Introduction

Creating Sustainable Events: Practical Steps for Event Organisers

The sustainable transition may be the single greatest challenge in human history, with new developments and learnings affecting, well really, every other industry and corner of the globe. Consumer behaviour can be a powerful driver to affect societal change, and if you’ve ever thought small changes can’t make a big impact, author Malcolm Gladwell in his book, “The Tipping Point”, states that it takes only 5% of the population to create just that, a tipping point in cultural behaviour. Research from the Harvard Business Review predicts that we’re on the brink of a “major shift” in our culture that will see sustainable companies and products capitalise the market. 

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In the events industry, whilst we’re learning more each day about how to successfully implement sustainability, we’re fortunate to have a concrete foundation of globally accepted frameworks and EU/UK specific standards to look to. Along with the expertise of our teams, these guidelines shape the work we do at Zentive, and we felt it is important to preface the information in this guide with the credible frameworks.

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• United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

• ISO20121 - Sustainable Event Management Systems

 

The following guide will explore the practical steps event organisers can take to create truly sustainable events.

 

Dissecting the ‘sustainable’ vocabulary

If you’re entirely new to the world of sustainability, some of the terms and acronyms used can be confusing, and we’re here to make sustainable events accessible to all. If you’re already well versed in sustainability, feel free to skip over this section, or brush up on the latest vocabulary.

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• Carbon Neutral: After establishing a measured baseline and implementing reduction strategies, any remaining carbon produced from an activity has been removed through offsetting, balancing out the carbon emissions to a neutral point. In order to claim carbon neutrality, you must prove how you’ve reduced the carbon before simply offsetting.

• Net-Zero: Emissions are reduced by a minimum of 90% from your baseline measurement figure, with the remaining 10% being offset.

• Baseline: The evaluation or starting point of a measurement.

• Benchmarking: What could also be referred to as the starting point, but typically a reference point that can be compared to a standard or a businesses performance against industry peers or competitors.

• Carbon Positive: This goes further than net-zero in that a business is offsetting more carbon than they are emitting or producing.

• GHG: Greenhouse Gases (Methane, Nitrous Oxide & Carbon Dioxide are the main 3 discussed).

• Scopes: A categorisation system for emissions a company and/or event creates in doing operations. There are 3 main ‘scopes’ currently used, Scope 1, 2 and 3, which we’ll get into later. The majority of emissions for most businesses and events tend to fall under Scope 3 - indirect emissions from a businesses supply chain required to do business, rather than produced by the business itself. 

• Renewable: Energy sources that are derived from natural processes that are not diminished with increased usage, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat, offering an essentially limitless and sustainable supply.

• Circular economy: A system that focuses on reusing, repairing, sharing and recycling, one that looks to avoid entry of new raw materials, instead repurposing materials already within the production cycle.

• Carbon Emissions (CO2e): The main cause for concern as the most prominent GHG in our atmosphere that causes the earth's temperature to rise. Primarily caused by burning of coal, oil, and gas. Shortened to ‘CO2e’, meaning “Carbon Dioxide Equivalent”, the measurement unit of GHGs.

• SDGs: Sustainable Development Goals. These are a set of 17 goals developed by the United Nations, agreed upon to be urgent action that should be taken by all countries in what they refer to as a “global partnership”. The goals span all pillars of sustainability from social equality to economic growth, all whilst tackling climate change.

• GDS: Global Destination Sustainability movement. If you’re looking for new destinations to host your event, the GDS is a collaborative collection of over 100 destinations and convention bureaus who are leading the way in the future of sustainable tourism and events. Each year they release the GDS Index, ranking destinations on their approach to a fully rounded, circular economy. 

• ESG: Environmental, Social & (Corporate) Governance. Essentially, a number of practices and metrics in which to evaluate the success and sustainability of a company beyond the financial figures.

• Social Sustainability: Looking specifically at the social dimension within business operations, and understanding that human rights are key to positive corporate sustainability.

• Governance: A system of rules, practices, and processes by which a company is directed and controlled. In the context of sustainable business, governance encompasses the structures put in place to ensure that the organisation operates in an environmentally responsible, socially equitable, and economically viable manner.

• Regeneration: The consumption of our earth’s natural resources by humans has, historically, resulted in a degeneration and decline of our environment. Regeneration and regenerative business seeks to take an active role in undoing the damage that has been done, focusing on giving more than you take from the entire ecosystem and pillars of sustainability. 

• Carbon Sequestration: This refers to the process that captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it in either geologic or biologic environments. Geologic storage utilises porous rock formations deep underground, whilst biologic storage makes use of natural carbon basins such as soil, wooded areas, or grasslands 

• CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility. The notion that any business is responsible, to a degree, for the society it operates within. Typically within CSR is reference of the “3 P’s”, being Planet, People and Profit, with profit unable to exist without people, and people unable to exist without the health of the planet.

 

Event Conception

Sustainable event delivery involves scaling back to the very roots of a project, all the way to its conception, and asking stakeholders, ‘what is the purpose of this event’.

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Why are you hosting an event, what do you need to get out of it, and how can you achieve those results in a truly sustainable manner? Consider first and foremost, does this need to be an event, or can the objectives be successfully achieved using online digital tools? Perhaps sharing data and receiving feedback is the key outcome, in which case strategic online workshops could be the most cost and carbon effective tool. However, if your goal is gathering people together and sharing an experience, there is no substitute for a live event.

 

Whatever the project, beginning with the mindset of sustainability, considering all social, environmental and economic factors, ensures it starts off on the right foot, and will make following the rest of this guide an easy journey ahead. 

 

Policies and Plans

Developing An Actionable Sustainability Policy

In the same way your finance department has policies about spending limits and signing authorities, your events department needs a policy for what is expected in terms of sustainability when implementing events. A sustainability policy for a live event outlines specific strategies and commitments that minimise environmental impact, such as reducing waste, conserving energy, and promoting responsible sourcing. Overall, the policy aims to ensure that the event's activities are conducted in a manner that is socially, economically, and environmentally responsible.

 

Any sustainability policy should align with the broader organisational, long-term company goals so that the delivery of an event is contributing towards goal objectives. A well-aligned business model would see the company strategy woven into individual policies, and in our industry, right down to how events are being organised.

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Every policy will look different depending on the type of events you’re organising, but try to weave sustainability into all of your project documents to ensure that it is considered in every decision making step, by all stakeholders involved. We welcome you to use this guide to assist with building your policy, and what your non-negotiables in event design and delivery might be.

 

Environmental

• Venues with an energy efficient plan and/or renewable energy source.

• No single-use, disposable items.

• Catering ingredients from within a 30-mile radius.

• Agree management streams for any leftover waste (i.e. composting facilities or plastic film).

• Contracts with venues and vendors must contain sustainable agreements, such as provision of data for carbon emissions measurement.

• Buildings which are LEED or BREEAM accredited. 

 

Social

• 50% of vendors and/or suppliers are locally based, within 50 miles of the event venue.

• 5% of event revenue going towards a charitable community cause.

• Networking activities must be accessible for all.

 

Economic

• Achieve minimum revenue targets from event attendance.

 

Contracting

Contracts are an under-explored opportunity to enforce sustainable goals and develop sustainable initiatives during a project or event. We’ve likely all been in the position of having a sales manager promise us the world, only to then find out from the operations manager after signing the contract that half of it isn’t possible, but a detailed contract mitigates this risk. 

 

As we saw during COVID-19, flexible cancellation clauses moved from unacceptable to the norm, and in our pathway to a sustainable future, sustainable contract clauses should be next. Clauses will vary and look different based upon your business objectives and goals, but consider:

 

• Carbon emissions data is to be shared between parties.

  • Emissions data helps to provide concrete statistics to the impact you’re making, and provides that baseline/benchmark to compare yourself to both current standards, and your progress in the future. Making the provision of this data mandatory when negotiating contracts highlights the importance of the task to your supply chain, and ensures you have accurate measurements when reporting.

  • It’s a give and take, if your venue is able to measure energy usage in your occupied spaces and give a detailed breakdown on catering waste, they may ask you in-turn to share how your audience travelled to the venue.

• Mutual agreements to remove single-use items from the event

  • That means no take-away coffee cups for rushed refreshment breaks (see section, sustainable event design…), and likewise from the producer, no giveaway swag wrapped in plastic that’s likely to be thrown away before delegates leave the building.

• Group accommodation note for sheets and towel changing only on every 3rd day.

 

It’s important to note that for many global corporations and venues, such as Hilton, Marriott, and Accor, amending or even issuing an addendum to a contract takes a long time. This needs to be factored into your supply chain management and we recommend allowing at least an additional month for both parties to have agreed on the intent to create a sustainable event. 

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Venue Sourcing

Hiring a Sustainable Venue & Supply Chain Management

They say your success often depends on the group of peers you choose to spend time with, and this relationship could not be more true when it comes to the role of your supply chain, such as venues and vendors, in running successful sustainable events.

 

Venue Sourcing & Certifications

There are an abundance of venue accreditations out there, Green Key, Earth Check, LEED, BREEAM, Green Tourism, GSTC and ECOSmart to name a few, all claiming to represent a venue paving the way to a sustainable future. This can be a confusing and often misleading landscape for event planners, and it’s important to remember that whilst many have accomplished zero waste or entirely clean energy, we cannot rest on our laurels with the ever-changing landscape and imminent regulatory reporting requirements. Look beyond the label of accreditations and ask the questions relating to what’s important to you during your venue search. Non-negotiable items for your business may be:
 

• Energy efficiency 

  • Smart sensored lighting that turns off automatically, reduced energy usage LED lights, or insulating methods that reduce pressure on air cons and heating systems. 

  • This could mean renewable energy too. Does the venue have solar panels, or are they purchasing electricity from renewable sources?
     

• Local catering

  • We’ll dig into this more in the “Catering” section.

 

• Location

  • Consider whether the venue is serviced by public transport, or bicycle parking, enabling high attendance without a high volume of individual cars on the road. Alternatively, venues with EV charging points in the car park allow for clean car travel.

  • Not forgetting to look at your audience profile, where are they travelling from and is this venue appropriate for the majority?  

  • Consider adding shuttles from nearby train stations or airports.

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• Transparent data

  • Any claims made by a venue should be backed up with data, and a venue proud of its sustainable initiatives has nothing to hide. The Los Angeles Convention Centre, for example, boasts its green initiatives clearly on its website for any prospective event manager to see.

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• Considerations of the Local Environment and Ecosystem

  • A great example of a venue doing it right is the Vancouver Convention Centre. Hidden amongst the skyline here is an amazing 6-acre living roof. This space acts as a sanctuary for city wildlife, controls and absorbs rainwater and also helps to insulate the building, reducing the need for energy in heating or cooling.

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Supply Chain Management

Venue sourcing is often given much more time and energy than supply chain management in producing events. However, we’ve decided to combine the two in this section as really, they should be treated with equal importance. 

 

Vetting:

In the same way you vet potential venues, you should be vetting your suppliers and conducting thorough research into potential partners before collaborating on projects. The goals and objectives of not only your event but wider company strategy should be made clear in initial meetings with potential suppliers so both parties can assess suitability of working together. It’s entirely appropriate to ask questions centred around:

• Their ethics and how they operate as a business

• The groups they employ and initiatives/perks offered to staff

• Their own sustainability policies and goals

• How they are involved in their local community 

• Other businesses they may be closely affiliated with

 

A great example of how communicating openly and honestly with suppliers can lead to highly successful collaborations is an initiative between Timberland shoes and Omni United, a tyre manufacturer and distributor. Once Omni customers purchased replacement tyres, their old ones were shipped to a recycling facility that turned them into crumbed rubber and eventually, into Timberland shoe soles. 

 

Timberland president Stewart Whitney said: “An outdoor lifestyle brand and an automotive industry leader may, at first blush, seem unlikely partners – yet our shared values have [proven] that sustainability can be so much more than a theory.” 

 

Comparisons:

You’d never just look at one venue before making a decision on where to host your event, so why would you do the same for a rental, production, or speaker service? In order to act in the most sustainable way, this comparison goes far beyond cost and should look at things like; their employee experience, if they pay a living wage, do they give back to their local community, how do they reduce waste in providing their service or product.

 

The more finite details you can discuss with a potential supplier, the better you’ll be able to assess if the partnership will work for both of you in the long-term. One area that will clearly show a symbiotic opportunity would be a supplier's sustainable policies and plans…  

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Location

The Importance of a Destination

Venue sourcing looks at an individual property within a location, but location sourcing itself has a whole different spectrum of considerations to evaluate a sustainable destination. A great place to start if you’re only just beginning your destination evaluation journey, is the SDG Index.