7 Tips to Make Your Next Event More Sustainable

It is no secret that sustainability is a market trend that is here to stay. A study by Unilever revealed that one-third of UK buyers preferred to make purchases from a sustainable brand. But this trend isn’t limited to athleisure brands or buying keep cups - it can be applied to event management as well.

It has never made more sense, both economically and for the planet, to adopt a sustainability strategy for your next event. Below are a few best practices you can start implementing to make sure your next 2021 event is sustainable.

1. Zero-Waste Event Plans

Events, unfortunately, tend to be very wasteful for the most part. So when it comes to making your event sustainable, it’s all about developing and incorporating an effective “zero-waste” plan from the outset.

This includes working with both your venue and your catering company to ensure that effective waste management and recycling systems are in place for disposing of surplus.

On your side of things, there are a number of things you can do, including:

• Place an effective number of correctly-marked recycling bins around your venue
• Hiring a service team to collect, empty and sort waste during the event
• Send out a checklist to attendees to remind them of how they can contribute to the zero-waste policy (i.e. bring their own reusable water bottles and lanyards, reminding them to car-pool as well as recycle).

2. Consider Plant-Based Catering

The type of food options you select for your event’s catering is one of the most important contributors to your carbon footprint, both from a waste perspective and how far the actual food has travelled.

Choosing a local caterer will help greatly reduce food miles during transportation. As a rule of thumb, choosing vegan or vegetarian options are less impactful on emissions, but if you need to have meat, try to avoid beef which contributes about 10 kgs of carbon per 0.5 kg.

Also think about working directly with your caterer to determine how many servings you’ll need based on your exact number of guests to reduce waste, and determining whether there is a recycling or disposal plan for food waste (such as getting in touch with a local organisation who can safely collect and reuse leftover food).

3. Adopt Virtual or Hybrid Events

A recent report determined that virtual events reduced carbon emissions by more than 99%, making it clear that going virtual ensures that your event not only allows you to reach more people, but also goes a long way with helping reduce waste and emissions. (For more info on how to make your next virtual event better than live, check out our helpful guide).

We also understand that not all events can be virtual (and there is a special magic that comes from in-person events). In the case where your event must have a live component, consider adopting a hybrid event strategy [Link to blog 0008 on hybrid events] that provides the option for attendees to enjoy the event from the comfort of their own home, or if they’d simply like to reduce their impact on the environment by avoiding travel.

4. Choosing the Right Venue

Depending on the size and nature of your event, selecting a sustainable venue makes an enormous difference to your event’s carbon footprint.

When choosing an event venue, your main consideration should be the venue’s sustainability services, such as proximity to transportation, recycling facilities, clean energy-powered or energy-conscious lighting, and waste management systems.

It’s not only important to select a sustainable venue for your own event’s environmental impact, but your support of these venues will only empower more venues to begin switching to cleaner energy and will allow those venues who already have made the switch to stay in business.

5. Compensate by Carbon Off-Setting

On the other hand, if you live in an area where clean energy venues are limited and are therefore unable to host your event at a green-friendly location, you can compensate through carbon-offsetting.

When deciding to implement carbon offsetting, it’s crucial that you do your research and partner with a credible partner (such as the UN’s Climate Neutral Now initiative) to ensure that your funds are being distributed to the right places.

You can also decide to encourage attendees to contribute through an optional fee during the ticket-buying process, or you can build it directly into the ticket price (Humanitix provides an option to make a donation at the time of ticket purchase).

6. Go Paperless

Losing paper and embracing tech is paramount to greatly reducing the amount of waste attributed to your event. So why not commit to make your event 100% paper-free?

The most effective way to do this is by using an online event hosting platform. This platform should include digital ticketing, as well as an app that allows you to manage an event digitally without any paper needed, including scanning tickets at the door, VIP management as well as alerting guests with announcements via text messages (all of these features, and more, are available when you list an event through Humanitix.)

7. Avoid Single-Use Plastics

Creating a plastic-free environment (particularly single-use plastics) will help you avoid big piles of rubbish at the end of your event, which will in turn, create a greater need for a robust waste management plan. Of course, some COVID-19 restrictions mean that there is some need to wrap things individually at the moment. Always make sure you are aligned with the latest health and safety advice.

Some considerations include:

• Avoiding use of plastic packaging for food catering.
• Using silverware or biodegradable utensils (such as bamboo) instead of single-use plastic.
• Using eco-friendly lanyards instead of plastic ones.

What now?

Looking for a ticketing platform that helps promote your next event and can make it more sustainable? Humanitix can help with paper-free ticketing, with an option for guests to donate a fee towards a cause. Get in touch and let us help you create a sustainable event, and change lives through supporting education projects. Get started!