How to Plan a Sustainable Event
A definition of sustainable event management is “taking action towards conserving our natural environment, encouraging a healthy and inclusive society, and supporting a robust economy.”
That’s a tall order. Where do we begin to incorporate sustainability into our events? There are so many approaches, it can feel overwhelming. And considering everything we’re already doing to produce the event, why should we add more onto our plates?
I hope this article can help inspire, and make the process of incorporating sustainability feel easier, less stressful, and more fun. Dr. Aurora Dawn Benton used the acronym PEACE. Sustainability should be Practical, Economical, Approachable, Celebrated and Enjoyable.
Not to sound cheesy, but sustainability is a journey, not a destination. Slow and steady wins the race. The upside is that if we build sustainability into our standard operating procedures, we won’t have to reinvent the wheel for every event.
A “slow and steady” approach sustainability:
Identify areas where you can act
Select a few initiatives you can implement
Progressively add more initiatives
There are three pillars of sustainability: Social, Economic and Environmental. I love this descriptive sentence: Doing right by the planet, and the people on it, while remaining profitable. Supporting local communities, and focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion is just as important as reducing single use plastic (if not more so). And hopefully some of our initiatives will save money, be cost neutral, or perhaps even make a profit.
Sustainable Event Management is too big a topic to condense into one article, so today we have “Part One.” And there’s a lot more information and inspiration at your command: A great place to start is to read all the interviews and articles on MUSE (here). In fact, much of the content below are quotes directly from the incredible experts that I interviewed. Their knowledge and ideas are priceless.
So let’s get on with it!
Below are seven ways to make your events more sustainable (using a slow and steady approach).
Seven Ways to Embed Sustainability Into Your Organization (and Events)
Number One: Create a Culture of Sustainability
A Culture of Sustainability means that your organization is consistently incorporating sustainable initiatives and practices across their organization as a whole, as opposed to incorporating sustainability into individual events.
Begin by writing a Sustainability Policy. A sustainability policy describes your organization’s commitment to sustainable development, and the approach to achieving these goals. Having a policy in place ensures that sustainability is at the core of your business. The process of writing a sustainable policy has multiple benefits: it’s an opportunity to consider your organization’s sustainability goals, while simultaneously creating strategy policies to achieve them.
For example, the policy may include turning off power strips in the office each night, it can also include asking suppliers and sponsors to use minimal packaging at events. Try to make your Sustainability Policy reasonable and achievable to ensure that you’re able to reach your goals, and build on your successes in a positive way.
Learn How to Write A Sustainability Policy here.
Another way to create a Culture of Sustainability within your organization is to start a Green Team. MUSE interviewed Dr. Aura Dawn Benton about how and why to start a Green Team (link). Here’s an excerpt:
“The Green Team to me was solving all of these problems that I kept seeing. Because a Green Team should be cross functional, it was solving the fact that every single department had some opportunity to be greener, and deliver more positive social and environmental impacts.
A green team is an affordable and low risk way to start a journey into sustainability. It’s not realistic for most midsize businesses or franchised businesses with smaller staffs and smaller budgets, to think they're going to start a sustainability department. But they can start a Green Team.”
Number Two: Diversity, Inclusion & Accessibility
Here is a definition of DEI from Wikipedia: “Diversity, equity, and inclusion is a conceptual framework to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, especially in the workplace, including populations who have historically been under-represented or subject to discrimination because of their background, identity, disability, etc.”
Shelley Villalobos is the Executive Director of the Council for Responsible Sport. When I interviewed Shelley, she talked about the Responsible Sports Standards.
“The fourth and fifth categories are the social elements of the event which include access and equity. So we’re looking at who's showing up to the event, and to make sure that everyone can navigate the event. We need to make sure that we’re reducing barriers to participation for people from all over the community. We’ve seen an uptick in positive community outreach spurred by the best practices in the standard. A great example is the LA Marathon and their partnership with Students Run LA. They've gotten over 400,000 local youth to run a marathon as part of their life skills development, as well as their physical health and well being. The LA Marathon has given those registrations as in-kind donations.
The organization offers coaching, helps them pay for shoes, and offers guidance on things that maybe a 17 or an 18 year old might not know how to navigate if they've never been invited to do so.
Another great example just came to mind: at the Cowtown Marathon, which is in Fort Worth, Texas, they've got a program called C.A.L.F (Children’s Activities for Life and Fitness) where corporate sponsors subsidize the purchasing of shoes, because a lot of kids have never been fit properly for running shoes. They have volunteers that take shoes directly to the schools, and local volunteers do coaching right there at their schools. And then they can culminate that experience with running the Cowtown Marathon.”
Partner with vendors who are local, small-business owners, Black, Indigenous, people of color, women, people with disabilities, and/or part of the LGBT+ community. Be intentional about inclusivity.
Here is a quote from when I interviewed Kelsey Kruel, the Founder of MIXTO (here).
“There needs to be some intentionality when it comes to being inclusive, sustainable, and creating events that are accessible. If we’re intentional about seeking these things, it will become the norm moving forward. Normalizing using inclusive language, and specifically asking for all types of people to be there. Invite them personally, create something where folks know that they're welcome. People assume that, “Oh, there's an event happening, so everybody will come if they want to,” but that's not necessarily the case.”
Inclusivity is something that can be embedded into every aspect of events, even registration forms. I love this insight from Kelsey.
“I helped create a registration form for a summer camp packet. And, originally, it said something like, mother's name, father's name that implied gender male and female. Instead I wanted to figure out a way to include everyone, and realize that not everybody has the same situation, or the same circumstances, or has a mom and a dad.”
I also spoke with Nirjary Desai, the Owner and Founder of KIS(cubed) Events, an event marketing, experiential agency based in Atlanta. Nirjary is also a board member of the National Events Council. The National Events Council is leading the way to end racial inequality within the event industry and all supporting elements by accelerating awareness of qualified Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) who are Business Owners in the event industry. Here’s what Nirjary had to say about how organizations can achieve their diversity goals.
“Organizations can help by promoting from within. By training and equipping someone to climb the ladder. That’s what sustainability is, looking at your own talent, and creating opportunities for everyone. Organizations need to start investing in people that are just starting out. Folks entering your company have fresh eyes, so it’s important to listen to them. Today's generation is already diverse, and inclusive in their approach, and we can learn so much from them. They’re just coming out of school, and they see things really differently. As a society, and as an industry, we need to focus on equipping them for success.”
Let’s not forget about accessibility. Abrons Arts Center is a venue in New York City that continues to go above and beyond to create a space that is accessible to everyone. As described on their website here:
“While radically inclusive in its design when the building first opened, we acknowledge that there are ways that our building is challenging to navigate for individuals with a range of mobility and access needs. We are committed to expanding upon our institution’s legacy of inclusivity by providing clear and welcoming points of entry for disabled communities to utilize our spaces. We also acknowledge that access extends beyond architecture, and we are committed to curating programming that is inclusive of the needs of deaf, hard of hearing, blind, low vision, and neurodiverse communities.”
Number Three: Identify the Low Hanging Fruit
Chances are your organization already has initiatives in place. Does your organization partner with a charity? Are diversity and inclusion part of your company's mission statement?
What are you already doing? What is easy to do? What doesn’t cost extra money to incorporate? We all need to start somewhere, so the first step is to determine where your company is in its sustainable journey.
MUSE interviewed Trent Wolbe, Google’s Sustainability Lead for Global Events and Experiences (link). Trent has some great insight about low hanging fruit:
“The first thing we can do is normalize the conversation (about sustainability). Start talking about it with your friends, your family, your peers at work. Not being afraid to bring it up is a really empowering thing. As soon as you bring it up, people will start coming out of the woodwork, and you’ll be surprised how much support is out there. That’s the first low hanging fruit.”
Once you’re identified low hanging fruit, you start there, and build from that.
Number Four: Start Early
Begin by having conversations with vendors and stakeholders. By this time, we’ve all probably been warned that you can’t be reactive when it comes to sustainability. It’s too late to find an organization to take your unserved food during the event. Plan ahead rather than be reactive.
More from Trent Wolbe:
“It’s important for the people you're working with to understand what you mean when you say, ‘I want this to be sustainable.’ You need to have a clear goal and plan for people to get from zero to one. You need to be able to answer the questions, and allow time for partners to understand what you're talking about. Like, how are we going to measure this? Are we going to get paid for our time and accounting for all of this stuff? You have to be able to answer all those questions, because in some cases it's more work. And the earlier you start to do those things, you get your “dumb questions” out of the way, and then you start to do the actual work. And over time your questions become less and less “dumb” and turn into answers. That's a great thing.”
Number Five: Engage Stakeholders and Build Partnerships
Sustainability doesn’t happen in a vacuum or in silos. Start early and engage your partners. MUSE interviewed Julia Spangler, the Owner of Ecosystem Events (link).
“I always encourage people to ask their vendors questions, ‘How can you help us with sustainability?’ Some vendors aren't doing that much. But some vendors are like, ‘Oh, yeah, we can totally do that. We’re just waiting for you to ask.’ The Green Meetings Industry Council did a survey a few years back. They found that both vendors and planners were waiting for each other to bring up sustainability. And I feel like that's still the case. Just be willing to be the first person to say, “I want this for my event,” or a vendor can say, “We can do x, y, z for your event.” And I think having more of those conversations will lead to much more progress.”
And of course choose vendors that are already making sustainability their priority. Do some research online and google “Sustainable Caterer” and see what comes up in your local market. If you don’t feel comfortable using a new vendor, send the link to the vendor you love, and see if they can incorporate the same initiatives.
As Trent Wolbe says, “When we ask our partners to start thinking about sustainability, they come back to us with a list of questions. In turn, we spend time helping them develop game plans. It’s a win-win because we get the solutions, and the partners come out ahead of the competition. So anytime you can invest your time doing a better job of explaining what you need, and understanding where people are coming from, the more you are helping them get a leg up. And I think that when we talk about sustainability ambitions and sustainability goals, it's a positive arms race, right? It’s something where we want to encourage others in our field to do better, and learn from each other.”
Number Six: Ask “Why?”
Ask your stakeholders why sustainability is important, and what they want to get out of it. Zach Hetrick is the Director of New Business Development at Reduction In Motion. Zach describes this best:
“The reason that we ask our clients “why”, is because we want to empower people to empower others. When we’re sitting in a room with the key group of stakeholders, the folks who are planning this event, the people setting the Zero Waste goals: How can we get them to be the agents of change within their organizations? For us, it's important to actually challenge the group we’re working with, whatever the project may be, and ask why is this important to you? Because at some point, they’re going to have to convince someone else at their organization. So, we challenge the client to tell us why it's important so they feel comfortable, when that time comes, to pass on the importance. Whether it be to the team of housekeepers, the guests, or the volunteers, we need a chain reaction.
So we work hard in the beginning at the stakeholder meetings, to get people very comfortable with answering that question. And for us, it's about making that answer personal. Not personal as an individual, but personal as a part of the organization that you're working for.
Determine who your core group is going to be. And with that core group, challenge them to answer the question why? Because the answer to that question is how they’re going to get others to do whatever is needed to support the plan. If you have the answer to the why question, then you can inspire people, and your result is going to be a lot more successful.”
Number Seven: Promote It
In 2023, all organizations should have a “Sustainability” tab on their website. If they haven’t already, your clients will be asking you about sustainability. I’ve heard that people in our industry want to do sustainability “right” and they certainly don’t want to be called out for greenwashing. All sustainability related claims on your website needs to be truthful and transparent.
What I love about making a sustainability tab on your website is that it forces you to be accountable and do more. Having your sustainability tab on your website should be a great motivator.
NVS Visuals, a woman-owned printing and fabrication house based in NYC has a wonderful tab on their website (here). This is their Green Printing Commitment:
“One of our values is to be environmentally conscious. The production industry, whether it’s printing or fabrication, needs to own up to the harmful practices and material waste that it's producing. The truth is that in an event-based, rush-jobs environment, often the last thing on someone's mind is what happens to all that was produced after the project is done, the photos are taken, and the set lights are shut off. What makes the commitment to green printing practices even more difficult is that there are many materials that are considered eco or green in the industry but are merely branded that way. Well, we love printing and researching the best materials, and dug deep to find the true green substrates and eco-friendly practices that hold up to their name and to our values.”
Trent Wolbe puts this another way.
“It can be challenging for organizations of any size to make sustainability related claims. Because when we're talking about sustainability initiatives, it's sort of like pulling the thread on a sweater. If you try to make an improvement here, you might end up finding a much larger problem over there. And it's difficult, especially at a large organization, to speak with a single and unified voice.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, and that you shouldn't try. Again, the earlier you start asking the questions, the more thoughtful an answer you can have when it comes time to say something. One of the things I like to use as a point for our initiatives within events at Google, is that our sustainability stories are in Beta. This means we're not getting this “perfect” because we don't really know what “perfect” is quite yet. We might not know how to do this in a way that's going to be the most impactful, but we're trying.”
It’s totally appropriate to say that you are “beginning” your sustainable journey, and list a couple initiatives. Over time you’ll be able to provide new details and new initiatives.
Organizations that already spent a long time working on a Culture of Sustainability are able to back up their sustainability claims with data and facts. Pinch Food Design, a Zero Waste caterer based in NYC has a tab on their website (here), but also a link to a PDF with comprehensive information about how they achieve Zero Waste and responsible sourcing.
BottleRock music “strives to become one of the most sustainable festivals by increasing compost, decreasing landfill waste and eliminating single use plastic.” And their website page goes on to list their partners, and how they accomplish their initiatives (here). One section states:
“BottleRock works year-round to improve our environmental sustainability and reduce waste. This year, we introduce BottleRock Upcycle: the post-festival donations and upcycling program.
The goal of this program is to identify and collect leftover or unwanted materials and redistribute them for reuse in the Napa Valley community.
We work directly with Feeding it Forward on all perishable and nonperishable food donations. Feed it Forward donates the food to the Napa Foodbank, local school and the community as a whole.”
Ultra Music Festival has branded their sustainability initiatives “Mission: Home.” The sustainability tab on their website (here) educates the attendee prior to the event which makes the attendee themselves an integral part of the mission: “To preserve our home, reduce our environmental impact and inspire our community to protect the planet.”
In conclusion:
If we see sustainability as a journey and not a destination, we can all start planning sustainable events without getting overwhelmed by it. Start to slowly embed sustainability into your organization. But there’s urgency: it’s important to start now.
We can start by saying, “How and where can we reduce the single use plastic used at our event?” We can start by asking our caterer what ingredients they can incorporate that are local and organic. We can start by asking our florist if she can use flowers that are in season, and bought from a local farm.
Once we start, sustainability can be fun and addictive. I hope this article has provided ideas and inspiration on how to plan a sustainable event. Join MUSE to build your community.
Good luck with your journey, and stay tuned for Part Two!