TORONTO, ON - The Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) today announced that it has succeeded in mounting its first large-scale Zero Waste convention, representing an historic first within the convention and trade show industry. The achievement reaffirmed the Centre’s tradition of leadership as an environmentally responsible facility and good corporate citizen, and drew kudos from Ontario Tourism Minister Jim Bradley, Toronto Mayor David Miller, and industry leaders.

 

The MTCC pioneered the concept of holding large “green” meetings and conventions that successfully avoid adding to the existing landfill burden by recycling everything they generate.  To meet its self-imposed “Zero Waste Challenge”, the MTCC partnered with the international Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), whose 51^st Annual Meeting was held January 7-10th at the MTCC, and long-time MTCC supplier Turtle Island Recycling, a highly respected Canadian recycling and waste management company.

 

The PCMA convention involved more than 3,100 top people from the meeting and convention industry from across North America and represented the MTCC’s and Toronto’s biggest opportunity to showcase itself as a convention destination of choice.  It was the first time in the PCMA’s 50-year history that the event was held outside of the United States.  It is considered one of the prestige meetings in the convention industry, representing more than $18 billion in annual buying power, and typically leads to significant future meeting business in the host city.

Thanks to an easy-to use multi-level strategy put in place by the MTCC, Turtle Island and PCMA, the event won enthusiastic participation from all and was able to successfully divert from landfill a stunning 98.5% of all the waste materials generated during the event, making it an official Zero Waste event. 

 

A total of 16.016 metric tonnes of waste materials produced by the convention were captured for recycling and composting, including organics, plastics, paper, metal, glass, textiles, wood and other materials.  Turtle Island’s official calculations indicate that this saved 57 trees, approximately 75,000 litres of water, 39,310 kWh of energy, 16,200 litres of oil, 77 kg of air pollutants, and 85 cubic metres of landfill space.

 

This represents an enormous leap forward, explained Vince Quattrociocchi, the MTCC’s Vice-President, Operations.  A four-day conference of this size typically would generate some 90,000 cans or bottles, 75,000 cups, 87,500 napkins and 62,500 plates. 

 

"Congratulations to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on its continuing stellar performance when it comes to being green," said Ontario Tourism Minister Jim Bradley. "By doing this the MTCC is not only helping to keep Toronto clean and environmentally responsible, but it is also attracting convention visitors who share those goals and will bring millions of dollars to the city and the province.  Keep up the good work!"

 

Toronto Mayor David Miller added that the MTCC is setting an excellent example that all property owners can aspire to.  "Achieving Zero Waste status when you have more than 3,000 people on site for a convention lasting a full four days is without a doubt a major coup.  I applaud the MTCC’s efforts," he said.                                        
 

The MTCC’s CEO Barry Smith noted that the Centre and its staff are delighted to have achieved a Zero Waste event with PCMA members, who he described as the key influencers in the industry.  Holding “green” meetings is an increasingly popular trend among meeting and convention industry leaders and will be a fundamental part of all meetings in the future, he added.   

 

“Already, calls are coming into the MTCC from across the country and five potential meeting clients attending the PCMA event have contacted the MTCC to inquire about having the Centre organize the same type of Zero Waste convention for them in the near future,” he added.

 

“The MTCC is the first facility in Canada to achieve such incredible success with green meetings, and we are very proud to be associated with them,” said Leonidas (Louis) Anagnostakos, Co-Founder of Turtle Island. 

 

Smith said that this Zero Waste achievement with the PCMA event is just the latest in a series of environmental firsts by the Centre, noting that the facility is widely recognized for its “green” reputation.   “We are highly committed to being a global leader in this area and providing opportunities for our clients and events to do the same,” he said.

 

Last fall, the MTCC won the Gold Award in the Ontario Waste Minimization Awards 2006 competition held by the Recycling Council of Ontario (RCO).    The MTCC also was recognized this past December by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Canada as a national leader in environmental stewardship.  The MTCC was awarded BOMA’s highly coveted “GO Green” designation.  In December 2005, the MTCC and Turtle Island organized the industry’s first trade Zero Waste event in conjunction with Construct Canada, one of the country’s largest and most complex trade shows.

 

PCMA was keen to be involved from the beginning, according to Deborah Sexton, President and CEO of PCMA.  “PCMA works hard to stay in the vanguard of meeting trends and technologies, and this event is a proud first for our association,” she said.  “This really puts Toronto and the MTCC at the top in a growing field,” she added.  Toronto was ranked 6^th greenest among North American cities excelling in hosting green conventions in 2006 by the industry’s major publication, Meetings and Conventions magazine.

  

The MTCC has a solid record in recycling, which is currently at 64%, and energy conservation (overall average reduction of 40% in the past five years).  The building also has an enormous 300,000-square-foot green roof, a partnership with Second Harvest for food leftovers (2,000 lbs. recycled annually), and a variety of other sustainability programs.  In addition, the MTCC was the first facility to be on Enwave Energy’s Deep Lake Water Cooling system, launched in 2004.  The technology provides the Centre’s building cooling by using extremely cold water extracted deep from Lake Ontario.

 

Part of a growing international movement, Zero Waste goes the logical next step beyond the “reduce, reuse, recycle” mantra of modern recycling programs.  Rather than striving to divert just some of the waste we generate from landfills and incinerators, Zero Waste emphasizes resource conservation, efficiency, reduced consumption, maximum reuse and recycling.  Its focus is on waste prevention and even the total elimination of waste – all as part of sustainable economic growth.  It is considered a creative new philosophy, an entirely different “whole system” planning approach for the 21^st Century, primarily because it tackles the front end of the waste stream rather than the back end.

The Metro Toronto Convention Centre is Canada’s #1 trade and convention facility and one of the finest in North America.  With more than 2 million square feet of state-of-the-art space, it is considered a world-class, tier-one facility.   The MTCC has welcomed more than 39 million visitors and 12,000 events since its opening in 1984.  The Centre hosts more than 700 events annually, ranging in size from large international conventions to small local corporate meetings, for groups of 40 to 40,000, generating more than $3 billion in incremental economic benefits to the local economy each year.

 

Heather Evans                          OR       Vince Quattrociocchi,

Marketing Manager                               Vice President, Operations

(416) 585-8126                                   (416) 585-8238

hevans@mtccc.com                              vquattrociocchi@mtccc.com