PRA, a leader in the Business Events Industry, is pleased to announce on this Earth Day that the company has signed the “Net Zero Carbon Event” pledge, a joint commitment across the global events and meetings industry to achieve the targets laid out in the Paris Climate Accord. By lending supporting to this important initiative, in conjunction with PRA’s existing partnership with the American Forest Foundation, PRA is creating a better approach to event design that considers the environmental impact of events and how we all can work towards building a more sustainable future. This initiative is one of many steps PRA is taking to enhance our environmental social governance (ESG) policies and commitment to building a better planet.

PRA partnered with the America Forest Foundation in 2020, as part of its overall ESG policy in addition to ECPAT USA for human trafficking awareness and Civic Alliance (voting rights) alliances. In conjunction with the Net Zero Carbon Event pledge, PRA is also launching a Climate Change Fund Program for its clients to support the American Forest Foundations’ mission of empowering family forest owners to make a meaningful conservation impact. The new program builds upon the work PRA started in 2020 to help with reforestation in Northern California due to wildfires. To date PRA has planted approximately 2,600 trees in the region. The PRA Climate Change Fund Program will tie ground transportation programs to future tree planting initiatives as a give back component for reforestation programs. While tree planting  is not the complete answer for reaching zero carbon events, it does provide clients an opportunity to jumpstart their sustainability journey with a meaningful project that has direct impact on the environment.

“As leaders in our space, PRA is committed to making a positive impact on our communities and our planet, while providing our clients with opportunities to do the same in their program builds,” shared Mike Fiber, PRA Chief Executive Officer.  “We are thrilled to be a supporter of the Net Zero Carbon Events pledge, which is aligned with our core values and commitment to a more sustainable events industry. Through continued collaborative work within the global events sector, including partners, suppliers and clients, we can work together to make swift and essential progress towards reducing the overall carbon footprint of events and drive change across the entire value chain.”

“Our support in the Net Zero Carbon Events pledge combined with PRA’s important work with the American Forest Foundation will help protect our environment for future generations to come,” added Courtney Lohmann, Senior Director, Corporate Social Responsibility. “We are so excited to launch the PRA Climate Change Fund Program, helping our valued clients build a better approach to event design that considers the environmental impact of events and how we all can work towards building a more sustainable future.”

The “Net Zero Carbon Events” pledge is the result of global collaboration throughout the events industry. Over recent months, facilitated by the “Joint Meetings Industry Council” (JMIC), more than one hundred stakeholders from across the sector drafted and finalized this commitment with the support of UNFCCC Secretariat (United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change). By signing the pledge, PRA commits to publish its pathway to achieve net zero by 2050 at the latest, with an interim target in line with the Paris Agreement’s requirement to reduce global GHG emissions by 50% by 2030 and includes reporting progress every two years.  The next step of the “Net Zero Carbon Events” initiative is to develop the roadmap which will support the objectives outlined in the pledge.

More information about the initiative at www.netzerocarbonevents.org