Before you get started

To implement sustainable event management, it is essential to integrate the key concerns of sustainable development into every step of the event planning process. This means that sustainability considerations should be taken into account when setting goals as well as during time, costs and organisation planning. Right from the start, consideration must be given to which sustainability initiatives one would like to implement as part of the event and who will have responsibility for these.

Take time at the beginning of the planning process for the project team to carefully consider and define goals and organisational arrangements, so that afterwards you can move on with the implementation in a well structured manner.

1. Formulate goals

For larger events it is useful to determine measurable sustainability goals (e.g. 50% less paper, no meat, etc.) that can be aligned with appropriate actions. At the same time these goals serve as indicators that show, after the event, whether the actions that were taken achieved the desired result.

2. Determine responsibilities

To implement sustainability objectives you should consider who in your project team will be responsible for the topic of sustainability. Appoint someone to be in charge of sustainability, who can maintain an overview of all the sustainability measures and can, if necessary, effectively make a case for them amongst decision makers. With larger events often one person alone cannot handle this role. In this case set up a sustainability team in which several people can work through different tasks.

3. Document your commitment

The documentation of your sustainability commitment is useful for the evaluation of the impact of your measures, and to check whether your additional efforts where worth it. One indicator would be the amount of waste produced during the event. Try to collect data about your measures to communicate your achievements where ever possible, also to discover room for improvement. Especially for recurrent events, a monitoring process will help you optimizing your program by integrating your results into the subsequent planning processes.

4.Identify stakeholders

For the successful implementation of sustainability measures it is essential to work together with stakeholders (e.g. the event technicians, caterers, suppliers). To successfully include these people in the event organisation, you need to consider who the relevant stakeholders are and how they can be effectively integrated into the organisation of your sustainable event.