Ways to (Truly) Make Your Event Green
Photo by BabyDinosaur via Flickr
There are tons of tools out there but making infinite lists sometimes just makes the choice too daunting...and puts people off eventually. So here is a very personal selection of what I think are the best and most effective mind tools (and some online tools) to make your event more earth-friendly.
1. Go Carpooling
Tripmi is a car sharing community that lets you easily organise carpooling for your events, from small groups like sports teams and weddings, to large events like conferences or festivals. It's free to join and it's got a nice widget feature that automatically updates to show how many members are in your group, the number of carpools created and how many seats are available. It's also got a carbon saving feature so it can't be easier to keep track of how much your event is saving. Worth a try.
2. Reinvent Inventory
Each event is unique indeed. But don't you think purchasing a brand new lot of pens and pads for XYZ 2010 conference pack is a bit of a waste when you've still got those 975 pens and 523 pads left from XYZ 2009?? I know what you're thinking: 'But we need 2010 branded material!' My answer: 'Do you really?' I wouldn't care if my freebies are branded with event name plus date, or just name...or neither to be honest. So make sure you use your management tools wisely and make a clear inventory of whatever in stock that can actually be reused for future events.
3. The More the Greener
If you are a professional event planner you surely rely on a network of suppliers, from venues to caterers, from lighting companies to travel agents. Once you've got your house in order and are satisfied with the way you are managing the environmental impact of your direct activities, a whole new world of opportunities can still unfold ahead. You can start replicating your approach on a wider scale and engage with your suppliers to identify new opportunities to make your events green.
4. Plan Ahead
First things first. This should be on top of the list, really. You can use as many ways as you like to make your event greener, but the first thing should always be to plan it green from the start. It's a bit like the 4 R's hierarchy - Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It's all good to recycle 100% of waste or source electricity from renewables. But could you not have thought about not producing waste in the first place, or not using those extra kilowatts?
Posted by Carmen Boscolo
