Hosting a sustainable event means integrating environmental, social and economic considerations into all aspects of the event planning and management process. It means working with all involved to reduce environmental impacts and to contribute to positive social and economic development whenever possible. Sustainable event management entails assessing existing policies and practices and taking a holistic approach to integrating sustainability into every day tasks and decision making.
Sustainability entails a different way of doing business and not necessarily a more onerous one. Events require the consumption of resources and result in the generation of wastes and pollution. A sustainable event management strategy works to reduce the consumption of resources, to use sustainable materials in the design and delivery of the event, and to ensure wastes are reduced, reused or recycled.
The first steps to establishing a sustainable event management strategy include gaining senior management support for sustainability initiatives and devising an event sustainability policy that can be used to communicate sustainability goals and objectives to the event management team, suppliers as well as attendees. Once the policy is established, management practices and procedures that support the objectives of the policy in all aspects of the event planning and management process should be devised.
Key areas to focus on when developing a sustainable meeting strategy include office operations, marketing and communications, procurement of goods and services, and exhibition production. Sustainability practices that should be integrated across all aspects of event planning and management include energy efficiency and conservation, waste minimization and management, water efficiency and conservation, pollution reduction, and conservation of biodiversity.
The following are examples of sustainable practices that can be implemented in key areas of the event planning and management process.
Event Offices
• Reduce paper waste by setting all printers to print double-sided.
• Establish recycling programs for glass, plastic, aluminum and paper.
• Purchase 100 percent post-consumer content recycled paper.
• Establish a green procurement policy for the office to ensure use of eco-certified cleaning products, green office supplies and sustainable food and beverage items.
Marketing and Communications
• Favor electronic modes of communication over print publications.
• Develop sustainability guidelines for the print publication process and communicate guidelines to both designers and printers.
• Select print companies with existing environmental policies and practices.
• Utilize 100 percent post-consumer content recycled paper and utilize the Eco Audit tool developed by Environmental Defense to communicate environmental savings achieved due to paper selection.
• Integrate sustainability messaging into all communications developed in relation to the event.
Procurement
• Integrate environmental and social considerations into the procurement process to complement traditional criteria such as quality, cost and performance.
• Select suppliers based on willingness and ability to meet sustainability criteria established for the event.
• Ensure that sustainability commitments are included in contracts and tie financial obligations to sustainability commitments to hold suppliers accountable.
Exhibition Production
• Provide exhibitors with sustainability guidelines to use in design and construction of stands/booths.
• Identify local suppliers for exhibitors to contact when working to meet sustainability guidelines established for the event.
• Provide an incentive to exhibitors to contribute to event sustainability initiatives. For example, host a competition for the most sustainable exhibitor or provide exhibitors with a means of communicating actions taken to make exhibits sustainable.
Mitigating Climate Change Impacts
Increasingly, event organizers and planners are recognizing the impacts that hosting an event can have on global warming and climate change. Energy consumption at the event venue, event offices and local accommodations as well as participant travel to and from the event, and local road transportation over the duration of the event are all major sources of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from events. Working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that result due to events can be integrated into each area of the event sustainability strategy.
Selecting accommodations and venues with existing energy efficiency and conservation practices in place, utilizing Energy Star certified equipment in event offices, and selecting transportation providers willing to utilize alternatively fueled vehicles are all actions event organizers can take to reduce event-related emissions. When opportunities for reducing or eliminating emissions have been exhausted, event organizers and planners can purchase carbon offsets to neutralize the impact of the event on the climate, making the event carbon neutral.
With that said, event organizers and planners should know that the carbon offset market is a buyer-beware market. Carbon offsets available in the market range in quality and price. Key issues to be aware of include the amount of emission reductions achieved per unit of offset purchased, whether offsets are certified to an independent third party such as the Gold Standard, the amount of money allocated to projects and whether this is communicated publicly, and whether offset projects contribute to positive social and economic development in host communities. Some excellent resources to check out on the topic include Sustainable Travel International and the Clean Air Cool Planet consumer report, A Consumer’s Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers 2006.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Monitoring and evaluation is also a critical component of any sustainable event management strategy. Event organizers should strive to select indices for measuring success that are simple, objective, measurable and relevant. For example: tracking paper savings achieved through favoring electronic forms of communication; environmental savings achieved through the selection of 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper; total greenhouse gases reduced and offset; and purchases of sustainable goods and services. Tracking progress toward achievement of sustainability goals provides organizers with a benchmark to use in setting targets to continuously improve performance and for evaluating future efforts.
In addition, working to track and assess sustainability initiatives provides organizers with a story to tell. It allows for organizers to communicate challenges encountered, lessons learned and successes achieved. Such communications contribute to the momentum of sustainability in the meeting and events industry and may have legacy impacts through inspiring other event organizers to integrate sustainability into their own events. Further, communicating efforts undertaken to implement sustainability initiatives provides event organizers with a mechanism for enhancing both brand and market position.
Every step taken toward integrating sustainability into the event management and planning process reduces resource consumption, waste generation, and pollution, pushing the meeting and event industry toward being an industry that is both environmentally and socially responsible. Taking the first steps toward hosting a sustainable event today means leaving a positive legacy for the generations of tomorrow.
Ginny Stratton is Principal of Strategin Solutions. Recent work includes the implementation of green event guidelines for Live Earth New York and conducting a sustainability assessment of IMEX 07—The Worldwide Exhibition for Incentive Travel, Meetings and Events. Since 2005, Ginny has developed and implemented sustainable event management strategies for several large scale international events including GLOBE 2006, the third session of the UN-HABITAT World Urban Forum (WUF3), and EPIC 2007—The Sustainable Living Expo. Her efforts to ensure WUF3 embodied principles of sustainability were recognized through the IMEX 2007 Gold Green Meeting Award and earned a 4 Star MeetGreen Certification from Meeting Strategies Worldwide for excellence in green meeting practices. She can be contacted at info@strateginsolutions.com
