For the first time, there was a sustainability award to be won during the Global Currency Forum 2026. The idea for this came out of the work from the ICA Sustainability Committee, as one of the committee`s focus topics is to assess all ICA activities according to sustainability. And the organization of the GCF is definitively one of the main activities of the ICA.
Therefore, all participants of the conference were asked to submit their ideas on how to make the GCF more sustainable. The opinion and ideas of any participant are of high value, because they can bring completely new perspectives and in that way, everyone is included to improve the event.
After 2,5 days, more than 30 ideas were submitted via the event app, both from Central Bankers and industry suppliers. All ideas were screened and evaluated by ICA sustainability committee representatives who were on site in Antalya (six people), in the categories of feasibility, impact and creativity. All ideas were very good which made the evaluation for the committee quite challenging. One idea was named several times and was probably the most obvious one: to substitute the small plastic battles by refillable water bottles in order to reduce plastic waste. Although this idea didn`t make it under the top three, this might probably become an additional criteria for the election of the next GCF venue anyways.
The three best ideas which scored the most evaluation points are the following:
- Place: Calculating of the complete carbon footprint of the event and including its compensation in the inscription fee.
- Place: Gender Equality: create a GCF women chapter with a dedicated gathering during the GCF to support women networking and genuine relationship-building, creating a supportive environment to the unique challenges women face.
- Place: Choose a relatively centrally located location for the next conference (Central Europe) and incentivize the European participants to come by train.
These ideas will now be discussed in the Sustainability Committee (with currently 14 members) and implemented.
Thank you very much to all participants for their great ideas and their engagement.
