Guy Bigwood

For the last 18 years, Guy has been delivering award-winning consulting services focused on helping cities, governments, associations and the tourism/events industry step up, scale up and speed up their sustainability programmes and operational practices.

Guy is a recognised expert on creating sustainable and regenerative destinations, communities and events. He is the founder of the GDS-Index and Chief Changemaker of the Global Destinations Sustainability Movement; a transformation platform that inspires, educates and enables destinations to become more regenerative, flourishing and resilient places to visit, meet and live in. Guy has worked with over 100 governments, DMOs and NTOs to help them benchmark, create, implement and communicate their regenerative tourism and events strategies. He has worked extensively in the UAE as a consultant on many events, and as an assessor of the prestigious UAE Government Excellence Programme.

Previously Guy was the President of the Green Meeting Industry Council, the Managing Director of MCI Spain, the Sustainability Director of MCI (the world’s largest association management, communications and events agency), and a Senior Consultant for Hewlett-Packard.

Guy’s pioneering work has been recognised with 23 sustainability awards including the Events Industry Council Pacesetter Award, the IMEX-EIC Innovation in Sustainability Award, and the UNWTO Innovation Award. He has co-authored two UN Guidebooks on Sustainable events, the pioneering whitepaper on the Regenerative Revolution, and 96 Sustainability Reports for associations, governments and corporations.

Guy is a Fellow of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (FIEMA) and teaches Regenerative Leadership at the Esade Business School in Barcelona.