Sustainable Event Management (Event Greening)

Sustainable event management (also known as event greening) is when environmental, economic, and/or social issues are taken into consideration when producing an event.

Creating an event that is greener for the environment and that produces less impact isn’t always on the top of the agenda for many of our clients but we believe it should be taken into consideration, for some clients it is a necessity. In our experience, the trend is growing and here are some tips to help make your event more sustainable.

Why have a sustainable event?

We need to understand the footprint that we are leaving on the environment every time we hold an event. Unfortunately holding an event, especially something such as a music festival or another form of outdoor event, means that there isn’t usually easy access to things such as water on tap and food is likely to be served in throw away cartons.

According to the Biffa website,

“on average, music festivals generate 23,500 tonnes of waste, including plastic bottles, food containers, food waste, clothing and abandoned tents.”

 

By making changes to the way in which food and drink are served at a festival could have a huge impact on the footprint that is left behind.

An example of this could be selling (or giving away for free through a sponsor) reusable hot drinks cups that people can fill up every time they go to buy a drink. Alternatively, providing biodegradable cups rather than plastic bottles could really help to reduce the impact on the environment.

People are starting to have a greater awareness of the impact their lives are having on the environment and choosing where possible to decrease their personal impact.

Exhibition stands have a history of creating lots of waste. The print is historically printed onto foamex which is then thrown away post event as it’s easily damaged during transit.

The benefits of event greening

There are many benefits to holding a sustainable event. For example if you provide a virtual ticket to a conference and offer a live stream to the main stage during the event, then this can reduce the environmental impact with less traffic and in turn less pollution from people attending the event. Some guests may also be travelling from abroad so the reduction in air travel is also of benefit.

Providing virtual tickets also means that there is no impact on the environment through printing the tickets that, once used become throwaway.

If there are less people physically attending your event there will also be a reduction in the amount of packaging required for food and drinks during the event but also during the journey to get to the destination.

If your event can’t be streamed to your audience then a way to reduce the impact your event has on the environment can be to use an event registration system that allows attendees to have an event ticket sent to their phone with a personalised QR code to scan on arrival.

Having this system in place is not only a benefit to the environment but also enables you to speed up the registration process which in turn will provide a positive experience for guests.

How can I make my event more sustainable?

As just mentioned, going paperless for your event is one of the easiest ways to make a large impact on the environment. Not only by choosing to have virtual tickets in place but also by trying to run your event using laptops, iPads and other mobile devices rather than through the use of paperwork. If you’re having advertising at the event that would normally be in the form of posters, printed backdrops etc Could this be displayed digitally instead?

Does your event normally have a programme or brochure that you provide to all attendees? Can this be made into an app for mobile instead? This could be a drastic change to your footprint and could also reduce your overheads too.

Before the event you could also create a website, send out emails and keep in touch with people via electronic methods, rather than sending out letters, updates and marketing in the post.

The other bonus to this is that your attendees won’t lose your event information as I will be readily available to them on their smartphones.

For our exhibition clients we now stock a re-usable structure solution that can work alongside tension fabric material. The structure can be used by a number of clients throughout the year while the material is stored, ready for the clients next exhibition.

Event carpet is also an area of waste, we have a supplier that recycles all of the used event carpet that we use on our events.

Low Power Event Solutions

Many events require AV solutions in order to run and these can use huge amounts of power. The solution to this is to ensure that your AV production company use modern LED lighting rather than some of the more traditional lighting. LED lighting provides the same light output but for a lot less power.

Be realistic

Trying to make your next event fully sustainable is a fantastic idea but it may not be realistic to think that can all be actioned for your next event. Even by starting to make the changes you will still start to have a positive impact on the environment and encourage you to take things further as each event takes place.

Want to find out more?

If you’re looking to make your next event more environmentally friendly and you aren’t sure where to start, get in touch with us here at Premier Events and we can help you and offer our advice on how to start making changes.

We are working towards being a carbon neutral company, we take our environmental impact exceptionally seriously.