Te Pae Christchurch’s sustainability measures maintains Qualmark award

Ongoing recognition of Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre’s environmental initiatives has seen retain its gold certification during its recent Qualmark Sustainable Tourism Business Award review.

Te Pae Christchurch General Manager Ross Steele said it was timely to receive recertification during TRENZ 2023 - the country’s most significant international business-to-business travel trade event, currently being hosted at Te Pae Christchurch.

Steele advised “our team is thrilled to be recognised for our commitment to sustainable operations by Qualmark, particularly during such an important event for New Zealand’s tourism sector.

“We’ve spoken often about the responsibility we feel to our clients, community and team to lead by example, particularly in the areas of sustainable operations, health and safety and culture.

“Our team are 100% committed to these areas and it’s great for them to have their hard mahi (work) recognised in this way.”

Qualmark New Zealand General Manager Steven Dixon said it was great to reunite as an industry for TRENZ 2023, adding “Te Pae is a world-class venue which has provided an outstanding experience for the week.”

Qualmark is judged on sector specific criteria across four areas - economic, environment and culture, social/people and health and safety. Across the 26 criteria Te Pae Christchurch was assessed on, the Centre represented best practice in six, and achieved an excellent score in the remainder - an improvement on the inaugural evaluation.

As with last year’s evaluation, the Centre performed particularly well in the economic and environment and culture categories, and also recorded a strong result in the areas of workplace culture, community and industry engagement.

Among feedback provided by the Tourism Business Advisor assessing Te Pae Christchurch was praise for the Centre’s commitment to driving economic growth, came the statement “you have made considerable progress in your ambitions to be a responsible, sustainable and respected economic driver for the South Island.”

Qualmark recognises businesses that are delivering a holistically sustainable experience. Gold is the highest of three levels, recognising the best sustainable tourism businesses in New Zealand - those involved in leading the way in making the New Zealand tourism industry a world class sustainable destination.

Earlier this month Te Pae Christchurch notched up one year since its first conference.

Between 2nd May 2022 and 1st May 2023, the venue has hosted 234 events for more than 129,700 delegates - including 70 conventions, seven exhibitions, 76 banquets, 79 meetings and seminars and two live entertainment events.

Images: Te Pae Christchurch (top, credit: Te Pae Christchurch) and the first convention at the venue, the 2022 Harcourts National Convention in May last year (below, credit: Hx by Total Events).