When you have a full inbox, a full in-tray and a full diary, it’s understandably hard to find the time to think about making changes to make your business (and your life) more eco-friendly and sustainable. That’s ok. But remember this: none of us learned to walk overnight. None of us learned to speak overnight. And none of us learned to ride a bike overnight. We learnt how to do all these things gradually. We made a start, we made mistakes. But we carried on trying, we got a little better every day until, one day, we’d mastered them. We all lead busy work and private lives, and it’s obvious that we can't completely overhaul our businesses and lifestyles overnight. That's why taking small steps towards sustainability is so important. Whether it's reducing our single-use plastic consumption, opting for less meat in our diets, or choosing to walk, cycle or take public transport instead of driving: every little bit helps. Small changes not only contribute to a more sustainable future but also have a powerful collective impact. As a business leader your actions are likely to be embraced and copied by others in your team. By making small changes ourselves, we inspire those around us to do the same. Set an example and show that every effort towards sustainability, no matter how modest, is meaningful. It's important to remember that striving for sustainability is not about achieving perfection. It's about making a series of conscious choices that, when combined, make a positive difference for the environment and future generations. So, don't feel discouraged if you can't make all the "perfect" changes at once. Every small change you make is a step in the right direction. Let's embrace the approach of making gradual, achievable changes towards more sustainable businesses and lifestyles. Together, our collective small changes will lead to a more sustainable and eco-friendly future for all.

If there was one simple change you could make to help the environment and have a positive impact on your community, would you make it? A staggering 8.4 million people in the UK (the world’s 5th richest country), live in food poverty. As a nation, we waste approximately 9.52 million tonnes of food every year, costing each of our households £470 and, worse, generating 25 million tonnes of greenhouse gases (that’s the same as driving around the world a little under 2 million times. Staggering!) So, one simple and easy change you could make is to think really carefully about what you’re buying next time you visit the supermarket. Will that 2-for-1 ‘bargain’ really be eaten or end up in food waste? Think about those in food poverty, the cost to you and the cost to the environment. Just by making conscious decisions you’ll make a difference to you, others and the planet. It really can be that simple. As a sustainable event organiser we work hard with our suppliers to reduce waste to an absolute minimum, and have mechanisms in place to ensure that, at every corporate event, conference or awards dinner we run, there is as close to zero waste as possible. As an individual, without the tools and skills we have to hand, you can make use of apps like @TooGoodToGo, @Olio and @Karma to help end your food waste, help you and help others.

Global Sporting Events, their emissions, what’s being done (and does it even matter?) The London Marathon is one of the most sustainable global sporting events. It’s way ahead of the game when it comes to delivering a huge, mass participation event with as little impact as possible. So, in the week after working with the fabulous team at LME to help deliver a conference focussed on the future of sustainable mass participation events, we thought we’d take a look at other global sporting events, and one in particular, Formula 1, and see just how sustainable it is, see what they’re doing to improve and to ask the controversial question: in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter? Let’s start with a general overview: why do sports events have such an impact on the environment? 1. Land Use: The development of stadiums and other facilities can involve the conversion of previously natural environments into concrete wastelands, leading to habitat loss and fragmentation, which directly impacts biodiversity. 2. Stadiums and Facilities: Once the land has been destroyed, the construction and maintenance of stadiums and other sports facilities require vast amounts of resources – not only the eye-popping quantities of steel and concrete used in their construction but land, water, and the energy required to power them. 3. Travel: once the stadiums are built, people have to get there, so travel is a major component of professional sports, with teams, staff, and fans often making long journeys for games and events. This leads to significant carbon emissions from just about every form of transport there is. 4. Waste: All those people generate huge amounts of waste, including food packaging, single-use plastics, and many other disposable items. Proper waste management and recycling practices are getting better but still aren’t fit for purpose. 5. Water: Maintaining sports fields, especially golf courses, and other outdoor facilities requires substantial water usage. For example, the golf courses in Las Vegas use nearly 10% of all the water used in the whole city! 6. Sponsorship and Advertising: Most sports rely on sponsorship – (Pep doesn’t get paid £17m a year from ticket sales alone!) Often this sponsorship is promoting products and brands that may have negative environmental impacts, which causes ‘downstream impact’. Who are the worst offenders? There are the obvious ones, like football, rugby, cricket, the NFL and NBA – all the sports that draw in tens of thousands of fans, many of whom will have travelled sometimes great distances. Then there are the less obvious ones; the minority sports with high ‘per head’ emissions, like golf, water sports (of the motorised kind) and even parachuting! But there’s one sport in particular that always gets a (dis)honourable mention: Formula 1. Formula 1, with 24 races in 21 countries, is estimated to generate 256,000 tonnes of harmful emissions every year. That, at first glance, is a big number. How can it be justified, and what are they doing about it?! It turns out, they’re doing quite a lot: - introducing biofuels has led to emissions from logistics falling by 83% - erecting a solar panel array at races has helped reduce pit lane, paddock and broadcast area emissions by 90% (given the UK weather, probably a bit less at Silverstone!) - 75% of promotional events are now powered by renewable sources - and trials of sustainable fuels are well underway These measures have helped F1 achieve a 3* environmental accreditation. The sport is on track to be net zero by 2030, so for the next 6 years there will be emissions from Formula 1 So let’s put 256,000 tonnes in to perspective: The world as a whole is pumping 40 billion tonnes of CO2e into the atmosphere every year. Now, that’s a big number! So Formula 1’s contribution is, wait for it, 0.0000064% (which is a very, very small number!) Plus Formula 1 entertains 100,000,000 people every race and it contributes massively to local and even national economies so, in the grand scheme of things, do their emissions really matter? Yes! We need to achieve net zero as soon as we can and every major sporting event needs to play their part. One has to applaud the efforts of The London Marathon, Formula 1 and others (Forest Green Rovers, we see and salute you). Let’s hope they inspire (or guilt) other major sports in to action. Over to you, EPL, NFL, NBA et al. We’re watching…