19 Oct 6 Ways to Make Your Event More Eco-Friendly
Large scale events can have a big impact on the environment, and even lots of little events add up! Bringing lots of people to a small space during a short period of time naturally causes a rise in the use of transport, disposable products, and energy, along with a spike in food and drink consumption. In fact, a single event can create thousands of tonnes of waste, use huge amounts of energy, and prompt an increase in Co2 emissions.
Eco-Friendly events not only make people feel good, but they also increase morale, aid creativity, and help improve a company’s reputation. Being greener and focusing on sustainability often leads to repeat bookings.
Find out how to organise a sustainable event by making small, manageable changes.
Determine the Environmental Impact of Your Event
If you’ve never considered the environmental impact of your events before, it’s worth considering all aspects of your event and how that is affecting the environment. This gives you a baseline to work from and improve upon. Don’t worry you don’t need to tackle everything at once, choose the element which is having the greatest impact and set realistic goals for how to reduce this. Think about which areas of your event are the least eco-friendly.
Will transportation be an issue?
Will you need to use large amounts of plastic or paper?
Will food be served?
Once you have identified these areas, you know what to focus on in order to improve overall sustainability.
Go Plastic Free
By now, we all know the damage that plastic can do. Not only does it release toxic emissions during creation but it is made from non-renewable resources and can end up in our oceans if not recycled properly.
Why not try a completely plastic free event? Replace plastic cups with reusable glasses and use metal or wooden cutlery and reusable plates for meals. If your event has independent vendors, only use those who agree to use non-plastic alternatives for packaging.
You should also think about your decorations. Say no to helium balloons made of mylar. They are non-biodegradable and can travel miles, ending up in our oceans.
Ditch the Paper
Whilst paper is often used in place of plastic, why not ditch both?
Paper is a more environmentally friendly alternative to plastic however, trees still need to be cut down in order to create paper. If you must use paper at your event, make sure you have paper recycling bins dotted around the venue.
To make your event more sustainable use digital tickets and avoid printing paper handouts. Instead, you could create an app or microsite that attendees can access from their phones to view information. They are also a great way to market your event in the run up!
Food and Beverage
Choosing organic, locally sourced produce is a great way to make your event more sustainable…and it will taste great too! Make Venues has been focused on providing locally-sourced produce for some years and the quality speaks for itself.
Buying from local sellers helps you to have a positive social and economic impact on the surrounding area, and also helps to reduce emissions by negating the need for produce to be transported long distances.
You could also think about serving a vegan or meat-free menu. At Make Venues the team provide meat-free options as standard, in fact they’re so good they often sit front and centre of the buffet options. Choosing to go meat free for your event is always the more sustainable option.
If you have food leftovers, don’t throw them away. Instead, you should donate them to a local food shelter.
Projection Over Print
Set and stage design can be material-intensive, but projection mapping can eliminate the cost of producing one-off designs by transforming almost any surface into a display with video projection. Creating creative and dynamic displays that transform the look of your event without the need for weighty sets and props.
Encourage Eco-Friendly Transportation To and From Your Event
It is not only your actions that affect the eco-credentials of your event. If you want to organise a sustainable event, you also need to think about your attendees.
You can organise an eco-friendly event, but if everybody drives long distances to get there, the carbon footprint of your event will sky rocket. You should try to choose a venue that is local to most of your attendees. A venue within walking distance of a train station is ideal as you can encourage people to take the train rather than driving.
If your venue can only be reached by car, organise a car share scheme to reduce the number of cars travelling to and from the venue.