A sustainable event is good for the planet, but it can also make your event more attractive to guests or clients. To make things simple, here are our top 26 tips for more sustainable events:
Waste Management
Waste management is at the forefront of the sustainability movement, and especially in events, it’s not hard to see why. Here’s how to start addressing the huge amounts of waste:
Disposable items
- If possible, provide glasses for water. Otherwise, you can install a water fountain and encourage people to bring their own bottles or cups, to reduce the use of disposable plastic.
- Replace plastic plates and cutlery with normal china.
- When single-use items can’t be avoided, use recycled and compostable materials (for straws, plates etc.).
- Keep it generic: make signage, lanyards, and other such items generic so you can reuse them at other events, instead of creating new ones each time.
- Have plenty of recycling bins to encourage recycling. If you only have one recycling facility in the venue, people might not even notice it.
- Replace your invitations, brochures, and flyers with electronic versions that people can access online or download.
- Each attendee can hand out tens of business cards at each event. It’s not necessary anymore. Replace business cards with a simple badge scanner app, which also improves user experience.
- Use an event app to keep all the important info such as event map, schedule etc. for people to easily access. Alternatively, you can also have it on a mobile-friendly site, just make sure guests know where to search for the relevant info.
- Or, you can use AI chatbots to also help guests with any information that might otherwise need to be printed.
- Electronic tickets – need I say more? There’s really no reason to print 100 tickets nowadays.
- Freebies: replace pointless freebies (let’s be honest, these make up around 90% of them) with either electronic goodies such as whitepapers, or things that will help guests be more eco-friendly (reusable water bottles, takeaway cups, canvas bags etc.).
- Decorations: consider your decorations when designing your event. For example, you could replace flowers with live plants that you can keep and use again (bonus: you can use them to decorate your office in the meantime). Eliminate confetti, glitter, and other such wasteful party props.
Watch out for part 2 covering the remaining 14 tips!
