On Earth Day, an internationally recognized date established by the United Nations to raise awareness about issues such as overpopulation, pollution, and the importance of biodiversity conservation, the International Nightlife Association heeds the call to address environmental challenges and advocate for more responsible practices across all aspects of human life. To that end, the INA has been working in collaboration with Bye Bye Plastic Foundation since last year, studying together and developing new criteria to be required for all clubs interested in implementing the Triple Excellence in Nightlife, the most important distinction existing in quality and safety in nightlife.
To tackle current environmental challenges and ensure a sustainable future for the nightlife industry and the planet, INA is thrilled to announce it has now added a set of sustainability requirements to its International Nightlife Quality Service (INQS) distinction, part of the Triple Excellence in Nightlife. These criteria are entering into effect starting from this symbolic date of Earth Day 2024, and will be applied in all future INQS requests. Bye Bye Plastic & INA continue their collaborative work to further embed sustainability at the core of INA’s certification & awarding operations. The following chapters will notably see inclusions in the highly anticipated The World's 100 Best Clubs™.
Bye Bye Plastic Foundation is a nonprofit helping the music & events sector to transition out of plastics. On top working with INA on internal practices, it is also working with clubs & venues around the globe on their sustainability transition.
As Camille Guteau, co-founder of Bye Bye Plastic Foundation, explained, “We are working in coordination with INA to reformulate and improve the sustainability criteria when awarding its certificates of excellence. To this end, the foundation has initiated a series of workshops and strategic meetings to learn about the dynamics and needs of the industry to define the criteria that best evaluate the implementation of more sustainable measures".
The Co-Founder of Bye Bye Plastic Foundation, who participated in the panel discussion entitled "Innovation, sustainability and new marketing strategies in the nightlife sector", held during the 9th International Nightlife Congress last November in Barcelona, also explained that “these new criteria will be applied to the assignment of the list The World's 100 Best Clubs 2024 and the Triple Excellence in Nightlife distinction”. So, thanks to this important agreement reached between INA and Bye Bye Plastic Foundation, the INQS distinction will include more than 10 sustainable measures to advocate for the achievement of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. This not only involves reducing single-use plastic but also reducing carbon footprint by using clean energy or consuming local products, reducing inequalities, promoting gender equality, and encouraging responsible production and consumption.
Sustainibility will play an important role in The World’s 100 Best Clubs 2024 list
As you know, The World's 100 Best Clubs™ 2024 list, to be launched on November 20th during the 10th Golden Moon Awards Gala, has recently opened its nomination period, which will be open until May 15th. After that, on June 1st, the popular voting period will open until October 1st. Subsequently, from October 1st to November 1st, a panel of experts will carefully evaluate various factors to determine the final ranking. This will include evaluating, among other factors, the club's commitment to the UN's sustainable development goals. It's important to consider that the expert panel's evaluations will be worth 50% of the final result.
To ensure the professional jury has all the necessary information about each club, an information request form will be sent to all candidate clubs ahead of time, allowing them to provide all the necessary details. However, venues distinguished with the Triple Excellence in Nightlife seal will not need to fill it out. The professional jury's scoring system will rank each item by the number of points given, and their vote will be added to the total score.
The new faculty of Nightlife Studies will also promote the sustainibility
As you also know, next year, the International Nightlife Association, together with the Appleton Private University, will launch the world’s first faculty of Nightlife Studies. This faculty will be guided by fundamental principles, offering high-quality training, innovation, and constant progress, prioritizing quality, safety, social responsibility, and sustainability in nightlife. All this will make nightlife stand out as a global reference in the training and development of professionals in the field of nightlife entertainment.
This pioneering initiative, whose main objective is to promote academic excellence, the professionalization of the sector, as well as innovation and compliance with the regulatory standards of the sector, will undoubtedly contribute to an improvement in the image of a sector that has always been stigmatized, contributing to a very important benefit for both the industry and its workers and customers. This is another step towards excellence, complementing international distinctions such as the Triple Excellence in Nightlife or events such as the Golden Moon Awards promoted by the INA for years to promote quality and excellence in the sector.
As Joaquim Boadas, Secretary General of the International Nightlife Association, explains, "This groundbreaking initiative also aims to promote sustainability within the academic sphere, providing future professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to foster a more environmentally conscious nightlife industry".
