The wonderful Kermit the Frog once sang “it’s not easy to be green”, but he was wrong. It is easy to be green – for us all in our personal lives and for your business events.

Making your event sustainable is not at hard as one might initially think. The shift in sustainability has been huge over the past couple of years. Almost every organisation has a Sustainability Policy (ourselves included!), but in particular hotels and venues now place a great emphasis on ‘going green’.

The term has gone from a buzzword to a genuine requirement. Your venue will more often than not now source locally produced food & beverage, maintain eco friendlier cleaning chemicals, reduce waste, use recycled materials, encourage guests to make sustainable decisions (e.g. reusing your towel) and increase energy conservation.

Whilst the venue should have their side covered, how do you as an organiser deliver an event that has impact on your audience but not the environment? Here we have the latest in our Top 10 series by giving you some simple ideas.

1. Choose The Right Venue
As mentioned above, most venues now maintain a high standard for sustainable practice. For hotels, it’s worth checking for Green Tourism certification. Larger venues, by definition, use more power, so ensure you choose an appropriately sized space. When contacting hotels ask for their sustainability policy so you can review.

2. Attendees Travel & Carbon Footprint
Think about encouraging your attendees to travel via public transport, or in an eco-friendly way (electric cars if they have them). Ideally try to make your venue close to public transport links such as bus, tube or train stations. Think about encouraging car sharing if public transport is not an option. Every little helps.

3. Keep It Digital
Try ditching the paper and keeping everything digital. Today’s technology means that events no longer need to print large quantities of printed materials. In fact, most people don’t even want paper – digital files are much more conducive to the way we work now. For any printed material you do use, don’t forget to recycle.

4. Say ‘Bye-Bye’ to Plastic
Reusable items are becoming more present in everyday life – think shopping bags, coffee cups etc. Plastic straws are now a thing of the past. Consider how single-use plastic is used at your event, or even more so single use materials (e.g. branded lanyards that can only be used once). Nowadays you can even order plastic badges made from recycled materials (you wouldn’t know the difference!).

5. Food & Beverage
Check with your venue what their policy is on sustainability in their food & beverages. Locally produced food and drink lessen the impact on the environment, whilst also support local businesses. Try to choose organic items and don’t over order on the food. For any F&B that is left over, think about how this can be used – perhaps wrapped up and given to guests to take as they leave, or donate it to a local food bank.

6. Think About Your Set & Stage
For smaller meeting can you reuse pull up banners, lecterns etc. Compact versions are easy to move around and can be reused many times over rather than ordering bespoke each time. Set and stage design can be material-intensive, but projection mapping can eliminate the cost of producing one-off designs by transforming almost any surface into a display with video projection.

7. LED Lighting
Speak with your AV team and ask if they have LED lighting. It is by far the most energy efficient, cleanest and most eco-friendly way of decorating your venue. LED lighting is incredibly versatile for creating a variety of different looks, moods and atmospheres but with its green credentials, you can be confident your event will look good without negatively impacting on the environment.

8. Choose Venues That Are Walking Distance
Are you thinking of holding an off-site dinner? Have a look at the local area and consider if there are any venues within walking distance from your event. The removal of diesel taxis or coaches making many short transfers is one sure way to reduce your event’s carbon footprint.

9. Choose An Event Agency That Shares Your Vision
Hippo Events always keep an eye on your events sustainability when event managing. We look to suggest ideas to help reduce your events carbon footprint, and how best to communicate this to your attendees as well. We’re here to support you, and this event blog is just one example of how we do so.

10. Spread The Word
Finally, communicate to the delegates what you have done throughout your conference to reduce your events carbon footprint. Spread the word to them – let them know the measures taken and why it is important. The more we can influence the masses, the more we can change habits. Moreover, it’s good for your organisation to be seen as Green, Sustainable and Socially Aware.

Hippo offer Event Project Management and Global Venue Finding services. Contact us today on 01372 460 100 or events@hippoevents.co.uk to see how we can assist.