What landed
Radisson Hotel Group and GDS-Movement published a guide for associations and conference organisers. The title is Accelerating Sustainable & Regenerative Events: A Guide for Associations & PCOs. It runs 12 pages.
The announcement opens with three numbers. 66 percent of associations rate sustainability highly important. Fewer than 34 percent have embedded it into their operations. Only 3 percent report an advanced sustainability programme.
The study behind them
The guide's footnote points to The State of Sustainability in Associations: ICCA/Destination Canada 2025. That survey was fielded from May to August 2025 and published in November 2025. It carries the 66 percent figure, split 45 percent very important and 21 percent extremely important, against 60 percent in 2023.
It carries neither of the other two. Its integration measures read 62 percent for event planning procedures, 50 percent for business and strategic planning, 38 percent for organisational policies, 34 percent for RFPs, 33 percent for an event code of conduct and 29 percent for transport and travel policy. Its 34 percent refers to respondents reporting no change in participant demand. It reports no advanced-programme measure at all, and its accountability figures are 12 percent and 20 percent.
The indicator row
The announcement says destinations are assessed against 74 indicators. The guide prints 76 twice. The GDS-Index website says 74. Both numbers come from the issuers.
What the guide does carry
59 percent of hotel rooms in GDS-Index destinations hosting Radisson hotels hold third-party certification, against 43 percent of PCOs and 74 percent of major congress venues. 77 percent of those destinations offer subvention, and Berlin pays 25 euros per in-person attendee for a one-day meeting with a minimum of 50 participants.
Radisson's own portfolio reads 58 percent certified under Hotel Sustainability Basics or holding an eco-label such as Green Key as of 2024, with a 33 percent cut in carbon emissions per square meter and a 21 percent cut in energy footprint per occupied room against a 2019 baseline.
The names on it
Inge Huijbrechts is chief sustainability and security officer at Radisson Hotel Group. She said the barrier sits in implementation. Guy Bigwood is chief executive officer and chief changemaker at GDS-Movement. He said destinations accelerate the shift to sustainable and regenerative events.
Antonia Alomar of GDS-Movement wrote the report, and Radisson Hotels provided design and editing. The guide was first presented at the Radisson Collection Hotel, Grand Place Brussels on 5 December 2025 to more than 30 representatives from the hotel, association, PCO, CVB and venue sectors.