Sustainability requirements on an RFP are all very well. Identifying the suppliers that can actually deliver on them is another.
For planners trying to build more responsible events, the challenge is often less about knowing what good sustainability looks like and more about finding the suppliers that can demonstrate it. Washington, DC has come up with a rather useful answer.
The city’s Sustainability District is Destination DC’s recognition programme for local hotels, venues, restaurants and suppliers, recognising businesses that meet defined sustainability criteria covering environmental, social and economic practices. More than 90 vendors have participated so far, giving planners a public, vetted list to draw from.
Members complete annual training with Destination DC and attend at least one of the twice-yearly Sustainability Roundtables, keeping the programme focused on ongoing practice rather than a one-off tick in the box. The criteria also vary according to the type of business, so planners are not simply being handed a generic list of suppliers with a green badge attached.
This matters at a time when sustainability questions are becoming an increasingly familiar part of the RFP process. A planner can use the Sustainability District to identify potential partners before getting into the finer detail of their individual policies and credentials, rather than starting the search from scratch.
It also helps that the wider destination has some fairly serious sustainability credentials of its own. Washington, DC has held the top spot among participating US destinations in the Global Destination Sustainability Index for five consecutive years. In the 2025 assessment, it climbed four places among North American destinations to fifth overall, with its score rising six points. Its social sustainability score was also the third most improved among participating destinations worldwide.
The city has more LEED-certified buildings than any other US city and was the first city in the world to achieve LEED for Cities Platinum certification. The District is working towards 100% renewable electricity by 2032, while its park system has been ranked the best among big US cities for a sixth consecutive year, with the vast majority of residents living within a 10-minute walk of a park.
Then there is DC Green Bank, the first city-based Green Bank in the US, which operates as an independent instrumentality of the District government and funds clean energy and sustainable infrastructure projects.
The Sustainability District is backed up by a broader push across the industry. Destination DC’s annual Sustainability Summit, themed around placemaking in 2026, gives local operators a forum to compare notes and push practice forward collectively, rather than leaving individual businesses to work it out alone. The accompanying District Sustainability Awards put a spotlight on standout examples, this year including Embassy Suites by Hilton Washington, DC’s Walter E. Washington Convention Center, American University’s fully electrified, net-zero Meltzer Center for Athletic Performance, and DC Greens.
Sustainability in DC is not simply something being promoted to planners. The destination is creating a framework that helps local businesses improve their practices, gives them a way to demonstrate that work and makes it easier for planners to find them.
It helps, too, that DC’s compact centre is highly walkable, with extensive public transport and bike hire making lower-impact delegate movement a realistic option. For UK meeting planners facing ever more detailed sustainability questions on RFPs, that is a strong proposition. It is not just promising to make each event more sustainable, it’s streamlining the process of finding the right partners.