As the world increasingly prioritizes green and eco-friendly initiatives, it is critical that event and venue professionals work together to make sustainable meetings and events part of their overall strategy. Big or small, meetings bring people together to share information, generate ideas, and forge business relationships.
When you think about being eco-friendly or sustainable, waste management is often the first thing that comes to mind, but a sustainable meeting or event is more than just a recycling or zero waste event. Sustainable meetings are defined as “meetings that incorporate environmental considerations throughout all stages of the meeting to minimize negative impacts on the environment.”
Making an event ‘green’ has to cover all aspects of the planning process. By making choices at every level of planning, from site selection to after-the-fact donations, environmental impacts can be significantly reduced. While this means taking steps to minimize waste through recycling, composting, and avoiding single-use items, it also includes reducing energy consumption, using products with post-consumer recycled content, and serving organic, local food, or fair-trade items. Additionally, sustainable meetings should incorporate social aspects such as charitable donations and projects that benefit the community.
Why is it important to make meetings environmentally friendly?
A small meeting may seem insignificant, and not worth taking sustainable steps for, after all, what's the difference to the environment from disposing of a few cups and napkins? But think about what would happen when this happens on a large scale. For example, during a five-day conference, 2,500 attendees will use 62,500 plates, 87,500 napkins, 75,000 cups or glasses, and 90,000 cans or bottles. In addition, there are also greenhouse gas emissions resulting from travel to and from conferences, even to and from the airport, then there is the menu selection, which if not focused on local foods can have an equal impact and then there is the waste from conference flyers and note pads.
Now, multiply these numbers by the thousands of meetings held each year and you can begin to understand the magnitude of the impact on the environment. So, it's important to make changes whenever possible, because every meeting can make a difference by reducing environmental damage and increasing social impact.
Four Tips for Creating Sustainable Meetings and Events:
1. Compost and recycle.
Even with a good composting and recycling program in place, a mid-sized trade show attended by around 5,000 people will still produce a lot of waste. Recyclable waste usually accounts for 35% of total event waste, and 21% is organic waste including compostable material. But forty-one percent of waste will still be thrown into landfill.
As an example of on-site composting, 137 Pillars House in Chiang Mai, Thailand, recycles more than 90 percent of its garden and kitchen waste. The material can be composted or turned into biochar, both of which will be returned directly to the hotel's gardens and grounds.
Due to this pandemic, recycling has become even more important. “Today, there is an urgent need for raw materials in the manufacturing supply chain, especially paper and cardboard,” EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement. “Business closures and limited operations mean less recyclable materials for American manufacturers, and we must all do our part to recycle more and recycle properly to meet this urgent need.” What this means is that with increased collection of clean used paper and card, less trees have to be cut down to supply the paper factories.
For events, recycling plastic bags is an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint and help the supply chain. Think of all the plastic bags left behind at events which should be collected and reused or taken to the waste bank to exchange or recycle.
2. Provide Sustainable F&B options.
Sustainable meetings and events aren't just tied to things like recycling and eco-friendly credentials. They are also focused on food and drink options. One survey found that event attendees under 34 years old had a strong preference for environmentally friendly eating practices.
An article from Corporate Event News says a sustainable event menu starts with knowing the origins of the food you serve. Local, seasonal produce is a better environmental choice: the distance from farm to consumer is shorter, and because it is in season, it does not require artificial greenhouses to grow. Studies from the University of Oxford and the University of Minnesota found that red meat has the highest impact on the environment. “Meatless Mondays” (and other days!) and offering vegetarian and plant-based options are some ways to create more environmentally friendly menus.
With sustainable F&B, it's not just the type of food that matters, but the quantity too. At an event, there is often a “fear of running out of food”. Technology can be used to reduce this and determine more accurately how many people will be attending a conference, so that the right amount of food can be prepared.
For example, Fairmont Washington, DC, Georgetown reduced the amount of food overproduction for conferences and meetings by choosing per-minute preparation adjustments compared to the standard 5% overproduction.
3. Reduce Waste.
Reducing waste, in general, is another way to reduce the impact of an event on the environment. Recycling and composting help with this, but there are preventative behaviors that planners and venues can use to reduce waste.
Many places have taken steps to eliminate the use of plastic straws and other single-use plastics, greatly reducing the amount of rubbish and plastic thrown into the ocean. Items made from bamboo or sugar cane, or other types of compostable tableware, glasses, containers and plates are an environmentally friendly alternative to single-use plastic.
For example, Marriott International has replaced single-use toiletry bottles with large pump dispensers. This “prevents approximately 500 million small bottles each year from being thrown into landfills; that’s about 1.7 million pounds of plastic, a 30 percent annual reduction from current plastic use for convenience.”
4. Connect participants with environmentally friendly transportation.
Travel can contribute up to 80% of an event's carbon dioxide emissions. Since air travel has a major impact on the environment, planners will likely look for places that can provide more environmentally friendly methods of transportation while on site. If your venue is accessible by public transportation, highlight that on your website. Or partner with public transportation providers to offer discounts to event attendees. Carpooling and shuttle bus services should be available shared transportation options.
Consider providing electric car charging stations or connecting attendees with hybrid or electric cars. Let planners know if your place is close to bike-sharing options, or within walking distance to nearby attractions and convention centers. Globally, 69.2% of hotels provide bicycle storage, subsidized public transport tickets, shuttle buses and parking for low-emission vehicles.
Σχόλια