The Innovate Canada program has a proven track record of highlighting the cutting-edge work taking place across Canada’s leading economic sectors and the value that comes from connecting an event’s purpose directly to the strengths of the host destination. Since 2023, Destination Canada has continued to push the bounds of its impact by making this program sustainable. 

Sustainability is at the forefront of every decision for Innovate Canada 2024 – Agribusiness. With a focus on all three pillars of event sustainability – socio-cultural, economic and environmental – Destination Canada is applying a holistic approach. Adding to the impact, initiatives implemented across the event lifecycle are aligned with and making meaningful contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are part of “[the] 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, [and were] adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 [to provide] a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future” (United Nations). 

At Innovate Canada 2024 – Agribusiness, a multitude of actions are being taken to reduce, track and offset waste and emissions, as well as to support the sustainability of Canada’s local economy, cultures and heritages. The SDGs and Targets we could impact the most were identified (8.9, 11.4, 12.5, and 17.17), and a multitude of initiatives were developed. And as sustainability planning is an iterative process, lessons learned along the way are being documented and incorporated into future sustainability plans – including Canada’s first business event sustainability plan, which has 16 destinations country-wide engaged and learning how to reduce their own carbon footprints. To learn more about this plan, click here.

1. Invest in local talent, ecosystems, and economies by facilitating high quality introductions between Canadian and global changemakers in Canada’s sectors of priority
    
2. Foster Engagement with local communities, and Enable Learning opportunities around local traditional culture and heritage
    
3. Take Action toward meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by producing sustainable through incorporation of evidence-based initiatives wherever possible
    
4. Spread Awareness around sustainability and the SDGs, and Empower event stakeholders to continue learning how they can take steps to incorporate sustainability in their own communities and daily lives
    
5. Be Transparent in tracking and reporting our successes and challenges, and share our learnings publicly to help destinations and businesses across the business events industry to make changes and produce more sustainable events

• Increase stakeholder awareness around the sustainability initiatives we are taking, and offer suggestions for how they can further increase the sustainability of the event
   
• Enable opportunities for learning about local traditional culture and heritage from community leaders
   
• Share our alignment with the SDGs with stakeholders to further spread awareness around sustainability and encourage additional learning and action toward sustainable development

Click on the images below to learn more about how we’re impacting the SDGs: 

Aligned with the mission and vision of the plan, Canadian cities from coast-to-coast-to-coast have joined the Global Destination Sustainability Index (GDS-Index) — the world's leading sustainability performance program for business tourism destinations around the world — at the close of 2022.

The GDS-Index cements Destination Canada’s position as a global leader in business event sustainability and positions Canadian destinations as changemakers accelerating progress toward the industry's 2050 net zero targets.