The Rundown
Topics: Sustainability, Event Planning | 2 min read
In the current climate, you cannot afford not to be looking at ways of making your event more sustainable.
It is no longer a differentiator. Attendees notice, clients increasingly have to report on it, and sustainable events are becoming the expectation rather than the exception.
The encouraging part is that most of the gains come from decisions made early - about power, print, venue, catering and waste - rather than from expensive interventions later.
Here are five practical places to start, and what each actually achieves.
Power and Print
Alternative Power Sources
One of the most impactful ways to reduce an event's carbon footprint is using renewable energy.
Solar or wind can power lighting, sound systems and even food preparation. Mobile solar generators and wind turbines reduce reliance on the grid, and on diesel generators in particular.
Be realistic about capacity. Renewable supply suits lighting, catering and smaller systems well; a large LED wall and a full PA is a different proposition. A hybrid approach, with renewables carrying what they can, is usually the practical answer.
No Single-Use Print
Single-use printed material is one of the largest contributors to event waste.
Digital ticketing is already becoming standard. Digital signage is the next step, replacing print graphics for branding around a venue.
Where you do have to print, make the branding non-specific to the year or the theme so it can be used again.
That single decision - leaving the date off - is often the difference between a graphic used once and one used for five years.
Venue and Catering
Sustainable Venues
Choose venues that prioritise eco-friendly practice.
Look for energy-efficient lighting, waste reduction programmes and established recycling. Partnering with a venue that shares your goals lifts the sustainability of the whole event without additional effort on your part.
Ask what they measure rather than what they claim. A venue with real data will share it readily.
Responsible Food and Beverage
Choose caterers using locally sourced, organic and seasonal produce.
That reduces the carbon footprint of transporting food and supports local businesses and farming.
Minimise single-use plastic by providing reusable plates and cutlery.
Menu Composition
Many guests in the UK now actively choose vegetarian and vegan options, which is among the more effective ways of reducing impact.
Making plant-based the default rather than the alternative, with meat available on request, shifts the balance considerably without restricting anyone's choice.
Portion Planning
Over-catering is both expensive and wasteful. Accurate numbers, gathered close to the event, do a great deal of quiet good here.
Waste and Follow-Through
Effective Waste Management
Implement a proper recycling and waste reduction programme.
Use clearly labelled recycling stations and make sure attendees understand what goes where. Poor signage is the usual reason well-intentioned recycling ends up contaminated and sent to landfill anyway.
After the Event
Consider donating leftover food and materials to local charities, or sending organic waste for composting.
Both are straightforward to arrange in advance and almost impossible to organise on the night, so put it in the plan.
Measure It
If you want next year to be better, record this year - energy used, waste produced, waste diverted from landfill.
Without a baseline, improvement is a claim rather than a fact, and increasingly clients and sponsors will ask for the fact.
It Need Not Be Complicated
Sustainable events do not require reinventing how you work.
A few decisions taken early - power, print, venue, catering, waste - substantially reduce the impact of an event, and those choices are valued by an increasingly conscious audience.
For advice on sustainable event production, give Premier Live a call on 0116 202 9953 or email info@premier-ltd.com.
Tell us about your event.
Fill in the form and we'll come back to you quickly, not with a generic auto-reply, but with something useful.
Prefer a call? Book a 20-minute discovery call at a time that suits you.
Rather email? info@premier-ltd.com. Or just ring us: 0116 202 9953.
Once we hear from you, we'll set up a quick call to understand your brief properly, no lengthy questionnaires, no sales pitch.
We typically respond within two hours on working days.
EXPERIENCED. DEPENDABLE. HANDS-ON. UNFLAPPABLE
The people behind the production.
These are our people - the production managers, technicians, show-callers and crew who plan your event and run the room on the night. The same team from first site visit to final cue.
What We've Been Up To.
A look at the events we've delivered, the brief, the build, and how it ran on the night. Worth a read.
