Sustainability

Green and sustainable events are events that aim to counteract or minimise the environmental impact they have on the planet. The process is often called “event greening.”

They’re planned in a way that deliberately reduces the amount of energy, waste and carbon emissions that an event would normally produce. Sustainable event organisers will consciously and proactively plan events that have little or no negative impact on the planet.

How this is done will depend a lot on the type of event you’re running. However, a general list of green event ideas include:

• Being carbon neutral or carbon aware
• Having a zero or low waste policy
• Providing fair trade or organic food
• Using sustainable energy to run the event where possible
• Providing local produce/food

When it comes to planning a sustainable event, there are many things you need to consider ahead of time. Upfront and conscious organisation is the key when it comes to making sure your event is as green and sustainable as possible.

Make your event carbon neutral

 Making your event carbon neutral is easier than you might think. To start with, you can us this event CO2 calculator(Opens in new window) to calculate how much C02 your event is likely to produce.

 Once you have an idea of the amount of C02 your event is set to produce, you can work on ways to reduce this further. You can do this by:

• Only inviting local guests
• Offering international guests the option to join the event remotely to avoid air travel
• Insisting on the use of bikes or public transport to attend the event instead of cars/taxis.
• Sourcing local food and drink
• Serving vegetarian food
• Using local services
• Hosting the event during the day in naturally lit spaces

Implement a zero or low waste policy

Reducing waste at events can be done effectively with careful planning.

How to reduce waste at events:

• Don’t include swag bags with unnecessary gifts that are likely to be used once, or thrown away.
• Use digital meeting agendas and avoid printing resources
• Place recycling facilities throughout your event and be militant in how these are processed
• Forbid the use of single use plastics from entering or being used at the event
• Serve food that can be donated instead of thrown away if not all consumed
• Make sure food is served in compostable materials

Serve locally sourced, organic and fair trade food

By serving locally sourced food at your event you can reduce its C02 emissions. That’s because it will use less carbon used to transport the food than food sourced from afar. 

In addition, choosing to serve organic food reduces your event’s association with the use of toxic chemicals that can damage the environment.

Lastly, from a humanitarian point of view, ensure that the people who have produced the food have been well treated, and buy fair trade where possible.

Use sustainable energy to run your event where possible

While this may not be a possibility for indoor events, choosing to run your event on sustainable energy can heavily reduce the negative impact of your event.

Occasions when this is more viable can include summertime, outdoor events.