post image

9 ways to make your events more sustainable

Making live shows more sustainable is a tough but crucial challenge for eventprofs to tackle head on.

Almost three quarters of tradeshow exhibitors and visitors care about their events being run with their impact on the climate in mind.

That’s why Exhibition Think Tank Club brought together a special panel to set out nine ways professionals in our industry can bring in better practices for sustainable events.

Speakers at the special webinar included:

  • Duncan Reid, CEO & Co-founder, Reset Connect
  • Debbie Kristiansen, General Manager, Exhibition World Bahrain
  • Jorg Zeissig, CEO, Holtmann GmbH & Co.KG

Team ExpoPlatform has also started its own carbon offsetting project, Meetings Make Trees – with an ambition is to plant 10,000 in 2023 – but we need your help!

This new initiative will help reduce your event’s carbon footprint and encourage visitors and exhibitors to engage more with the mobile app.

It means for every meeting confirmed, we will plant a tree on your behalf – get in touch to find out more.

1✍️Sign up to the Net Zero Carbon Events Pledge

The Net Zero Carbon Events initiative – hosted by the Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC) – hopes to bring together a wide range of industry stakeholders to tackle the issue.

A new roadmap was release during Cop27 which can be downloaded, while eventprofs can also sign up to the pledge on the website.

It is open to everyone in the industry – it doesn’t matter whether you’re an organiser or a venue or a supplier.

2🪴Support events with sustainable commitment

Support events that are making that are spreading the word and trying to make a difference. This should hopefully create customer demand for new sustainable action and have a positive effect on the rest of the industry.

3💨Measure your emissions

Measure the impact of what you’re doing at the moment using one the many calculators which are free of charge.

Being able to understand the impact you’re making  at the moment and your the potential reduction in future stands you in good stead for for making a difference further along the line.

4🚅Reduce and maximise travel

The overall carbon footprint of an event is largely made up of your attendee travel. This makes it important those tat do go to live shows try and reduce travel where possible.

One option could be taking the train instead of flying, which represents a huge reduction in the carbon footprint of travel.

Meanwhile, it also crucial participants make the most of their time there – see as many clients as possible, have as many meetings and more.

5✈️Offset your carbon

Participants will continue to fly to events because often it’s the only option. But carbon offsetting can be brought in when if there’s no way of avoiding the pollution being emitted.

The panel decided that offsetting is the way to go via the airline that you fly with or through another provider.

6🤖Consider a digital/hybrid option

Have a digital or hybrid option for your audience to participate in some way online. This benefits you overall as participants may prefer to do this for various reasons, but it also allows you to reduce the footprint of the event as well.

7🛑Stop single-use plastic

Events can leave a legacy and a positive educational impact on the communities they serve.

By reducing single-se plastic at your own event you can educating your audience, meaning they’ll go away “in their in their daily life or their day job” and actually impact a bit further than just your live show.

8📱Aim for paperless

Reduce the need for paper where possible for things like maps and tickets by replacing them with a mobile app option.

Participants could then go away and potentially implement that in their own industries and workplaces as well.

9♻️Understand your true recycle rate

Just because something’s recycled material or can be recycled doesn’t mean it’s good for the environment.

The panel recommend looking at your own operations to understand the real value of different materials and how they have an impact.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article and found it useful. At ExpoPlatform, we want to help you build better events and communities. Please get in touch and ask for a demo here. Thank you.