Global environmental awareness has soared in recent years to win global attention for various sustainable developments and green MICE projects. The various exhibition units herein described aim to promote the "Green MICE" concept targeted at reducing carbon emissions and inspiring a sustainable environment.

This forum strives to mitigate the impact of MICE events on the environment by referencing and compiling domestic and international data and integrating the "Green Low Carbon Reduction Guidelines" and "Large Event Environmental Friendliness Management Guidelines" of the Environmental Protection Administration as well as the contents of the "MICE Industry Coaching", "2012 Low Carbon MICE Guidelines", and "2013 Green MICE Guidelines" for the Green Trade Project Office promoted by the Bureau of Foreign Trade. We expect to introduce the concept of "Green MICE" into Taiwan’s MICE industry in a specific and practical manner to enable every member of MICE, including its organizers, venue providers (venues, hotels, etc.), exhibitiors and visitors/participants to take specific actions before, during, and after the MICE organization process in order to implement the 3R principles of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The goals are to combine energy conservation, carbon reduction and environmental sustainability concepts to reduce greenhouse gases, trash and the waste of resources in order to lessen the impact of MICE events on the environment, and to cooperatively move Taiwan Green MICE into a new era.

On an annual basis, TAITRA will review and revise the Guidelines in line with MICE events worldwide, in hopes of making them more meaningful and practical.

The following diagram shows the framework for Taiwan’s Green MICE efforts and its process, under the BOFT-introduced Taiwan’s MICE Promotion Program (a.k.a. “MEET TAIWAN”):

According to the Guidelines, MICE events are divided into the “exhibitions” and “conference events” categories. While the organizerts, venue providers, exhibitiors and visitors are the primary components of “exhibition” category. The “conference events” category is made of organizerts, venue providers and participants.

Organizers can start to implement green measures during the preliminary stages of the planning and can reference the Exhibition and Conference Handbook or promotional materials that encourage exhibitors and visitors to "go green." Since organizers play a vital role in the "Green MICE" concept, the program’s enhanced incentives and assistance is expected to increase the number of international carbon footprint certifications. Organizers can expand and deepen the "Green MICE" message by promoting the above-mentioned PDCA process while continuing to strive to reduce carbon emissions and enhance environmental sustainability.

Data provided by the Green Trade Project Office established by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Industrial Technology Research Institute indicate that personal transportation is the primary source of carbon emissions at exhibitions (accounting for more than 90% of the footprint!). When that factor is not included, it was found that the chief source of carbon emissions is from electricity at 36.59% among which are booths that account for 18.93% and air conditioning comprising 11.42%. This category is followed by non-recyclable decorating materials at 20.66% which includes plywood which accounts for 16.83% of the total.

For conference events, personal transportation is also a prime source of carbon emissions and in that area comprises 90% of the footprint. But outside of the personal transport category, carbon emissions are chiefly from electricity (31.56%) with air conditioning comprising 18.23% of the footprint followed by dining (8.19%) .

In view of the above, each choice of venue opens several variables linked to carbon emissions in terms of personal transport and electrical use during the event. The carbon footprint in the “exhibitions” category can be substantially reduced not only with energy-saving electrically efficient lighting solutions in the booths, but also by encouraging exhibitors to use systematic, reusable decoration materials. The top priorities for “conference events,” on the other hand, are increasing the energy efficiency of AC systems and gradually reducing meat and increasing the portion of vegetables in meals served.

As a result of the above findings, the Green MICE Guidelines list transportation, food, accommodation, decoration materials, and the “other” as five key areas to monitor when practicing Green MICE initiatives. Green MICE should focus on cutting travel distances, tactically reduce the amount of food consumed, promote paperless technology, reduce wood decorations, use recycled resources, reducing energy consumption; all of which underscores the green spirit. The exhibition event organization process is also divided into "pre-exhibition event measures," "exhibition day’s event measures," and "post-exhibition event measures" to help participants to better match tactics to their related phases.

For more information, please download the 2016 Green MICE Guideline.