use of our event app for all networking, schedule planning and onsite navigation, removing the need for printed materials
• Utilised beacon technology to map the attendee journey, to assist us with more efficient planning for 2025
• Limited SWAG items to ensure no left overs, with a focus on purely desirable/ functional items
• Showbags were printed with a mix of dated and ever green branding, to ensure left overs could be re-used

Building on our 2024 actions, we will also be introducing the following initiatives for the next edition of HLTH Europe.

• Instead of running our Thursday activities in 2 venues, for 2025 we’ll consolidate this all in one location
• Increasing the percentage of our attendee catering that is plant based
• Amended the design of our booths to use square edge profiles on all booth packages, meaning transportation is more efficient
• Working more with local suppliers to reduce travel and hotel stays for onsite staff.
• Encouraging our internal teams to take advantage of the green initiatives of the hotels (e.g. no daily cleaning/ linen changes.)
• Mandating all space only contractors to include details around the end use of all build materials and the wider sustainability of the booth build as part of their stand plan submission process. Encouraging adoption of the Better Stands guidelines, of which Hyve, are a founder member.
• Using TRACE to measure our carbon footprint for the 2025 event, assisting us with our planning to reduce this for 2026.