How Davos learned to walk the walk and become sustainable

The World Economic Forum transitioned from a series of environmental initiatives called "Greener Davos" to a holistic management systems approach by adopting the ISO 20121 international sustainability standard. Following an independent review of the 2015 meeting and a baselining exercise in 2016, the Forum implemented sustainability measures regarding temporary structures, reuse, and local supplier engagement. This process culminated in the Forum receiving its ISO 20121 certificate at the 2018 Annual Meeting, two years ahead of its original 2020 target.

• The World Economic Forum replaced its previous "Greener Davos" initiatives with the ISO 20121 international sustainability standard because the earlier programs did not connect directly to the Annual Meeting's actual impact.
• The path to certification involved an independent expert review of the 2015 Annual Meeting, which identified needs for improvement in transport, waste, and stakeholder engagement, while noting good practices in catering, energy, and workforce well-being.
• The 2016 Annual Meeting served as a baselining exercise to calculate the event's initial carbon footprint and set targets, followed by the 2017 meeting which implemented measures for reuse, local supplier engagement, and the construction of temporary structures.
• The Forum achieved ISO 20121 certification at the 2018 meeting after a third-party assessment by DNV Global, reaching this goal two years earlier than the original 2020 target.
• The ISO 20121 standard is a process-based management system rather than a set of prescriptive measures, which means organizations can potentially achieve certification even with unambitious targets if their processes are effective.

APA

Stubbs, D. (2018). How Davos learned to walk the walk and become sustainable. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/sustainable-development/how-davos-learn-to-walk-the-walk-and-be-sustainable/

Chicago

Stubbs, David. How Davos learned to walk the walk and become sustainable. World Economic Forum, 2018. https://www.weforum.org/stories/sustainable-development/how-davos-learn-to-walk-the-walk-and-be-sustainable/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Stubbs |first1=David |title=How Davos learned to walk the walk and become sustainable |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=1 May 2018 |url=https://www.weforum.org/stories/sustainable-development/how-davos-learn-to-walk-the-walk-and-be-sustainable/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stubbs2018how, author = {Stubbs, David}, title = {{How Davos learned to walk the walk and become sustainable}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2018}, month = may, url = {https://www.weforum.org/stories/sustainable-development/how-davos-learn-to-walk-the-walk-and-be-sustainable/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }