ESG is rewriting the rules of MICE
Why sustainability proof now decides who wins (and loses) corporate event bids
Words by Liam Aran Barnes | Tuu co-founder
The journey now begins with proof of sustainability for MICE hotels.
For years, winning an RFP came down to price, location, and service. Today, one factor increasingly decides who makes the shortlist: proof of sustainability. What once passed as a marketing line is now a procurement rule.
Corporate planners are under pressure. Europe’s new reporting regime forces large companies to account for emissions tied to business travel and events. Investors are pricing climate resilience into valuations. And clients want venues that deliver sustainability seamlessly, without adding to their workload.
Across Asia, governments are moving the same way. Singapore expects all purpose-built MICE venues to be certified by 2025 and launched a national certification scheme in 2024 to set consistent standards. The shift is not regional. It’s global.
The message for hotels is blunt: without verifiable proof, you risk being left out of bids.
At PHIST 2025, the Tuu-hosted panel “No Badge. No Booking: Is ESG Now a Dealbreaker for MICE Venues?” brought together three perspectives — operations, verification, and investment — to unpack what this means for Asia’s venues.
Where bids are won or lost
For Gilles Baurieres, Executive Assistant Manager at The Athenee Hotel, Bangkok, the change is most obvious in the RFP process.
The Athenee was the first hotel in the world to be certified to ISO 20121, the global standard for sustainable event management, giving Baurieres a unique vantage point on what clients now expect.
“Every corporate has slightly different requirements depending on their internal goals,” he said. “But one thing is consistent: if a venue can’t show a sustainability policy and some form of certification, they’re unlikely to progress.”
At The Athenee, those policies are not treated as paperwork but as part of daily operations. The hotel integrates sustainability into how meetings and events are delivered, from sourcing through to waste management. That approach is winning business.
“We’ve never lost an RFP because of sustainability,” Baurieres explained. “But we’ve won many thanks to it. Clients want sustainability, but they don’t want the burden of it. Our job is to take care of it for them.”
The lesson is clear: venues that make sustainability seamless turn ESG from an obstacle into a differentiator.
Why corporates are asking
If RFPs are the front line, the deeper driver is regulation. Paul Ashburn, Co-Managing Partner at HLB Thailand, pointed to Europe’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) as a tipping point.
“Large companies must now capture Scope-3 emissions such as business travel and events. That means they will request verifiable data from venues.”
In practice, this means event organisers will demand not only a green policy but the underlying numbers:
Energy used (kWh)
Water consumed (m³)
Waste generated (kg)
Food volumes served
And not in ad hoc formats. In clear, standardised templates that slot straight into corporate sustainability reports.
Ashburn’s advice: start now.
“Create a post-event data template you can share with clients showing the raw data fields you can provide. This reduces ad hoc requests and builds trust.”
Europe may have lit the fuse, but Asia is where the pressure is rising fast. In Singapore, policy now targets all purpose-built MICE venues and 80% of industry members to hold recognised sustainability certification by 2025.
Meanwhile, Thailand has jumped to 25th globally in ICCA’s rankings of countries hosting international meetings, and Bangkok has climbed to 7th among cities.
As Asia cements its status as a global MICE hub, the demand for verifiable data will only intensify.
The money trail
What begins as a compliance exercise for corporates quickly flows into the financial markets.
Diep Ngoc Do, who leads the IFC’s Green & Resilient Buildings programme in the Mekong region, works at the nexus of climate risk and capital.
“Resilience isn’t just a technical issue. It’s a financial one. Buildings that can withstand climate shocks are more likely to retain value and attract financing.”
That reality is reshaping investment criteria. Banks and development financiers are already screening for climate-aligned assets, while tools such as EDGE and BRI are used to de-risk portfolios.
For hotels, the equation is blunt: prove resilience and you widen access to capital; fail to do so and you look like a liability on the balance sheet.
The same data that planners demand in RFPs — energy, water, waste, carbon — are increasingly the ones investors scrutinise when deciding where to invest. ESG proof doesn’t just win the next booking. It protects long-term asset value.
What hotels must do next
The three perspectives converge on one message: start now.
Waiting until corporates or investors ask the hard questions is waiting too long.
Practical steps for hotels:
Policy → Put a sustainability policy in writing and use it as an operational framework.
Evidence → Collect utility bills, waste contractor weigh tickets, F&B invoices. Use digital logs for consistency.
Standardisation → Build a post-event data template to share with clients.
Verification → Run a trial assurance check with an external provider to find gaps.
“Start recording results honestly, and build from there,” said Baurieres. “Imperfect data is better than no data at all.”
The risk… and reward
The pressure on MICE venues is real.
Without verifiable proof of sustainability, hotels risk falling off the shortlist, out of corporate supply chains, and down investors’ rankings. But the reward is just as real.
The Athenee is winning RFPs because it takes the burden off the client. Corporates are choosing venues that can provide clean data for their reports. Investors are looking for climate-resilient assets.
For hotels, the path forward is clear: build policies, collect evidence, standardise reporting, and seek verification.
In a market where ESG has become a dealbreaker, the venues that can prove it will keep winning business. The ones that can’t will be left behind.
Quick wins for MICE venues
Show a sustainability policy in every RFP.
Standardise event data and be ready to share it.
Pick certification that fits your market.
Frame resilience as value protection, not extra cost.
Make sustainability seamless for clients. That’s how you win the bid.