the sustainable events blog

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…

1. ‘Buy Local’: Buying locally sourced products reduces your carbon footprint because of lower transportation emissions. Right? Yes, most of the time that is true. However (there’s always a ‘however’!), in some cases, products sourced locally may have higher production emissions compared to similar products imported from regions with more efficient production methods or climates better suited for farming. 2. ‘Electric Cars are emission free ’: Electric cars, or EVs, are sold on the promise that they’re both cheaper to run and a greener alternative to traditional petrol-powered vehicles. However, the overall carbon footprint of EVs can vary significantly depending on the source of electricity you use for charging it (do you know how renewable your supply is?) and the manufacturing process of your battery. In many cases taking public transportation, and in some cases car-sharing in a regular petrol vehicle may have a lower carbon footprint per passenger-mile than driving an EV. 3. ‘ Reuseable is better than disposable ’: Again, yes. But only ‘mostly’. Reusable products are generally more environmentally friendly than disposable ones. ‘However’ the manufacturing processes of some reusable products can result in higher carbon emissions than the production and ‘chucking away’ of disposable alternatives. The overall carbon footprint depends on things like the materials and the energy required in manufacturing. But, if in doubt, always go for reusable. 4. ‘ Recycling is better than landfill ’: Recycling is the sustainable waste management solution that reduces carbon emissions by diverting materials from landfills and conserving resources. Easy, right? However, the recycling process itself requires energy and may emit pollutants, especially if materials are transported long distances for processing. In some cases, landfilling certain materials with low recycling rates may result in lower overall carbon emissions compared to recycling them. And to add to that, ‘wishcycling’, where you put something into the recycling bin because you think it might be recyclable, can contaminate a whole load of otherwise perfectly recyclable products, leading to it all being landfilled. So don’t do that! If in doubt, check! And if you’re still in doubt, bin it. 5. ‘ Swap meat for plant-based foods ’ ‘Eat Less Meat’ has been drummed into us all for years. There isn’t really an argument against that reducing meat consumption can lower your carbon footprint. But there is still a debate around whether locally raised and grass-fed products may have a lower carbon footprint than heavily processed plant-based foods. The jury can’t reach a unanimous verdict but it’s safe to say that the air-freighted Argentinian ribeye is guilty as hell! Right, got it?!

“How easy is it for you to design & build a low carbon exhibition stand?” “Will it be expensive?” These are two of the questions we’re often asked. And the two answers we always respond with are: “It’s easy” and, “No, it isn’t at all expensive. In fact, it you’re planning on doing more than one exhibition, it will cost you considerably less” As well as working with organisers to help decarbonise their exhibitions, we’ve been designing & building low carbon exhibition stands for clients in the UK and Europe for a few years now. Not only do they give our clients a warm glow knowing that they’re doing their bit for the planet, they’re very (very) economical. Everything is designed to be reused which minimises waste, minimises the carbon footprint and has a similarly minimising effect on the costs. Let’s take a look at each of the fairly standard elements of an exhibition stand: Walls – our ‘go-to’ is modular walling. It’s quick and easy to erect (reducing labour costs), packs away into holdalls (reducing both transport costs and emissions) and, because they’re designed to be used over and over again, the embedded carbon in their production is so spread out that it’s minimal - like the equivalent of a quarter-pounder burger minimal. Graphics – if you steer clear of anything including event names, dates or stand numbers, graphics for modular stands can be used multiple times. And when you need to update them, they’re recyclable - another win for the planet. Furniture – you can buy your own (and store it, maintain it, and have to hump it around from show to show) or you can hire. At first glance, hiring doesn’t appear to be awfully cheap, but once you take out the cost of the initial purchase, the storing, the maintaining and the humping, it’s actually great value. And because that lovely bespoke spray painted counter is used week in and week out the embedded cardon footprint is tiny. Like really tiny. Flooring – these days a lot of expo carpet is either recycled, recyclable, or both. Even so, it’s still really a one-time use product and so it isn’t our first choice. There are alternatives. 100% recycled tiles are a thing. They look great, can be adapted to different stand shapes and sizes, and take minutes to put down. And (there’s a pattern emerging here!) you can use them again, and again. Labour – Modular stands don't need a skilled workforce so you, if you need help, hire locals. You'll cut down on transport emissions (happy planet) and you’ll slash your hotel costs (happy finance department) We wish we could make it sound more complicated - we could probably charge more if we did! But it just isn’t. Low carbon exhibition stands are easy and economical. The only hard bit is making sense of why everyone isn’t doing it…

Decarbonising a whole elite professional sports club sounds like a big job. To start with, you have thousands of fans travelling to home and away games, all of them eating, drinking and buying their favourite player’s jersey. Next up there’s the club staff, the players’ accommodation and their own transport. The venue, being in Manchester, has to be heated for most of the year. And there’s lighting and the venue’s own staff, who also have to get to and from work, and eat & drink, and even buy the odd bit of club merchandise. So yeah, on the face of it, it’s sounds like a big job! We started with one small part – player training. We analysed everything, did some calculations and then made some suggestions. Nothing major like, ‘From now on, everyone’s vegan. Oh, and we’ve replaced your cars with tandem bikes’. Just little changes. Sensible changes. Changes that wouldn’t have a negative impact on the players’ performance or their lives – after all, this is a top flight professional sports club and they exist to win games. And the result of all those little changes? A 78% reduction in CO2e ! Little changes lead to big changes. Watch the short video to find out more.

There are quite a few easy wins when it comes to cutting your event’s emissions: for instance, avoid anything that’s one-time-use, replace plastic bottles with water dispensers, cut right back on flying in guests on private jets… But there’s one thing, one of the top two causes of emissions at almost every event, that you just can’t get rid of – and that’s catering. Given that you can’t just decide not to feed people, and that very few people are going to be happy if your catering offer consists of a few root vegetables and jugs of water, you have to put some thought in to it. Here are some things you could consider 1. Talk to your venue’s catering manager Explain that you want to offer a low carbon meal. They’re probably not going to be experts in climate emissions but, if you go in with a list of low carbon foods, the odds are they will be experts in putting together an amazing menu for you. 2. Ditch the beef Weighing in at up to 250 times the emissions of some of the other items on your dinner plate, (and around 10 times the footprint of chicken and fish), beef, especially if it’s imported, is easily the least carbon friendly food out there. You might want to seriously consider avoiding it. And, with the growing number of plant-based meat substitutes, there’s maybe no need to serve meat or poultry at all. 3. Go for local and in-season We all know to ‘cut down on meat and dairy’, and eat more vegetables. Locally grown, in-season vegetables are definitely a low-carbon, sustainable source of calories and deliciousness. But be wary of opting for things that clearly aren’t in season, and clearly aren’t local. For example, if you’re at a dinner in Manchester in November and you’re offered avocados you can be pretty sure they’re not locally grown! Instead, they will either have been grown in a hothouse and/or air freighted to your guests’ dinner plate. This can lead to a seemingly innocent looking, eco-friendly plate of vegetables packing a substantial CO2e punch. 4. Eliminate or reduce waste 35%-45% of all food is wasted. Globally, that equates to over 1 billion tonnes a year. By eliminating food waste, you could cut your catering bill by between one third and a half! Do you know many eventprofs who wouldn’t welcome that? We’ll wait. How do you reduce waste? Start by talking to your guests before the event and find out about their dietary requirements and preferences. Because if they love what you put in front of them, they’re not going to waste much of it. Then back to your manager, this time with a discussion about portion sizes. Now, real world: you’re an event manager; you don’t want to be the person to tell your guests you’ve run out of food. So, having a little too much is better than not quite having enough. Just don’t have way too much. And because you can’t eliminate all the waste, talk to a food sharing app, and try to make sure that anything that is left over ends up in welcoming hands, and not in the bin. That’s it. Bon appetit. Next up: transport; another of the main culprits in an event’s CO2e

Carbon Dioxide grabs most of the limelight when it comes to talking about emissions. In fact, the general term for our releasing (50bn tonnes a year, and rising of) greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is ‘carbon emissions’ and we all have a ‘carbon footprint’. You might think then that carbon dioxide is some super malevolent substance that’s destroying the planet (and, to a large extent, you’d be right) but, while it accounts for around 75% of all CO2e, it’s pretty puny when it comes to its evil cousins – methane and nitrous oxide. But let’s give carbon a little more of the attention it needs: after all, it does account for 75% of the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon is the headline grabber because it’s generated, largely, by burning fossil fuels – and they’re everywhere! As recently as 2009, 80% of the whole world's total energy demands were generated by the burning of fossil fuels. That number is coming down thanks to renewable energies and things like EVs, but it’s still frighteningly, and unnecessarily, high. Another cause of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere is deforestation. Forests are a natural carbon sink. Trees absorb carbon (tonnes and tonnes of it over their lifetime) and that means it isn’t in the atmosphere warming the planet. So, naturally, chopping down forests isn’t a top plan. In summary, then, carbon dioxide is bad. But we already knew that. If we really want to reduce our event’s carbon footprint and get to net zero , we have to understand the other gases that make up total emissions. Methane is 28 times stronger than carbon dioxide. Methane comes from, among other things, cows farting and deforestation. And rotting food in landfills (that’s why you have that extra tiny bin I bet you never use!) The only good thing about methane is that it doesn’t last forever – only about 12 years – but that’s all the good news. But step aside methane: nitrous oxide is 265 times stronger! Two-hundred-and-Sixty-Five!! Nitrous Oxide is produced by microbes in the soil. Adding nitrogen fertilisers to the soil sends these microbes into a ‘wafer-thin mint’ feeding frenzy, the result of which is lots and lots of the daddy of all greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide, N2O. Let’s put that into the context of an event: if you’re serving beef from cattle that have been reared in a deforested area where the soil has had to be heavily fertilised, and then that beef has been flown thousands of miles to reach your plate every other carbon-reducing net zero measure you’ve taken will be about as effective as throwing a teaspoon of water onto a forest fire. That one meal will account for days if not weeks of each participant's total personal carbon footprint. Catering is one of the major contributors to an event’s carbon footprint, and that’s the subject of the next blog…

What do we mean by carbon neutral, net zero and sustainable?