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Evaluation & Reporting
The evaluation of your efforts in sustainability is important to assess whether the chosen actions were effective and worth the additional organizational effort. Particularly with recurring, larger events you can improve, step by step, by integrating the results of each evaluation into the planning of the next event. With such events it is therefore useful to thoroughly plan the evaluation and integrate components of it into the execution of the event.
As organizers of a sustainable event you are pioneers – make your commitment known and pass on your experiences to your colleagues – and maybe, step by step, more and more organizations will decide to hold more sustainable event
Measures
1. Review actions and assess the achievement of objectives
Try – where possible – to collect data about the actions that have been implemented, so as to be able to document and communicate the successes or, as the case may be, identify potential for improvement. How many of your guests were you able to convince to travel to the event by public transport? How much paper did you save by choosing to not provide a conference portfolio? Particularly if you set yourself specific objectives (e.g. waste reduction), then you should assess the achievement of these.
2. Incorporate the sustainability aspect into participant surveys
If you conduct a survey of participants for review purposes during or after the event, then also incorporate topics relevant to sustainability amongst the questions: How did attendees travel to the event? How did they like the regional and seasonal catering? Which sustainability measures did the participants notice? With this, you will be able to refine your proposals for future events and better cater to the wishes of your participants
Further Information
- Surveymonkey - Website for creating simple online surveys.
3. Communicate about successes after the event
Report about successes and failures in the area of sustainability after your event. Communicate afterwards with the participants – and, depending on the size of the event, also with the media, sponsors and other stakeholders – about your successes and point out the value of the actions that were undertaken. What did you achieve through your commitment to sustainability? It may also be possible for you to incorporate a report on your achievements as a follow up to the event in the final documentation.
4. Give feedback to service providers and partners
Discuss the actions that were undertaken with the people or companies with whom you worked regarding sustainability (e.g. caterer, caretaker, electrician) and provide them with feedback. What worked? Which things should be implemented differently? Your feedback can lead to improvement of their services and assist other event organizers to design more sustainable events in the future.
5. Give us feedback!
Was this Guide for Sustainable Event Management helpful in your planning? Was an action not able to be implemented or do you have suggestions for improvements? Or have you put innovative measures into practice that we could take up in our guide? Please contact us at the Sustainability Office!
Contact:
- Fachstelle für Nachhaltigkeit, Petersgraben 35, 4003 Basel, Tel. +41 (0)61 267 09 65, nachhaltigkeit-at-unibas.ch
