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Lars Ramme Nielsen, Director, Business Development and Industry Relation, Wonderful Copenhagen

“The ambition now is to make Copenhagen the world leader within sustainable meetings”

Last December, all eyes were on the Danish capital worldwide with the COP 15 summit. Lars Ramme Nielsen from Wonderful Copenhagen gives us a glimpse at the impact the event had on the destination.

BWMN: How did the COP15 summit impact the Copenhagen destination?
Lars Ramme Nielsen: The COP15 has had a great impact on the destination on many levels: first of all economical with around DKK 300 million generated by the congress itself, and the different side events. It has worked as a green catalysis particularly for the hotels in the city. In 2008, only 8% of the hotels were officially certified as “green”. At the end of 2009, this number reached 51%. They all “greened up” for COP15, the first international political summit certified with the international green standard BS890. For a few hours on December 10^th, “Copenhagen” was the most searched word on Google, – ahead of Tiger Woods and Barack Obama. It has never happened before – might never happen again! COP15 attracted more than 120 political leaders from all over the world, which makes this conference the biggest political summit ever outside NYC. There were live transmissions from Copenhagen on all news networks around the world with more than 3,500 journalists on location in the Bella Center. COP15 was a “window to the world” – the name of the city is for sure familiar to more people now, than before the congress. The brand awareness is definitely higher, which might make it easier to market the city in the future.

BWMN: Can you present us some of the sustainable initiatives developed in the city, one of the major European green destinations?
Lars Ramme Nielsen:Following the COP15 example, the ambition now is to make Copenhagen the world leader within sustainable meetings. The white book, Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Protocol (CSMP), will cement Copenhagen's position as a globally leading sustainable meetings destination. Denmark was already ranked world’s leading clean tech country. In the capital, the Bella Center has carried out a large ‘greening process’ and reduced its CO2 emission by 20%. Hotels have greened up, like the new Hotel Crowne Plaza. This CO2 neutral building meets the requirements for a Danish Low Energy Class II building, as well as EU requirements for certified Green Buildings. 8 out of 10 Copenhageners use bicycles and the objective is that by 2015, at least 50% of people in Copenhagen should cycle to their place of work or study, which will save a further 80,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. In 2009, Copenhagen got an environmentally-friendly bus route with the electrically-powered CityCirkel. The water in Copenhagen is even clean enough to swim in it!

BWMN: Are there new infrastructures due to open soon, which will be able to welcome green events?
Lars Ramme Nielsen: A new convention centre is due to open in the city centre later this year: the Tivoli Congress Centre. The building, which will be certified with The Green Key, is to be situated close to the Tivoli Hotel. It will offer a maximum capacity of 4,000 people (2 auditoriums and 20 meeting rooms).
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