Humanity’s impact on the planet has made eco-friendly practices a serious topic for businesses around the world. For those in the events industry, the knock on-effect of this has been a much greater demand for sustainable events. It might sound complicated, but a few simple changes to accepted habits really can make a big difference — both for the environment, and in the eyes of your consumers.
With this in mind, what steps can you take to bring event sustainability to your next gathering? The expert planners from ConnectIn Events reveal their top tips for transforming any live occasion into an eco-friendly delight.
5 Simple Steps to Sustainable Events
There’s plenty you can do to harness the spirit of the times with sustainable events. Whether it’s providing eco-friendly transportation or minimising plastics, our top tips will help you to cover every base.
1 – Cut Waste
Although events typically generate a large amount of waste, organisers can take steps to reduce their environmental impact. One approach is to limit food waste — which is both an environmental and moral concern. Using locally-sourced, organic foodstuffs can cut transportation costs and lessen environmental impact, while offering leftovers to homeless charities and food banks can benefit the local community.
To further enhance sustainability, event planners can prevent wasteful products from entering the venue in the first place. Providing clearly marked and sign-posted bins for each type of refuse helps ensure proper disposal. Additionally, ensuring that the venue participates in a recycling scheme can save money on general waste disposal and promote more eco-friendly practices.
2 – Minimise Plastics
Working with a venue that bans single-use plastics is another big step towards more sustainable events. This can be achieved with the likes of water stations, eco-friendly cutlery, and biodegradable cups. You could even limit plastic giveaways, ignore the temptation to use non-perishables such as balloons, and invite guests to do their bit by bringing their own bottles.
3 – Hire an Eco-Conscious Venue
Many venues now prioritise event sustainability, with initiatives including waste management protocols, energy efficiency practices, and programmes for low emissions. However, some will instead focus solely on profit margins. To hire the right kind of location, ask questions about waste and eco practices when compiling a shortlist of your preferred locations.
4 – Prioritise Projectors
Although it’s important to include company branding at your gathering, using paper or card banners will invariably lead to more waste. Therefore, it’s advisable to prioritise projected images over printed signs. Additionally, thanks to technological advances, projected images can be much more vibrant and effective than paper, while also having a positive impact on event sustainability.
5 – Encourage Public Transport Use
Event planners often focus on a venue’s appearance and facilities, neglecting transport logistics. Long travel distances increase the use of carbon-intensive transport. The solution is to select a venue close to core attendees and offer subsidised public transport for guests, reducing environmental impact and enhancing convenience.
6 – Don’t Waste Water
Water wastage has a serious impact on the environment. The filtration and production of (already) scarce volumes of global freshwater increases fossil fuel usage and causes significant damage to our ecosystems. You can make sure you’re not part of the problem by providing glasses, favouring reusable containers and providing handy refill stations.
Conclusion
ConnectIn Events are at the Fore of Event Sustainability
It’s important to understand that demand for sustainable events is far from a passing trend. Taking action to address the climate crisis is a priority for modern audiences, and is not something to be overlooked. In fact, implementing more eco-friendly measures could work wonders for both the planet and your brand’s reputation in the marketplace
Operating from the lively North-West of England, ConnectIn Events is an industry leader for live and virtual occasions of all shapes and sizes. They regard the drive towards event sustainability as an exciting opportunity to implement meaningful change. As one of the UK’s leaders in the planning and management of corporate get togethers, they have years of experience in helping companies to choose venues and practices that are big on engagement and low on environmental impact.
To find out more about how they can use their broad range of services to help your business, get in touch with them today!
