greenloop 2024 – final speakers revealed

We welcome you to greenloop 2024.

Professor Peter Cox, director of the Global Systems Institute and Professor of Climate System Dynamics at the University of Exeter, will open greenloop by looking back at the extreme weather and record warming of 2023 and discuss what this means for the future and how it will impact our industry.

Dare Ilori, group sustainability director at Merlin Entertainments, will be talking about Merlin’s sustainability strategy and progress updates, highlighting useful lessons learned and challenges ahead. A not-to-be-missed informative and inspiring session from the world’s second-largest visitor attraction operator.

Andersen will be discussing IAAPA’s ambitious work on sustainability. IAAPA, the global association for the attractions industry,announced the results of its preliminary, and thorough, scoping work on ESG in December 2023. More details will follow, but the organisation’s plans include not only assistance for members, but also work to look at its own operations. Six flagship initiatives have been identified around Net Zero, Zero Waste, diversity and inclusion targets, communications and disclosure and membership ESG support.

Edi Goean, vice president of new business partnerships at Therme Group and Professor Lorenzo Fioramonti, director of the University of Surrey’s Institute for Sustainability, will present a ground-breaking new carbon tokenomics model.

This carbon-centric ecosystem will help all organisations in the visitor economy to access traceable, real and permanent climate finance investments.

Lindsay Madden-Nadeau, senior director – wellness strategy at Red Sea Global, will speak about RSG’s commitment to sustainable development and trends she is seeing in wellness and sustainability.

Nick Merriman, chief executive at English Heritage and Sarah Sutton, CEO at Environment and Culture Partners will discuss why the museum sector has been slow to act on the climate crisis, and how our cultural institutions can accelerate action and authentically amplify their influence.

Merriman’s excellent new book Museums and the Climate Crisis, for which Sutton contributed a chapter, will provide the basis for the session.

Verónica Celis Vergara, CEO at Valumia, and Tim Pethick, Founder and CEO at Nomad Exhibitions will join Rachel Read, co-founder of blooloop to speak to small businesses and the particular challenges faced by those wanting to measure their carbon footprints without the resources to hire a consultant or invest in a fancy measurement platform.

Bring a pen and paper (or digital equivalent). Expect to leave the session with lots of links and signposting to next steps!

Robbie Jones, insights director at Katapult, will reveal the winner of Katapult’s Helping Hands Initiative. It has been running for six years and supports visitor attractions, charities and community interest groups in the leisure industry to achieve their project objectives.

Kim McIntyre, Executive Director of the Aquarium Conservation Partnership will speak about how US aquariums are working together to increase their conservation impact.

Kelly Perkins, Marketing Director at The Farm AV, will speak about SAVe and sustainability in AV. SAVe is made up of leaders from the AV industry who are committed to advancing the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, providing information, inspiration and leadership to enable the industry to take meaningful action.

Helena Mansell-Stopher, CEO and founder at Products of Change will speak about POC, a member organisation that is is collectively building the infrastructure and providing the resources to help the brand licensing and consumer products industry reduce its environmental impact.

Aoife Fannin, project manager at Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC) will speak at greenloop: sustainability in visitor attractions conference 2024. The GCC is an international membership organisation providing environmental sustainability guidelines for the visual arts sector. The membership is a coalition of artists, institutions/non-profits, art sector businesses and galleries committed to creating a sustainable sector.

John Frawley, director/CEO of Minnesota Zoo, Carrie O’Keefe, Director of Business Development at EDG + Culturenut and Graham MacVoy, Co-Founder & Managing Director at Wake The Tiger will speak about reuse and recycling. From the repurposing of an existing Treetop Trail, to reusing museum exhibitions and getting visitors to create art out of rubbish, these organisations have all innovated in recycling and reusing material.

Emily Dow, design + delivery studio executive and Caitlin Krasovic, sustainable design principal, Walt Disney Imagineering, will speak about taking a holistic approach to sustainable design, exploring the opportunities for impact at scale across a whole site, adapting to various global regions, and planning for the future with resilient developments.

Una deBoer, Chief Marketing Officer at WhiteWater, Cindi Rowan, Director, Landscape Architecture Studio at Forrec and Chris Grap, will speak about sustainability in action. We will hear how Mall of America tells visitors about its sustainability plans, how Forrec  designs sustainably and what sustainable innnovations WhiteWater is using.

Michael Clifford, Strategy Director of Reverse the Red will explain how the organisation is co-ordinating biodiversity action worldwide with initiatives like the World Species Congress. We will then speak to Judy Mann-Lang, Executive Strategic Projects at Two Oceans Aquarium and Eugenia Cordero Schmidt, Program Officer at Center for Species Survival Brazil (CSS Brazil) to hear about Reverse the Red’s work on the ground.

This session is a MUST for anyone taking action on biodiversity loss.