McCormick Place Achieves Platinum Level Certification to EIC Sustainable Event Standards

The Events Industry Council has announced that McCormick Place in Chicago has achieved Platinum Level Certification to the EIC Sustainable Event Standards, moving up from Gold the previous year to reach the programme's highest distinction. The standards were created through a global collaborative process and set performance criteria across organisational management, marketing, communications and engagement, climate action, water management, materials and circularity, supply chain management, diversity, equity and inclusion, and accessibility and social impact; more than 300 professionals have taken part in reviewing them. The independent third-party certification was carried out by the Alliance for Audited Media. McCormick Place, the largest convention centre in North America, has a dedicated sustainability department and a campus-wide Green Team, offsets 100 per cent of its electricity use through certified wind renewable energy certificates and runs the Midwest's largest farm-to-fork rooftop garden with an on-site honeybee programme. Its partnership with the on-site non-profit Fight2Feed recovers surplus food and event materials for more than 100 community organisations, and its business diversity programme directed nearly 37 million US dollars to minority- and women-owned businesses in fiscal 2025. Larita Clark, chief executive of owner MPEA, and EIC chief executive Amy Calvert both cited sustained commitment and collaboration.