Andrew Walker

| Green Advocate |
Andrew Walker
Managing Director, Eco-Efficient Events (E3) Ltd.

London, England
Age: 35

Andrew Walker joined the MPI Toronto Chapter as a hospitality and tourism management student at Ryerson University in 2002 and was hooked. Since then, he’s been recognized by MPI as Student of the Year in 2004 and Volunteer of the Year in 2009. He then became committee chair and director on the board. Tourism Toronto asked Walker to take on media communications for the 2007 PCMA convention’s Zero Waste initiative, which got him interested in green meetings. He joined GMIC that year and began pursuing a master’s degree in environmental studies with a focus on sustainable meeting and event management. He remained focused on green events, interning at a carbon consultancy and chairing the Canadian group contributing to the development of international event sustainability standards ISO 20121. He remains a committee member even after relocating in 2010 to London through dual citizenship. Last year, he was named an international board member for GMIC and launched Eco-Efficient Events to provide sustainability education, training and consulting for business events. Walker plotted his early career to gain experience in a variety of hotel, catering, tourism and meeting management jobs, eager to learn from seasoned event professionals. He’s the one we’re learning from now: Walker has quickly become a respected event sustainability speaker and industry leader. —K. Manfredi

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
“I would love to think that in 10 years time there won’t be any need for sustainability consultants…but I don’t think this will actually be the case as change takes time. In this light, I hope that in 10 years time my business is thriving. I also hope that I will be teaching in an academic setting, if only part-time.”