Save your money and the planet at once: 4 tips for organizing a sustainable and still affordable event

With only 12 years left to save the planet from a destabilized climate, we need to talk about sustainability. You can eat less meat and use less water, but how can you help out as a business? One of the answers is organising more sustainable events.

By making sustainable event choices, you’re helping the planet and your wallet at the same time:

1. Venue
   
   
   
   

   In order to make your event as sustainable as possible, you have to look for an eco-friendly location. If your venue is not thinking in sustainable solutions, your event will not be green either. Here’s a small checklist to confirm if the venue is sustainable:

   • Eco-label: Ensure that the location has a label or certificate which guarantees that it operates eco-friendly.
   • Public transportation and eco-friendly parking: Check if the venue is easily accessible by public transport, if there are electric charging stations and enough covered and secured bike parkings. Encourage all participants to make use of these alternative transport options and reduce CO2 emissions as well as parking costs.
   
   
   
   
2. Catering
   
   
   
   

   Event catering offers various sustainable solutions too:

   • Ingredients: ask if the catering company uses local and seasonal (= CO2-friendly) products.
   • Avoid no-shows and therefore food waste: nowadays there are many awareness campaigns such as Don’t Spoil The Party, which you can add to your invitations. This way, only the genuinely interested people sign up, you generate less no-shows, less waste and therefore lower costs.
   
   
   
3. Furniture and presentation materials
   
   
   
   

   Of course, your event needs to look as inviting as possible and your presentation materials need to be the very best, but do not let this get in the way of sustainability.

   • Furniture & decoration: don’t book an empty room or black-box where your furniture and decoration needs to be brought in by an external company.
   • Presentation materials: check if the venue is equipped with its own professional tools. This avoids once more the delivery, set-up and breakdown by an external party. This is again saving money and time, and reduces CO2 emissions.
   
   
   
4. Use an event app
   
   
   

   
   Consider using technological solutions to reduce the consumption of paper.

   • Invitations & badges: digitalize the process and make all information available in a clever event app.
   • Documents: no guest lists, no programmes, hand-outs or evaluation forms that your participants could lose. Everything happens digitally and is easily accessible via smartphone.

For more sustainable possibilities, we advise you to contact our event experts.