Events

Cup Zero is a turnkey solution that includes logistics, delivery, collection points, signage, washing, sanitizing, and storing cups. Going zero waste has never been easier.

In partnership with Under the K Bridge Park, a city governed public space in Brooklyn, NY, Cup Zero provided reusable cups and a dedicated team to manage waste sorting across 20+ events from May to October 2024. 

Our guest is Matt Fedorko, Director of Special Events at Blue Strike Environmental.  Matt will dive into the ins and outs of waste sorting at events, offering a clear view of how the process works, where to begin, and the true value and impact it can bring. The session will also cover why waste sorting is essential for event sustainability, and how it can benefit both operations and the environment. 

Join us on Tuesday, September 17 for a presentation and Q&A led by Stefanie Lynch, Corporate Engagement Director at Greener By Default.  We'll learn how a plant forward menu makes a huge impact on reducing the carbon footprint of an event.  

We'll talk about our current food system's environmental impact, and simple strategies to immediately decrease your event's food related carbon emissions, and touch upon how to calculate the carbon emissions of your meals and buffets.

Join us on July 11 for MUSE Office Hours and bring questions! This session our Guest Expert is Tommy Preti Jr., the Vice President of Sales & Operations at Thomas Preti Events to Savor. Learn all about sustainable catering, a key component of sustainable event management. www.thomaspreti.com

Sponsored by Schupan www.schupan.com/sustainability-services

Fundamentals of Sustainable Events is a live and interactive course where you'll discover how to apply the lens of sustainability to your event planning process. You'll learn best practices for reducing the environmental impact of your events and explore how to embed sustainability in every aspect of your event.

Join us on Wednesday, June 5 for the official book launch for “How We Gather Matters” written by Leor Rotchild.

This event features a lively discussion with Leor Rotchild and Shawna McKinley.

“How We Gather Matters” is an guide to reimagine the modern events industry as a powerful vehicle for change.

Learn about ISO 20121 certification from RIGHT HUB. Join us on Tuesday, April 23 for MUSE Office Hours, our Guest Experts are Cheyenne Sala and Luca Guzzabocca of RIGHT HUB. RIGHT HUB is an Italian consultancy company, founded in 2014, with the goal of promoting environmental, social, ethical and economic sustainability in the events industry and in business processes.

Join us on Thursday, February 22 for our February MUSE Member Meeting. This meeting will be OPEN to both Members.

We'll start with a presentation from Neel Vasavada, Founder of Overdrive Energy Solutions. After that we'll break into groups for networking.

Overdrive is committed to decarbonizing the live events world with solutions that are sustainable, cost-effective and reliable.

Join us for Fundamentals of Sustainable Events, a live interactive course on Wednesday, February 7 from noon -4pm ET / 9am - 1pm PT.

You'll learn best practices for reducing the environmental impact of your events and explore how to make sustainable decisions throughout your planning process. For more info, cost and registration click the box below.

Join us on Tuesday, December 12 for our next Speaker Series featuring Michele Fox, the Founder of MUSE (Members United for Sustainable Events. Michele is equal parts Event Producer and Sustainable Event Consultant. She understands both the challenges and opportunities to make your events more sustainable. Michele is excited to encourage fellow event professionals to take the first steps, or to embed more initiatives. Come with questions!

Join us for our brand new course, Reducing & Diverting Event Waste Deep Dive led by Julia Spangler, owner of Ecosystem Events. Join live or by demand.

Learn best practices for sustainably managing event waste from Julia's first-hand experience at dozens of events.

Here’s what you’ll learn: How to design an event to be inherently low-waste. Behind-the-scenes insights about recycling and composting. What's actually recyclable and compostable, and a proven process for designing and implementing event waste diversion programs

Join us for our next Sustainable Event Speaker Series: Event Composting Insights

Monique Figueiredo will offer insights on community-based composting systems and how they intersect with healthy soil creation, carbon sequestration, and environmental justice.

Monique will touch upon organic diversion solutions specifically for events. She will talk about some of the event organizations she's worked with, and the challenges (and rewards) of event composting.

Please join us on Thursday, August 10 at 3pm ET / 12pm PT for our next Speaker Series: Sustainability and Accessibility: Can We Have It All?

Meg Strahle, Sustainability Consultant will be sharing insights on having it all with sustainability and inclusion at our events, and giving you the resources to implement those considerations.

When creating sustainable experiences, we need to take a pause and consider Planet *and* People.

Oftentimes, a sustainability action removes an accessibility need for your attendees and we really can have our cake and eat it too.

During this 2-hour session, you will create an emissions budget, pull together an action plan to address your event’s emissions, and develop a process to measure your actual emissions.

This session will show you how to calculate different aspects of an event like flights, travel, freight, food & beverage, materials. Once you know where your event emissions are coming from, you can work on the largest sources, and reduce the environmental impact.

Join us for Fundamentals of Sustainable Events, a live interactive course on Wednesday, July 26 from 1pm-4pm ET / 9am - 1pm PT.

You'll learn best practices for reducing the environmental impact of your events and explore how to make sustainable decisions throughout your planning process. For more info, cost and registration click the box below.

Join us for our next Speaker Series on Tuesday, July 18 at 3pm ET / noon PT.

Join Heather Schrock, Director, Environmental Partnerships at Bonneville Environmental Foundation for a discussion on the tools available to mitigate the unavoidable carbon, water and energy footprint of the events that you are planning.

Environmental commodities such as carbon offsets and renewable energy certificates are a valuable yet misunderstood tool, so join us as Heather helps us understand what they are, and how they work.

Join us for a thought-provoking discussion with industry experts on how to create sustainable events for the future.

From reducing carbon footprints to minimizing waste, you'll learn practical tips and strategies for creating environmentally friendly events that not only benefit the planet but also enhance the attendee experience.

Whether you're an event planner, marketer, or sustainability advocate, this webinar is a must-attend for anyone interested in building a sustainable future.

Join us for our next Sustainable Event Speaker Series on June 12 at 3pm ET / 12pm PT.

Come listen as Founder and President of Overdrive Energy Solutions, Neel Vasavada, discusses the successes and challenges of deploying solar/battery generator systems at major music festivals, including Coachella and Stagecoach, and how they will inform events moving forward

Join us for Fundamentals of Sustainable Events, a live interactive course on Wednesday, March 8 from 1pm-4pm ET / 9am - 1pm PT.

You'll learn best practices for reducing the environmental impact of your events and explore how to make sustainable decisions throughout your planning process. For more info, cost and registration click the box below.

Join us for our next Sustainable Event Speaker Series on January 12 at 3pm ET / 12pm PT.

Neel Vasavada is the Founder of Overdrive Energy Solutions. Neel will explain how a production can use battery power, solar energy, the electrical grid (and even existing generators) to save labor and fuel costs, while making events greener. Neel will demonstrate how we can design our events to be safer, easier to set up, and more resilient.

On top of that, we’ll see how using sustainable energy technology actually makes power more reliable than old-school diesel and gas generators, and how this can be a real and measurable benefit to productions, clients, and audiences.

Join us for our next Sustainable Event Speaker Series on December 7 at 3pm ET / 12pm PT.

Our speakers, Alberto Olias and Eduardo Lebre, work with multiple organizations and events to help them become more sustainable and be able to prove it. That is why they created Circular Unity and impactALL to help the events industry measure, reduce, offset and report their GHG Emissions in an easy way. This presentation will give you tips on what is needed to understand and measure your GHG emissions.

Finding Joy in the Work of Sustainable Events

As event professionals, we're no strangers to stress and high-pressure situations. For those of us working to make events more sustainable, we experience the additional pressure of living up to our own environmental values. With so much work to be done, how do we keep pursuing sustainability in a way that doesn't exhaust our own personal resources?

Join Julia Spangler, owner of Ecosystem Events, for a casual and candid conversation about finding joy in the work of sustainable events. As a group, we'll discuss tips and strategies for avoiding burnout, creating fun, and doing serious work without taking ourselves too seriously.

An in-person Sustainable Event Meet Up in NYC happening on Wed. Aug 23, 2022

At The Standard East Village located at 25 Cooper Square (in The Garden).

Please feel free to stop by anytime between 6pm-9pm. Cash bar.

Join us for our next Sustainable Event Meet-Up on Tuesday, April 19 at 4pm ET / 1pm PT. The Meet Up is Co-Hosted by the Sustainable Event Alliance (SEA) and MUSE (Members United for Sustainable Events).

Our speaker, Dr. Rachel Dodds, has worked with multiple festivals and events to help them become more sustainable, and created a green guide for festivals which she gave to Canada’s Festival and Events non profit https://greenfestivals.ca. Studies outline that consumers are willing to pay more for a more sustainable product, but do they actually, and to what degree? This presentation will outline behaviour change and behavioural economics using the example of the Mariposa Folk Festival in Ontario Canada.

Join is for another Meet Up on Tuesday, April 5 at 4pm ET / 1pm PT. Lisa Farrell is the Managing Director, North America for MEETYOO, a virtual event and webcasting company with sustainability in its DNA. MEETYOO partners with Plan A to account for their carbon emissions and help their clients produce some of the most sustainable virtual events around.

For companies committed to sustainability, virtual events can complement an in-person strategy, allowing you to reach and connect with a larger audience while supporting efforts to achieve carbon neutrality.

Join us for another fun and informal “meet-up” to learn about sustainable event management and meet others in the community. This event is co-hosted by The Sustainable Event Alliance and MUSE and will take place Tuesday, March 22 at 4pm ET / 1pm PT

This week’s topic is: How to Plan a Zero Waste Event. Our discussion is led by Sarah Sommerauer, the Founder and SOSU EVENTS.

We’ll get insights about Zero Waste Events, Cradle to Cradle & Circular Economy.

Plus we'll touch upon strategies for waste prevention, disposal & reuse, different types of event waste (and their environmental impact), service providers and practical examples of events (e.g. Zero Waste Berlin Festival)

Join us for a conversation about incorporating empathy with event planning, will be led by Kelsey Kruel, Owner & Founder of MIXTO Event Planning.

Sustainability, empathy, and events can (and should) exist in the same world. There are massive benefits to anticipating, and incorporating attendee needs, and how they will feel at the events.

Learning to center empathy as we design events will lead to more inclusive and accessible spaces. During this Meetup, we will talk about what empathy is - and what it isn't. And why it's so important to lead with empathy as we work with clients, teams, and vendors.

Join us on Tuesday, January 18 for another fun and informal “meet-up” to learn about sustainable event management and meet others in the community.

This week, Zoe Reich, Sustainability & Industry Solutions Manager with Oceanic Global, will elaborate on the consequences of plastic pollution and how Oceanic Global is empowering the events industry around the world to remove single-use plastics from their operations through the Blue Standard.

The Blue Standard, a first-of-its-kind, cross-industry standard by Oceanic Global, establishes universal accountability for sustainable business leadership and empowers businesses to eliminate plastics, adopt sustainable operating practices, and protect our blue planet.

SENFC presents: Reducing Event Waste… Getting Started, 6 Steps to a Zero Waste Event

Featuring Julia Spangler of Eco System Events

Please join us for an interactive discussion and take aways for event professionals at any level of sustainability experience to dramatically reduce the amount of waste generated by their events. These techniques will also produce meaningful measurements to track and share positive results with decision makers and attendees.

4pm - 5pm EST
Free for SENFC Members, $10 for Non-Members

This event is co-hosted by The Sustainable Event Alliance and MUSE.

This week’s topic is 5 ESSENTIALS TO SUCCESSFUL SUSTAINABILITY IMPLEMENTATION. Our speaker is Gayle Murphy, CEO of Global Green Events.

After 10 years of onsite event implementation Gayle has found there are 5 key things to making sustainability initiatives work.

From understanding your objectives and end goals, to systems design, to getting people on board.

This presentation gives you a tried and tested framework that works, to make sure you've covered the basics, as well as offers snippets of her 15 years experience, saving you the time, energy and money.

Join us for another fun and informal “meet-up” to learn about sustainable event management and meet others in the community. This event is co-hosted by The Sustainable Event Alliance and MUSE.

This week’s topic is HOW TO DO POWER FOR SUSTAINABLE EVENTS. Our discussion is led by Chaz Peling, the Founder and CEO of SolSolutions. Based in Northern California, SolSolutions consults, designs, builds and mobile and off-grid solar + storage + hybrid power systems. SolSolutions delivers renewable and reliable power alternatives to fossil fuel generators.

Join us for another fun and informal “meet-up” to learn about sustainable event management and meet others in the community. This event is co-hosted by The Sustainable Event Alliance and MUSE. No membership required.

This week features a discussion led by Jana N. Brooks Event and Tenant Services Manager for the Maryland Stadium Authority. She will lead a discussion about who the Maryland Stadium Authority is, and delve into their mission to produce high quality events in the most sustainable way, while consistently improving the guest experience at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium.

After the talk, we’ll break out into smaller groups to meet others in the sustainable event community.

Join us for another fun and informal “meet-up” to learn about sustainable event management and meet others in the community. This event is co-hosted by The Sustainable Event Alliance and MUSE. No membership required.

This week features a discussion led by sustainability subject matter expert, Lowell Fox. Lowell the Principle Sustainability Manager at Recycle Track Systems was formerly the Director of Sustainability at Production Glue.

This discussion will detail how to integrate sustainable solutions into all aspects of your events focusing on waste management, energy efficiency, diversion through donation, design materials choices, transportation, innovation, event programming and reporting.

Join us for another fun and informal “meet-up” to learn about sustainable event management and meet others in the community. This event is co-hosted by The Sustainable Event Alliance and MUSE. No membership required.

This week features a discussion led by Natalie Lowe, CMM, CRL. Natalie is the Co-Founder of The Sustainable Events Forum. As a hospitality and tourism business professional for over 30 years, Natalie runs her DMC, Celebrate Niagara. Natalie is on a mission to help people to lead on climate action in their communities and in their workplaces.

Join SEA and MUSE tomorrow for our next Meet Up!

This week features a discussion with Dr. Aurora Dawn Benton, Founder of Astrapto. Astrapto Academy has just re-launched their online course called “Sustainability is a Team Sport” that helps individuals and organizations recruit, launch, and manage a green team.

Ready to role play? We’re going to try some! Arrow emoji here

As per Aurora: “One of the first exercises that I have my students do is role play a naysayer. How could you get a person rejecting the ideas to have empathy? This exercise is so powerful, because it also draws out the hesitations they probably have in their own hearts and minds. But now that they’ve voiced this rejection, or this fear, it's not as scary. It's still something we have to talk about, it's still a problem to solve, but it becomes less of a monster.“

Fun and informal meet-up to learn about sustainable event management and meet others in the community. Co-hosted with The Sustainable Event Alliance. No membership required.

This week features a discussion with PALLAVI PANDE, Founder and Owner of Dtocs. Pallavi is a woman of color and a mompreneur based in Portland, Oregon. Pallavi started Dtocs with three things in mind: Sustainability, Community and Usability.

Dtocs tableware is made from naturally fallen palm leaves. They are chemical free, plastic free, compostable, microwave safe, and elegant. Dtocs employs a majority female workforce and part of the proceeds from sales go towards improving education for the poor local communities in India.

Join us next Tuesday, Aug 10 for a fun and informal meet-up to learn about sustainable event management and meet others in the community.

One hour meetings consist of a 15 minute presentation, and then breakouts to meet other attendees.

This week features a discussion with SYD MANDELBAUM, Founder and CEO of ROCK AND WRAP IT UP! We’ll learn about 'contractual obligation' for food donations using exROCK AND WRAP IT UP! amples from the biggest music acts of all time (The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Van Halen, etc).

Meghan Tierney of Kilowatt Events and Kilowatt One talks about their strategic and results driven approach to sustainable event management.