When we worked on our Sustainability Report 2025, bringing together data, projects and our many objectives helped us see more clearly how deeply sustainability had become embedded in the way our company works. The EcoVadis 2026 Bronze Medal now adds an external perspective to that picture. OIC Group ranks among the top 35% of companies assessed by EcoVadis globally over the previous 12 months. The assessment examines an organisation’s sustainability management system across four areas – Environment, Labour and Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement – and provides an independent benchmark for the progress we have made to date. An important achievement, certainly. More importantly, it is an opportunity to look more closely at what we are already doing and where we can continue to improve.
Event sustainability begins with the culture of those who design them
In recent years, sustainability has progressively taken on a greater role within OIC. ISO 20121 certification for sustainable event management and UNI/PdR 125:2022 certification for gender equality have helped turn broad principles into clear responsibilities, objectives and verifiable decisions. What happens within an organisation inevitably shapes what that organisation goes on to design.
Whether we are working to make a congress more accessible, asking who might be excluded from an experience, or designing an event for culturally diverse international audiences, we are putting into practice an awareness that does not begin on the day of the event. It also depends on how accustomed we are, as a company and as professionals, to recognising different perspectives and needs.
This is why gender equality and inclusion belong to the same journey: they concern the culture we bring to our work even before they translate into specific initiatives. The same applies to social responsibility. In 2025, we joined Oxfam Italia’s La nostra impresa, acqua per salvare vite (“Our Business: Water to Save Lives”) initiative, supporting its work to provide clean, safe water during humanitarian emergencies.
That decision also developed into a wider working relationship. Oxfam Italia is now one of OIC Group’s key partners for sustainability and social-impact initiatives, making it possible to bring the organisation’s expertise and projects into our clients’ events whenever there is genuine alignment with the purpose of the event.
When sustainability is built into an event from the outset
Anyone who organises congresses and events knows that, by the time the team arrives on site, many of the decisions that will determine the event’s impact have already been made. The earliest stages of planning offer the greatest scope to assess alternatives and understand where and how action can be taken.
This is precisely where the sustainability expertise of a Professional Congress Organiser becomes relevant to the client. A scientific society, association or company does not need a standard checklist of “green” initiatives. It needs to understand which choices make sense for its event, its audience and the destination hosting it.
An international medical congress and a corporate convention have very different requirements, supply chains and opportunities. Expertise also means knowing where there is a genuine opportunity to create value and where, by contrast, an initiative risks becoming little more than something to communicate.
A commitment that involves the entire events supply chain
A PCO does not work alone. Event sustainability also depends on the ability to bring together clients, venues, Convention Bureaux, suppliers and partners that understand their respective fields and can contribute practical, proven solutions. For us, being proactive on CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) means more than responding to generic requests to “make the event more sustainable”. It means bringing sustainability into the conversation while key decisions are still open and working across the supply chain to develop the most appropriate solutions for each project.
The EcoVadis 2026 Bronze Medal is part of this same journey. It adds an external assessment and gives us a new benchmark as we continue improving the way we work, both as a company and as a partner to the organisations that entrust us with their events.
Discover our Sustainability Report 2025 → https://www.oic.it/wp-content/uploads/Sustainability-Report-2025.pdf
Visit our EcoVadis Recognition Page → https://recognition.ecovadis.com/TPeXEIZMe0uW8e90lGhNMA