Making your event ethical and sustainable
Event organisers can play a critical role in reducing the environmental impact of their event by choosing venues and suppliers with sustainability policies and by managing the amount of waste generated by events.
Events can cause waste or carbon emissions through:
- Materials being sent to landfill
- Carbon emissions due to heating, cooling, transport and lighting
- Health-threatening vehicle pollution
- Wasteful use of water and other finite resources
British standard for sustainable event management
The UK’s national standards agency has formulated BSI 8901 - a framework for planning and managing sustainable events. The framework can be used by planners, venues and suppliers alike. Ask your venue if they have adopted the standard, and apply the principles yourself where possible
The framework will help you to:
- Improve sustainability within your budget
- Reduce carbon emissions and waste
- Encourage the re-use of equipment and infrastructure
- Have a positive the social impact
Things to do when planning and running your event
By considering sustainability when planning your event, you can ensure that it has the lowest possible environmental impact. Ways to reduce your impact include:
- Support environmentally conscious and sustainable businesses – many event venues and services have sustainability policies in place. Ask your suppliers what their policies are and support those that are actively reducing their environmental impact
- Use the Green Tourism for London scheme – this independent accreditation highlights venues and accommodation with good environmental credentials
- Use ethically sourced products – Ask your suppliers where they source their products from. Where possible, use organic and locally sourced foodstuffs, and products with the Fair Trade mark, which guarantees a fair deal for disadvantaged producers
- Calculate and offset your carbon emissions. Use the Climate Care web site to calculate the amount of carbon emitted through travel to and from your event, then invest an equivalent amount in UN accredited sustainability projects.
- Encourage your delegates and audience to offset their travel to and from the event.
- Use public transport – London’s public transport is the easiest and greenest way of getting around the capital
- If you must use taxis, use environmentally sustainable taxis. Green Tomato cars are one option
- Set up effective waste minimisation and recycling facilities for your onsite contractors, delegates and audience.
- Investigate whether you can buy in green electricity for the duration of the event
Post event: where to recycle
London has a wide variety of recycling schemes, so there are plenty of ways to avoid sending your waste to landfill.
Many recycling organisations will pick up waste for recycling or distribution to charities.
- Waste Online lists organizations that will recycle office and business waste
- Capital Waste Facts lists organisations that recycle furniture, glass, hazardous waste, metal, oil, organic materials, packaging, paint, paper, plastics, textiles, electrical and electronics and wood
- Recycle for London allows you to search by post code for recycling depots near to your event venue
Corporate social responsibility: benefiting the local community
Many businesses are seeing the benefit of improving their impact on society.
Business in the community is an excellent resource for businesses looking to make a positive impact on local communities.
The UK government also offers tax incentives for corporate giving, for more information see the HM Treasury web site.
