Sustainable event practices are a core value that matters deeply to us — as well as a steadily increasing number of businesses and consumers who attend your meetings and events.
The United Nations describes sustainable development as that which “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Under the UN framework this could include a variety of focus areas from reduced inequality, ending poverty, and zero hunger, most organizations in North America are focused on actions that reduce impact on the environment.
As an example in the corporate world, LinkedIn’s “path to zero waste” is addressed through green-building certifications, the reduction of waste across the global organization and conservation of water through food choices within their workplaces. Other companies like Google are focused on providing their employees with innovative, sustainable, and healthy food.
In this post, we cover three steps to more sustainable events — a win for everyone.
If your organization already has strategic initiatives in place, you have an opportunity to align to those objectives through your business events. If you are the pioneer you also have an opportunity to make a lasting impact within your role by leading the way. Either way, you can be proud of the well-earned recognition for your work.
It’s important to remember that a commitment to producing more sustainable events does not mean that every single business event needs to be 100% green. It’s about identifying ways where you can make a consistent and meaningful impact across your event portfolio, without compromising on the quality of your event. Ready to strategically advance sustainability across your organization but not sure where to start? In this post we’re giving you prescriptive guidance on the best steps to follow to make the most meaningful impact for your brand.
Three Ways to Make Your Events More Sustainable:
1. First, align with your stakeholders
Get face time with the Chief Sustainability Officer or other initiative sponsor to understand what is most important to them. It’s easier to align with your organization if you understand the “why” behind its sustainability initiatives.
2. Next, do your due diligence
If you are leading the charge in creating the framework for your company, start by looking at how other companies are approaching this issue. Ask your event partners what they are currently doing to reduce impact at their client’s events. In these early days of a more genuine focus on sustainable practices, be aware of greenwashing versus real action. Your vendor partners should be able to help you with the next step.
3. Finally, identify the biggest areas for improvement
Here are the areas that we look at to make the biggest environmental impact for our clients:
Create Less Waste to Manage
This looks obvious, but not so fast! Our main tenet at Key Events is to start by creating less waste at your event and beyond. Two major areas that can have a big impact on your event sustainability are collateral and catering:
- Eliminate printed collateral and invest in an event app that allows you to share maps, agendas, presentations, contacts and more. Bonus – you can make changes up to and including event day without having to re-print.
- Work closely with your caterer. Order less food for buffets and smaller portions for plated. Stop re-filling buffets 30 minutes (or more) before the event’s end time. Select food items that are eligible for food donation and pre-arrange pick-up.
Re-Think Your Swag
- When you are sourcing your “swag”, aka branded premiums, adjust your budget to purchase higher quality and Fair Trade products.
- These are products that people will actually keep.
- If your budget does not permit for higher quality premiums consider eliminating it entirely and explain that the money saved on swag is being put into better quality food or a bigger name entertainer.
- You want your event to be memorable for the experience, not for the key chain someone finds in a junk drawer two years from now!
- Stop sourcing re-usable water bottles! The shelf life of a branded water bottle is shorter than you’d like to imagine and there are many alternatives available today.
- The good old-fashioned water cooler is making a comeback (with compostable cups, of course), and there are now vending machines that dispense filtered still, sparkling and flavored waters into glassware, guests’ own reusables, or compostables. Speaking of which…
Put a Fork in Your Serviceware
- Ask your catering partner to remove all single-use plastic.
- Start with losing the plastic straws — now, this doesn’t mean you’re stuck with soggy paper straws. Products like avocado and hay straws are aesthetically pleasing. They are original-looking and can compost without the aid of an industrial composting facility.
- Next, you can easily replace 100% of your serviceware with products that are naturally compostable — from cups, flatware and plates to take-home containers, there are many affordable solutions already on the market and more appearing every day.
- Make sure to confirm with the venue that these are actually going to a compost facility that can process them and not a landfill. Also supply plenty of clearly marked collection bins and communicate the plan to guests.
- We believe that sustainable event practices can have a positive impact on the world. That’s why we offer you a wide array of sustainable and green event options AND work closely with a variety of diverse partners to ensure that your business events make a meaningful impact not only on your bottom line but also for the environment.
Set the Standard for Sustainable Events with ISO 20121
- Check out ISO 20121 for great guidance and best practices to help you manage your event and control its social, economic and environmental impact
- Events can not only generate significant waste, but they can also take a heavy toll on local resources, like water or energy, or even ignite tensions in local communities
- You can make your event sustainable, no matter its type or size!
If you are involved in the event industry in any way, the ISO 20121 standard is for you and has been successfully used for all types of events, from music festivals to school outings.
Have a question about the three steps to make your events more sustainable? Reach out to us!
