About Us
As of February 2024, Positive Impact has a community of almost 2,000 global event professionals, over 40 corporate Head of Events, over 40 Corporate Head of Sustainability, over 160 SMEs with a Race to Zero commitment, over 5 memorandums of understanding with United Nations bodies.
We are the only event sector body to be a Race to Zero Accelerator, UN SDG Action mobiliser and to have education certified by the world’s largest and leading CPD accreditation working across all sectors, so our education is accessed by heads of marketing, HR and sustainability.
For over 15 years not for profit Positive Impact have been providing engagement, collaboration and education to create a sustainable event industry. You could describe Positive Impact as the ‘critical friend’ of the global event sector.
Our funding comes from everywhere and nowhere, and every penny, cent or yen is used to advance the event sector so every time an event happens the UN Sustainable Development Goals are advanced and events are recognised as ensuring 'participation and inclusion in decision making’ (UN SDG16).
This is a timeline of Positive Impact's journey and the creation of a sustainable event industry. It reflects initiatives from:
The United Nations
Positive Impact
CEO Fiona Pelham
Key developments in the creation of a sustainable event industry.
What the European Green Deal could mean for the event sector
In 2020 Positive Impact friend Lena Grobusch drafted an overview of what the European Green Deal could mean for events.
In 2020 Positive Impact friend Lena Grobusch drafted an overview of what the European Green Deal could mean for events.
Exploring how visit Britain could make a net zero commitment and join the UNFCCC Race to Zero
On 9th November 2021, Positive Impact and Visit Britain delivered a webinar to explore the role of events in achieving net zero commitments.
On 9th November 2021, Positive Impact and VisitBritain held a webinar to explore the strategic importance of events, what the UN Race to Zero is and practical steps on how to make a net zero commitment via Positive Impact’s UN campaign ‘Road to COP26: Event Sector Transformation’.
If you are an event sector SME and would like to make a net zero commitment, you can sign up to the Race to Zero below:
You can watch the webinar here:
Road to COP26: Event Sector Transformation toolkit
Positive Impact also encouraged SMEs who made a net zero commitment via Positive Impact’s campaign to use a toolkit to communicate their commitment on social media.
Anyone who was not an SME was asked to use the toolkit to encourage their supply chain to make a net zero commitment via Positive Impact’s campaign.
Engaging with UN Global Compact on the role of events in achieving net zero commitments
On 20th October 2021, Positive Impact and UN Global Compact Network UK carried out a corporate only roundtable to explore the role of events in achieving net zero commitments.
In collaboration with:
On 20th October, Positive Impact and UN Global Compact Network UK carried out a corporate only roundtable to explore the role of events in achieving net zero commitments.
For Corporate heads of sustainability, this was an opportunity to explore a new angle for achieving the wider companies net zero commitments and an innovative approach for addressing scope 3 emissions.
For Corporate event planners, this was an opportunity to explore ways to reach net zero carbon events and support how your business connects in a low carbon way with employees, suppliers, and customers.
You can watch the recording from the event here:
Anyone who was part of a corporate event or sustainability team was invited to join future corporate roundtables with Positive Impact in 2021, exploring how they could use their event strategy to advance their sustainability commitments and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The roundtables explored the topic of net zero events and many more.
Invitees were also provided with a toolkit for communicating with their supply chain through Positive Impact’s ‘Road to COP26: Event Sector Transformation’ initiative, which was set up to support the event supply chain to make a net zero commitment with the Race to Zero.
