Making your event more sustainable
Sarah Healy from Venues Wellington shares ways to help event planners make the most of their events and meet their sustainability goals
Arranging an event that meets sustainability goals might seem overwhelming, but small and manageable actions go a long way towards reducing our impact on the environment.
Sarah Healy from Venues Wellington shares how you can work with your venue to create and implement sustainability strategies. These outcomes enable and empower delegates, partners and the community alike to also contribute to sustainability.
Venues Wellington is part of EarthCheck, a leading global benchmarking and certification programme for sustainable travel, tourism and has achieved bronze certification. The programme provides a framework to achieve decided outcomes for sustainable tourism and events.
Ways to create sustainable business events
Reducing carbon footprint
The events industry creates a significant amount of emissions, both to/from events and between venues. Transport is arguably one of the easiest ways to make your event more sustainable and encourages your event attendees or delegates to play a role in this mission.
Holding an event in a city like Wellington which is walkable is a great way to start reducing your carbon footprint. Consider giving attendees alternative ways to get around while helping to offset the impact of travel by making it easy for them to:
- Use public transport or travel by bike
- Use hybrid or electric vehicles and ride sharing apps
- Offset the carbon emissions from flying
Finding a new home for waste
Talk to your venue provider to come up with a waste management plan that is clear and easy to follow. This is one of the best ways to reduce the amount of waste your event creates.
We've installed water fountains and don't provide cups anymore. In 2019 more than 11 tonnes of single use cups went to landfill from our venues. Now we encourage delegates to bring reusable bottles.
Reducing event waste and ensuring good recycling practices happens across all our venues by diverting 70 percent of event waste from landfill, and at Venues Wellington, we’ve worked closely with the Sustainability Trust to do that.
Throughout our venues we separate the following waste streams:
- Recycling – paper, cardboard, aluminum cans, plastic grades 1, 2 & 5 only
- Organics – food scraps and certified food packaging
Selecting sustainable event partners
Having sustainable partnerships is a key part of achieving a more sustainable event.
Venues Wellington works with local suppliers committed to reducing their environmental impacts of waste, water and energy. One local organisation is Kaibosh, a food rescue organisation that redistributes food to people in need.
Partnering with organisations that are focused on sustainability:
- Helps you and your delegates to make a lasting difference
- Ensures their supply chains have responsible social and environmental practices where possible
- Ensures they are just as committed to giving back to the community
