VO

VO is officially EMAS and ISO14001 certified

The journey to get here was long and involved strong commitment, motivation, research, and investment. Here we are today, proudly announcing that our efforts have been recognized and VO is the first communication agency in Belgium having received the EMAS certification.

Context: The ISO 14001 certification refers to the Environmental Management System, while the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) certification is an instrument created by the European Commission for companies that want to measure, report and improve their environmental performance. Therefore, this last one requires additional criteria to be met such as active employee involvement, commitment to continuously improve the environmental performance, transparency to publish an annual report on the performance, compliance of suppliers and other contractors with the environmental policy of the company and so much more.

What’s behind this certification?

First of all, tremendous engagement and involvement of the entire VO Group that counts the VO Event, VO Europe, VO Citizen, VO Lab and SIGN Brussels teams.

Second, our R&D strategy goes back to 2015. To this date, we invested in the development of 3 CO2 calculators for our communication campaigns and events, a Circular Toolkit and My Impact Tool.

What results registered so far?

My Impact Tool is the most recent tailor-made instrument that allows us to measure, assess and report the impact on the environment of any activity. To give you an example, in 2022:

  • 100% of internal events were accompanied by an impact report,
  • 88% of B2B events were labelled CO2 Neutral
  • 80% of communication campaigns were accompanied by a carbon footprint calculation and offsetting.

Compared to the previous year, our B2B events generated 54% less CO2 emissions per participant in 2022, 57% of the ingredients for our menus are now vegetarian and 65% seasonal.

Last but not least, our Impact Tool serves also as an awareness mechanism that empowers our stakeholders with the precious data we can collect about their projects and they can of course take more conscious decisions for future projects.

What’s next?

Some 300 projects are carried out by VO every year for clients in all sectors and each one leaves an impact that we want to be positive.

With this in mind, in 2023 we will continue our mission to measure and reduce the negative impact of our activities (both internally and in the field) and to seek solutions and improvements that we hope to share across the sector.

Our actions will then focus on external sides (design our projects in a more sustainable way; systematically measure the environmental impact of our communication and event activities; offset our residual emissions, with a particular focus on local, long-term, sustainable projects; train our teams to better detect and fight against greenwashing; and raise awareness among our customers in this respect.) but also on the internal (gain a better understanding of and reduce our energy consumption; raise staff awareness of digital sobriety practices; give preference to supplies and suppliers that meet sustainable criteria; encourage and support employees to opt for more sustainable modes of transport; prevent and sort waste and external areas).

More about our Success Story here.

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VO Lab

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VO Event

the spark
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Voice

the crafters
– of digital stories

VO eu

the art
– of European dialogue

SIGN

the boost
– for your visual impact

VO citizen

the communicators
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VO

today
– for tomorrow

VO Lab

the playground
– to unlock cocreation

VO Event

the spark
– for memorable experiences

Voice

the crafters
– of digital stories

VO eu

the art
– of European dialogue

SIGN

the boost
– for your visual impact

VO citizen

the communicators
– who drive change

Studio gond-o

the discovery
– of art on paper