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NürnbergMesse’s environmental initiatives certified to ISO 14001
“We’ve introduced a management system to help us understand and reduce the impact of our business activities on the environment,” says Eckehard Wohlgenannt, environmental and energy manager at NürnbergMesse. A year ago, the company took the next step in its comprehensive energy and environmental initiatives by installing an environmental management system. Now the highly respected TÜV Süd technical assessment service has certified that system after a three-day audit.
NürnbergMesse’s energy management had already earned certification to ISO 50001 back in 2014, and now with the certification of its environmental management system to ISO 14001 the company is taking yet another step ahead in sustainably running trade fairs and conferences for its customers and business partners. NürnbergMesse has set its environmental and energy sights high, and has steadily been putting itself to the test for the past 10 years. “For us, in our double capacity as an organizer of international trade fairs and the operator of an exhibition venue, environmental protection and energy efficiency are key components of our business model that we tie to specific targets as part of our business operations,” said NürnbergMesse Group CEO Peter Ottmann.
The main focus on the energy side is on saving energy at the Nuremberg Exhibition Centre. By 2025, energy consumption by defined users (electricity, heat, cooling) is to be cut back by between five and seventy percent from previous levels. “We achieved the 70-percent savings on our hall lighting by replacing 21 km of fluorescent lamps with LED lights. That doesn’t just save on energy – it will pay for itself in less than three years,” Wohlgenannt happily points out.
The company’s environmental targets are just as ambitious – reduce water consumption 15 percent and waste accumulation 20 percent, both by 2025; make power generation CO2-neutral by 2028.
Efforts constantly checked in nine areas
The next step along this track was to install an environmental management system at the end of 2022. The team’s first action was to analyse how crucial each of the various environmental aspects was, and they identified nine fields for action that need to be checked at least once a year: electricity, heating, cooling, emissions, waste, buildings, grounds, building systems, and adjustment to climate change. To face up to an independent evaluation and get an appraisal of how effective the system is, NürnbergMesse has now had its environmental management system certified by TÜV Süd.
The company’s assets in aiding the environment already include increasing its in-house power supply with a large-scale photovoltaic array and a battery storage system; more detailed environmental protection rules for procurement; using mainly ecologically friendly cleaning products; sorting more than 95 percent of waste for reusable materials, and recycling more than 30 percent; and implementing requirements from the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), currently as part of the renovation of the staff building.
