Easy tips for adopting sustainable event practices
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Diesel used in the UK event industry (380m litres) contributes to 1.2bn kilograms of CO2e emissions every year, approximately the same as the country of Malta (UK Events Diesel Usage) .
And this says nothing about huge amounts of materials that are produced and transported around the world to invariably be used once - from t-shirts to wooden facades, the entire industry is very wasteful. |
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As an events professional, you want to deliver the highest quality experiences for your clients.
Making your events less wasteful and polluting is good for people, planet and business.
But finding the time to dedicate to sustainability can be difficult.
Do you find making the “right choices” confusing?
Is it a struggle to get clients to see the bigger picture, beyond their budget concerns?
You’re not alone. During lockdown, the Sustainable Event Alliance Hackathon attracted 500 people from around the world, and our sustainable event workshops have been well attended by event professionals looking to get upskilled around sustainability.
There’s a clear desire to clean up the industry, but as an event professional, you might not know where to start.
Making your events less wasteful and polluting is good for people, planet and business.
But finding the time to dedicate to sustainability can be difficult.
Do you find making the “right choices” confusing?
Is it a struggle to get clients to see the bigger picture, beyond their budget concerns?
You’re not alone. During lockdown, the Sustainable Event Alliance Hackathon attracted 500 people from around the world, and our sustainable event workshops have been well attended by event professionals looking to get upskilled around sustainability.
There’s a clear desire to clean up the industry, but as an event professional, you might not know where to start.
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Coronavirus has certainly demonstrated that individuals have not stopped caring about the environment, in fact, Google Trends reported a 4550% increase in searches for how to live a more sustainable lifestyle and Kearney's annual retail report found that 48% of respondents were more concerned about the planet's health as a consequence of the pandemic. |
When events are given the go-ahead, audiences are going to want to see sustainability prioritised at the events they attend.
Sustainable Sidekick Livvy Drake has worked across the events industry, from catering and conferences, to outdoor events and festivals.
Livvy became disheartened by the wastefulness of the industry and wanted to do something to address the environmental crisis, so she focused on the principles of sustainable events (doing some training, studying and some volunteering).
She went on to work as the Sustainability Manager at Shambala Festival for three years, whilst training other event teams and auditing & assessing event sustainability at worldwide events. Alongside this, she has been delivering behaviour change campaigns both at events, businesses and the high street, focused on plastics and waste reduction.
Using this experience, she has developed a suite of practical mastermind sessions and workshops for event professionals like you, so you can start planning your events differently without the need to get an environmental degree.
Sustainable Sidekick Livvy Drake has worked across the events industry, from catering and conferences, to outdoor events and festivals.
Livvy became disheartened by the wastefulness of the industry and wanted to do something to address the environmental crisis, so she focused on the principles of sustainable events (doing some training, studying and some volunteering).
She went on to work as the Sustainability Manager at Shambala Festival for three years, whilst training other event teams and auditing & assessing event sustainability at worldwide events. Alongside this, she has been delivering behaviour change campaigns both at events, businesses and the high street, focused on plastics and waste reduction.
Using this experience, she has developed a suite of practical mastermind sessions and workshops for event professionals like you, so you can start planning your events differently without the need to get an environmental degree.
Blogs
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Discover our whole Events section of our blog!Free ResourcesWatch the replays from the brilliant Sustainable Event Alliance Reset Hackathon - Livvy hosted a session on Budgets and Mindsets.
Get access now Behaviour Change Q&A: Livvy answered questions on the Legacy Events green room on delivering behaviour change at events. Read here |
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Sustainable event tips from the recent Event Freelance Summit 2020:
The Shift Panelcast Episode 9 - Livvy joined the Shift team to discuss the opportunity events have to deliver environmental and social change:
Online Resources
Replay Video: Sustainable Events Mastermind |
Replay Video: Waste 101 - Waste & Recycling Mastermind |
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With all your other pressures, navigating sustainability is challenging.
Would you like some key principles that you can integrate into your event planning, to stop sustainability being an afterthought? This 1.15 hour session covers:
At the end of this masterclass, you will:
Get access now Replay Video: Behaviour Change for Event Managers
As an event manager do you get frustrated that your attendees:
It can be disheartening when you have invested money and time in ‘doing the right thing’ but feeling like no-one else cares. However, you can get your audiences to comply if you know the right communication and initiative strategies. Watch the workshop to get to grips with behaviour change principles so you can:
Replay available from £19 plus bundle options to help you understand your audiences and develop effective initiatives. Get Access Now |
Waste is a very visual reminder of our environmental impacts on an event site. Overflowing bins, huge skips and single-use packaging is what people will comment on in feedback forms - and might even get picked up by the press at large events.
How can we manage waste better and improve recycling rates, when waste contractors don’t materialise and audiences don’t observe your bin signage? Livvy Drake joins waste expert Emilee Woodger-Smith to get down and dirty with:
At the end of this masterclass, you can expect to feel more confident in:
Get access now |
As a conscientious event organiser, would you like to demonstrate your sustainability ambitions to contractors, clients and customers?
You need a process to define sustainability priorities with your clients when you begin a project, to reduce knee jerk reactions and embed positive impact.
Developing a policy is the easiest way, but how and where do you even begin?
In this step-by step 2 hour workshop, you will get all the tools and materials to develop your own policy or host a workshop with your team and clients to create it together.
After this workshop you will be able to:
- Demonstrate your credibility and trust with clients and customers
- Identify opportunities for efficiency and cost savings
- Create communication and marketing opportunities
- Reduce confusion with suppliers and contractor
You will also be able to:
- Capture your vision, values and concerns
- Identify your priorities
- Create targets and an action plan
- Get buy-in from teams and departments
- Deliver a similar workshop with your team and clients
Get access now
Consultancy
From festivals to conferences we offer one-to one sustainable event support including:
More information
- Advice and guidance on how to reduce your impacts and improve your material choices
- Auditing your live event to understand the impacts and opportunities for improvement
- Analysing and reporting on your impacts from carbon to waste
- Creating documents and guidance for your teams and suppliers
- Practical training for teams
More information
