Senthil Gopinath – ICCA The 64th ICCA Congress, held in Porto last November, has been officially verified as a Zero Food Waste to Landfill event by The PLEDGE on Food Waste, marking another step forward for sustainability standards in the global meetings industry.
The verification covered four venues – Alfândega Congress Centre, Coliseum of Porto, Stock Exchange Palace and Super Bock Arena – and involved 1,514 delegates from 81 countries. It was delivered in collaboration with Palace Catering, Silva Carvalho Catering and technical support from Lightblue.
Using The PLEDGE’s nine-pillar framework, the congress embedded food waste prevention from planning to post-event reporting, covering forecasting, menu design, staff training, food rescue partnerships, waste segregation, delegate engagement and real-time monitoring. More than 300 trained staff managed food flows across the venues, while delegates were encouraged to act as “Food Waste Warriors”.
The results were tangible: 1,495 kilograms of food diverted from landfill, 2,990 meals redistributed to the Porto community through ReFood and O Coração da Cidade, and 5,392 kilograms of CO₂ emissions avoided.
For Porto, the achievement strengthens its positioning as a sustainable meetings destination, showing how large-scale international events can support local circular economy infrastructure rather than place additional pressure on it.
The verification also builds on previous Zero Food Waste to Landfill events, including ICCA Abu Dhabi 2023, and underlines the potential for the framework to be replicated across hotels, convention centres and city-wide congresses. Future event verifications will now be carried forward under the new name, The PLEDGE for Events.