Top tips for environmentally-friendly event management
So, you work in the environment or community development sector and you run events to help spread the message. But at the end of the day you’re standing in a room or a field and you’re looking at the waste – leftover food, piles of papers and plastic.
How do you reduce your footprint when running events? We’ve put together our top 10 tips.
Top 10 tips for environmentally-friendly event management
- Choose a transport-friendly venue– that is, choose a venue that is centrally located to
the largest number of delegates. Sometimes there’s a need to hold an eventin rural and regional locations – in that case, explore ways toencourage carpooling and offer alternatives to flying. - Consider
alternative technology instead of flying speakers in from interstate or overseas. With webinars,skype and holographic performances becomingeveryday , you don’t really need an expert in the flesh.occurances - Choose a
venue that makes the most of natural lighting and passiveheating / cooling . Ceiling fans are much more energy efficient than airconditioners and sometimes just being able to open windows and doors allowsenough airflow to cool a room. - Avoid printing
promotional material and encourage your sponsors and partners to do the same. - Do not
offer disposable items – that means no plastic cups, noplastic cutlery or plates. Make sure you let the venue or caterers know too. If you have caterers who insist on disposables, put your foot down and make it a requirement that all disposable items be compostable - Avoid plastic for
packaging and food service – that includes plastic wrap. Plastic often cropsup where you least expect it. We ordered 500 pens for an and they came in individual plastic sleeves. We wereenvironment conferencevery embarrassed . - Do not
offer bottled water. Ask for jugs of water and glasses. If you’re running an outdoorevent consider large water coolers and either asking people to bring theirown cup (most people bring a water bottle to outdoor events anyway) orprovide your delegates with a souvenir cup. - Consider
ticketing your social events so that you know exactly how many peopleare coming . When you charge a separate fee and people need to registerfor those events, you know exactly how many people to cater for, meaningless waste . - While on
the topic of catering, try to incorporate as much local produceas possible – often this will come down to your caterers, so be sure tolet them know when you ask for quotes that this is your preference.Some people will stipulate a certain proportion of local or organic foodacross the meals catered. - Compost
and manually sort recycling wherever possible. Thereare permaculture groups and city farms who will takeorganic matter offyour hands if you give them enough notice.
0 Comments