Meeting Professionals International has released the findings of Phase 1 of a three-year study on corporate social responsibility in the meetings industry. The study is designed to outline benchmarks and effective CSR practices for meeting professionals to consider in their event design.

Conducted for MPI by the U.K. Centre for Events Management at Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, U.K., the study surveys opinions of organizational leaders; explores practices of top venues, suppliers, and consumers; and includes information from hundreds of existing studies and white papers on CSR in the meetings industry.

Leeds Metropolitan University researcher James Musgrave released four major findings in his presentation at IMEX America on October 10:

• Third-party CSR accreditation is a growing trend.
• Transparency and verifiability of CSR are increasingly important.
• Lack of a clear definition of CSR causes fragmented implementation.
• The meetings industry can help demonstrate commitment through “experiential CSR.”

“CSR continues to be a focus of successful organizations, and we must take the industry conversation beyond basic green efforts and into comprehensive planning and action,” said Bruce MacMillan, president and chief executive officer, MPI.

Phase 2 of the study, called The State of Corporate Social Responsibility, is under way and will be released at MPI’s World Education Congress in St. Louis in July 2012. For more information and to get a copy of the report, go to MPI’s CSR page.