From measuring impact to shaping it: Bella Center Copenhagen puts event data to work before the doors even open

After producing 47 Event Impact Reports in a single year, Bella Center Copenhagen is taking the next step: turning post-event data into practical choices planners can make before an event takes place.

COPENHAGEN – Measuring an event’s impact after everyone has gone home can reveal a lot. But what if those insights were available when there was still time to change the outcome?

That question has led Bella Center Copenhagen to develop its new Event Impact Guidelines, transforming several years of event-level data into a practical planning tool for conversations between venue, organizer and suppliers before key decisions are made.

Since 2024, the venue has provided complimentary Event Impact Reports for large-scale events, measuring Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions alongside environmental, social and legacy parameters. In 2025 alone, 47 reports were produced.

The data revealed an important distinction. While operational emissions are closely linked to running buildings and services, much of an individual event’s footprint is determined by temporary choices such as materials, catering and waste.

“We realized that the real value of all this data was not simply being able to tell an organizer what happened afterwards,” says Frida Ulrik-Petersen, Director of Sustainability at Bellagroup. “It was using what we had learned to start better conversations before the event. That is when there is still an opportunity to redesign something.”

The resulting Event Impact Guidelines bring locally grounded data and operational experience into the planning process. They cover food and beverage, materials, transport, energy, accessibility, diversity and inclusion, helping organizers identify where decisions can make a tangible difference.

One example is event carpet. Data and dialogue with customers and suppliers helped Bella Center Copenhagen increase the share of carpet being reused from 8.4% to 28.8% in one year.

The approach deliberately extends beyond carbon. Accessibility, inclusive event design and considerations such as quiet spaces are included because the venue defines event impact more broadly than environmental performance alone.

The initiative forms part of a wider transformation at Bella Center Copenhagen and parent company Bellagroup, which became B Corp certified in 2025 and is also certified according to ISO 14001 and ISO 20121.

“Our answers are local because they are based on our venue, our suppliers and our destination,” Ulrik-Petersen says. “The approach is scalable. Measure locally. Learn from the results. Then move that knowledge upstream, to where decisions are actually being made.”

For Bella Center Copenhagen, that represents a shift in the role of the venue: from documenting impact after an event to becoming an active partner in shaping it before it happens.

Meet Bella Center at IMEX America 2026: The Nordics/Scandinavia, Bayside/E1508

About Bella Center Copenhagen:
Bella Center Copenhagen is one of Scandinavia’s largest and most flexible congress and event venues and part of Bellagroup, one of Denmark’s leading hospitality companies. The venue hosts international congresses, corporate events, exhibitions, festivals and live experiences and is B Corp certified.