Environmental consciousness is an integral part of corporate responsibility. Meet Green mentions that, on average, a corporate event produces as much as 4.1 lbs. of waste per attendee per day. When you’re looking at a large event, this can add up too quickly. Some locations, such as the Venue at Friendship Springs have made it their business to help event promoters to become more sustainable. Making your next event green doesn’t require a lot of work at the event itself. However, it does mean that you have to be more aware of your sourcing practices and the companies you partner with for supply.
Going green is an environmental concern, but it can also be economically beneficial to the event planners. Resource Efficient Scotland offers a few pertinent tips to event planners to help them be more sustainable in their event planning while remaining profitable. Additionally, you’re more likely to find larger firms that want to partner with your event because of your environmental initiatives. When going green, there are a few fundamental aspects you should consider. In this article, we’ll touch on the simplest methods of implementing a green event policy.
Think About Local Suppliers
One of the most considerable impacts that events have on the environment is the amount of waste that enters the atmosphere through logistics and supply chains. Vehicular pollution from transport requirements can be significantly reduced by sourcing things locally. What’s more, local sourcing can increase an event’s bottom line since the business needs to shell out less money in transportation costs. Sustainability is about keeping things useful. If you source food locally, for example, and don’t consume all of it, consider donating it to local organizations instead of throwing it out. Charity is also part of green event planning.
Reduce your Waste and Reuse Items When Possible
Everyone has a smartphone these days, and you stand to save massive amounts on paper and printing costs by only using a smartphone app for navigation. You also entirely avoid the paper waste produced when attendees toss out the paper maps. In large events, there are usually a lot of leftover materials that find their ways into landfills. More sustainable use of these products would find which organizations can use them, and donate them to see more use before ending up at a landfill. Some of these products may be plastic and non-biodegradable, making it crucial to keep them out of landfills for as long as possible and get the most use out of them.
Making an Event Green Takes Foresight
There are many ways that a company can seek to implement a green event, but every single approach requires you to have foresight as to how your actions will impact. Sometimes, the most significant part of aiming to be a green event is knowing how much damage your practices are already causing the environment. From there, you can determine what aspects are most impactful, and start reducing them, bit by bit. Going green doesn’t happen overnight, but making the decision allows you to look at things from a sustainable perspective.
Infographic created by FIRST