There are many moving parts that all need to come together to make an event work and unless sustainability is considered from the outset you’ll be looking at a huge pile of waste – leftover food, piles of papers and plastic – wondering what went wrong.

But waste management is just one small part of sustainability. There are big picture considerations that will have an enormous impact on the footprint of your event.

So, how do you reduce your footprint when running events? We’ve put together our top 10 tips.

1. Choose a transport-friendly venue

That is, choose a venue that is centrally located to the largest number of delegates. You might need to hold you event in a rural and or regional location – in that case, encourage carpooling and offer alternatives to flying.

2. Consider alternative technology

Instead of flying speakers in from interstate or overseas, use technology. Covid has taught us how easy it is to connect digitally. While virtual events will never compete with face-to-face events on the human interaction front, if your goal is to impart the latest knowledge, you can totally do that in the virtual space. You’re probably just making your event more accessible. If you’re flying experts into your event, reconsider. Use local talent or use virtual technology to save on those fossil fuels.

3. Heating and cooling

Choose a venue that makes the most of natural lighting and passive heating / cooling. Ceiling fans are much more energy efficient than air conditioners and sometimes just being able to open windows and doors allows enough airflow to cool a room. Consider the season as well. Do you really want to go to a tropical location in the middle of its hottest, wettest season? You might save on venue hire fees but the planet will pay the cost.

4. Avoid printing

Do not print promotional material and encourage your sponsors and partners to do the same. Seriously, does anyone ever read it anyway?

No-one takes those reams of paper home to read. They often get binned before the end of the first day. And please don’t get me started with gifts that no one wants. There are so many alternatives to printing these days. Steer clear of it yourself, and make it a requirement for sponsors and partners as well.

5. No disposables

Do not offer disposable items – that means no plastic cups, no plastic cutlery or plates. Make sure you let the venue or caterers know. If you have caterers who insist on disposables, put your foot down and make it a requirement that all disposable items be compostable and ensure that they’re actually composted.

6. Avoid plastic

Don’t use it for packaging and food service – that includes plastic wrap. And make sure you’re contractors and suppliers don’t use it either.

Plastic often crops up where you least expect it. We ordered 500 recycled pens for an environment conference and they came in individual (unrecycled) plastic sleeves. Embarrassed doesn’t even begin to describe how we felt. Ensuring a plastic-free conference takes time and patience. The planet thanks you.

7. No bottled water

Ask for jugs of water and glasses. If you’re running an outdoor event consider large water coolers and either asking people to bring their own cup (most people bring a water bottle to outdoor events anyway) or provide your delegates with a souvenir cup.

This is one of the easiest to achieve on this list and there’s no excuse. Just make it happen.

8. Ticket your social events

This way, you’ll know exactly how many people are coming. When you charge a separate fee and people need to register for those events, you know exactly how many people to cater for, meaning less waste, less resources, less pain.

9. Go local.

While on the topic of catering, try to incorporate as much local produce as possible – often this will come down to your caterers, so be sure to let them know when you ask for quotes that this is your preference. Some people will stipulate a certain proportion of local or organic food across the meals catered.

10. Compost and recycle

Compost and manually sort recycling wherever possible. There are permaculture groups and city farms who will take organic matter off your hands if you give them enough notice.

What’s the most innovative sustainability tactic you’ve seen an event manager use?