22 TIPS FOR ORGANIZING A SUSTAINABLE EVENT

Crockery

  1. Pour your drinks into glasses or reusable cups.
  2. Apply a deposit to all your drinks, even for those in oneway bottles or cans.
  3. Provide reusable instead of cardboard trays.

Food and drinks

  1. Prepare your (soft) drinks with carbonised tap water. 
  2. Switch to meat free or vegetarian (they did it successfully: Shambala (UK), DGTL (NL) and Paradise City (BE)). 
  3. Choose local food trucks and prepare a sustainability charter for them.
  4. Buy seasonal and local. Go for fair trade or organic as much as possible.

Waste management

  1. Minimize the type of waste streams (e.g. 1 type of plastic, such as PET) 
  2. Enable the visitors to sort their waste onsite.
  3. Group waste bins of different fractions into resource recovery stations with clear signage.
  4. Keep waste bins of different fractions together, check on it during the event 
  5. Provide a backstage container park for your employees from the first build up day. Signage is also important here! 

Energy

  1. How much power do you (really) need? Try to find out if there’s parties asking for more capacity then they really need, simply because they don’t know.
  2. After collecting data take measurements to compile a smart energy plan. This avoids unnecessary consumption.
  3. Liaise with your power supplier. F.e.: choose light poles with sensors, almost every supplier has them in his/her range.
  4. Afterwards: communicate with every energy user on your site. Keep measuring and monitoring the energy usage during the event.
  5. Check whether the event can be «powered» by the fixed electricity network. Is this possible? A second step is to request green energy for the duration of the event.

Communication

  1. Prevent the distribution. Often these caps, stylos, balloons, flyers, … are still thrown away on site. Forbid these merchandising or offer a ‘virtual goodiebag’ which you send by e-mail after the event.
  2. Choose reusable materials like chalk boards or choose a sustainable banner material (recycled plastic items or cardboard). 
  3. Find a printing company that works with recycled paper and / or vegetable inks for your signage.

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