As the summer events season starts to hot up, we share some of our sustainable event tips to help tackle carbon emissions at events. From reducing food waste to going digital, there are some small and larger changes you can make to help your event go green. Which one will you be trying on your next event?
Reduce Food Waste
Food waste is one of the biggest contributors to climate change. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, if food waste were a country, it would have the third-biggest carbon footprint after the US and China. To combat this in the event world, we recommend selecting zero-waste menus if your hotel/venue has them, donating excess edible food where possible, giving attendees the chance of taking food leftovers in reusable lunch boxes and calculating proportions and catering numbers efficiently.
Go Digital
There are a number of event elements you can replace using technology, such as printed agendas, event signage and other event collateral. This reduces waste and the energy used to create and dispose of these physical components. In the modern age, nearly everyone owns and uses a smartphone meaning digital apps are great choice for providing event information and facilitating networking and conversations.
Vegan/Vegetarian Menus
Although hard to gather data on, most surveys show that the number of vegans has increase dramatically over the last decade with the number looking set to increase even more. Opting for a vegan menu not only satisfies all vegan attendees but also reduces the impact on the environment. Meat production contributes to climate change through land degradation, water consumption, methane produced by animals and fossil fuel usage.
Carbon Offsetting
Although criticised by some, carbon offsetting is an effective way of reducing your carbon impact when there is no alternative to emitting the carbon in the first place. If your event requires air travel, you can give attendees the option of carbon offsetting their flight during the registration process, or provide it as a virtual gift when they attend the event.
Use Sustainable Suppliers
Sourcing and hiring suppliers that share the same sustainability mindset will further reduce the carbon emissions of your event. These suppliers will have sustainable practises of their own that will ensure that sustainability isn't disregarded further down the supply chain. You may even discover sustainable solutions when collaborating together that you can use in future events.
Sustainable Event Venue
Your venue plays such an important part in your event, being the place where it actually happens. Make sure you choose a sustainable venue that will make sure all your hard work isn't undone when the event takes place. Sustainable venues can help by utilising water-saving measures, conserve energy usage with LED bulbs, power the event using renewable energy from solar panels and a lot more.
Feel free to drop us a message on hello@zentiveagency.com if you want some more tips on how to run a sustainable event.
