Sustainable event planning is a key role in professional event management. There are many ways of promoting sustainability in the events industry from opting for a green-certified venue, to encouraging the use of public transport and active recycling.
Sustainable event practice should be taken seriously. Sustainable event practice should involve you setting and actively working towards meeting targets and goals, and you should regularly revisit these goals throughout the planning process to ensure you are making notable progress.
This article will provide you with an overview of things you can do to promote sustainability as somebody managing an event.
Strategies for promoting sustainability
Opt for an eco-friendly venue
Whilst you are in the process of finding a good event venue, look for one with suitable green accreditation. If your venue is already pushing sustainable event practices then you can see that you are both working towards similar goals and the responsibility is not all on you as the event organiser to promote the sustainability of your event.
Green flags (quite literally!) to look for in a potential venue are readily available recycling stations throughout the venue, smart room temperature controls, and reusable towel linen in the bathrooms, to name a few.
Promote the use of public transport
In-person events require your attendees totravel to your event. The options available to your attendees for travel have an impact on the sustainability of your event. As the event planner, you have the power to influence how your event attendees travel to the venue.
When you are contacting your attendees about the event make sure that you encourage the use of public transport. You can even go one step further and inform your attendees of how easy it is to find the venue from the nearest train station or bus station etc.
Reduce food waste
Food waste is a big no when it comes to event sustainability. Promoting sustainability can come in the form of encouraging your guest attendees to only take the amount of food that you are offering that they will eat. You can also calculate in advance how many attendees you will be expecting, and their specific dietary requirements, so that only the appropriate amount of food is present.
Avoid single-use plastic
Eliminating single-use plastic can be as easy as offering water stations for your attendees to fill up their reusable bottles. Promoting a reusable alternative to plastic is also an easy sustainable event practice to implement.
Keep all information digital
Keeping and distributing all your event information on a digital basis is a great way to prioritise resources and prevent unnecessary waste.
Ditch the physical paperwork and choose a digital registration and sign-up process. This reduces a whole lot of unnecessary paper!
A way of increasing the digital presence of your event is by increasing the number of QR codes used to carry information. QR codes can be displayed via a projector, allowing your attendees to scan them with their phones, to access the documents that you may have otherwise had to print.
Encourage recycling
You can also promote sustainability in the event industry by encouraging recycling. Opting for an eco-friendly venue is going to work in your favour here because there will already be a decent amount of recycling points available. You can encourage recycling throughout the event by adding recycling reminders to any email correspondence about the event.
Promoting sustainability as part of event planning and professional event management does not have to be a challenging task. Sustainable event practice can begin at the basic communication and promotion levels.
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