In Denmark it seems, the answer is blowing on the wind. The CO2-neutral answer, that is. Two of Copenhagen’s most popular meetings venues, the Bella Centre, near Copenhagen Airport, and Tivoli Gardens, the world’s oldest amusement park in downtown Copenhagen, have both decided on a sustainable approach to making business in future.

Earlier this Spring, Tivoli Gardens and DONG Energy (one of the leading energy companies in Northern Europe) announced a climate partnership, which not only will make Tivoli the first amusement park in the world to run by renewable energy by 2010, but also beamed one of Denmark’s most famous brands into the front league of sustainable meetings venues in Denmark.

The goal is to reduce Tivoli’s energy consumption and to ensure that the energy consumed by the famously and beautifully lit Tivoli Gardens is covered by CO2-neutral production facilities. Thus, at the nearby Avedore Power Plant one will soon be able to see a high-efficiency multi-fuel power plant sharing grounds with three new wind turbines, including one bearing the Tivoli brand.

Almost simultaneously with this exiting news, the Danish Climate Minister Connie Hedegaard set in motion a 75-meter-high Vestas wind turbine in front of Scandinavia’s largest convention centre, the Bella Centre, to produce power. The “inauguration” took place in connection with the first of six climate conferences to precede Denmark's hosting of the UN climate change summit on 7-18 Dec. 2009.

At the Bella Centre the impressive wind turbine is expected to produce 1,600,000 kilowatt hours over the next year or in plain English; enough power for approx. 300 average Danish households for an entire year. To prove this point, Vestas has set up a measuring station in the convention centre’s front hall, which constantly shows how much power wind turbines in Denmark are producing. An interesting sight, not least for the many guests of the six different climate conferences taking place on Bella Centre’s grounds over the next six months before the COP15 takes place in December.

For more information about green meetings in Denmark go to: Sust-DANE-able Meetings