Some reasons as to why you should consider holding a sustainable event:
- Lowering costs
- Saving resources
- Raising awareness for certain Topics
- Improves the public image of a company/public person
- May inspire others to do the same
- Reduces waste
Here we have got five easy, practical tips for how you can make your event or conference sustainable and eco-friendly — plus a bonus one
Hire local people and providers
You might not expect that who you hire plays a role in how eco-friendly your event is, but it does! The reason behind hiring local people is that they’ll have to travel a shorter distance to get to the event, thus saving on all the not-so eco-friendly stuff associated with transportation and moving people about.
Order organic food
Organic food simply means that the food has been produced whilst avoiding the use of man-made fertilisers or pesticides, feed additives for livestock or growth regulators. The idea behind not using these things is to produce food that’s both economically and environmentally sustainable.
Avoid using paper as much as you can
These days, it’s so easy to send people information via e-mail or the cloud that there’s really not much point in printing out massive stacks of paper leaflets. Some things people do like to have on hand (like maybe a schedule of the event), but in general, passing out paper at an event is just a waste of time, money and valuable resources.
Use fair-trade products
We’re going to have to go back to definitions for this one so we’re all clear about what we’re talking about. Fair-trade products are another way you can be pro-environment at your event. The goal of fair trade is to help people in developing countries have better and fairer trading conditions and working rights, as well as to promote sustainability all around.
Use LED lights
LED — a way to save you money for your event! They’re much more efficient than traditional lamps and also don’t give off nearly as much heat as a traditional lightbulb. While the startup costs of buying LED bulbs are usually higher, they save you money over time because they’re just so much more efficient and they last about five times as long when compared to a traditional lighting source.
Have specific bins set out for recycling
It’s pretty unlikely that your event will have zero paper and zero rubbish. No matter how hard you try to put everything online, there are just some things that you’ll need to print off on paper, and some sort of rubbish that will show up by the end of the day, whether that’s napkins or cans from soft drinks or used name tags.
