Ecocity Builders and the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) Ecocity Centre are the recipients of the 2020 Incredible Impacts Award in recognition of an event they hosted that excelled in areas such as sustainability, accessibility and ecology.
The announcement was made Sept. 24, by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) and the BestCities Global Alliance.
“There’s never been a more important time to showcase the major milestones our industry can overcome, and we hope this year’s winners provide inspiration on the big or small ways that impact can be made,” says Lesley Williams, managing director of BestCities, an international network of leading convention destinations around the globe.
BCIT, along with the City of Vancouver, hosted the 2019 Ecocity World Summit at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
Ecocity Builders’ goal was to support accessibility of less developed country delegates as well as local, economically disadvantaged people to participate in the summit, and to help reduce the long-term ecological footprint of the cities that they host in.
To achieve this, a tiered registration fee was introduced, where delegates from developing economies and students paid one-third of the full registration fee. As well, they worked with local financial institutions to provide 20 fully paid registrations for youth, social enterprise entrepreneurs and people of Indigenous heritage.
Together, they launched the first ‘Ecocity Centre’ in Vancouver — a two-year post-summit funding/training initiative that would support the community as they work to reduce their impact on the environment.
Ecocity Builders and the BCIT Ecocity Centre were one of three associations from around the world that won the award. Others include the International Society for Microbial Ecology and Soroptimist International. Each received a $7,500 US grant towards future projects, in recognition of their innovation and global thinking to create meaningful impact in their respective industries.
“The winners have demonstrated their efforts and how they raised awareness of and positively influenced their communities through education on critical issues,” says ICCA CEO, Senthil Gopinath.
Now in its fourth year, the Incredible Impacts Awards program celebrates the ‘beyond tourism’ value of international association meetings to create a powerful platform to advocate their positive societal impact.
