Sustainability is at the top of the event industry agenda, but what does it cover and with such a wide scope, what are the factors that need to be considered?

To mark Earth Day, we take a look at this further in our latest blog.

Sustainability in an environment context, is about protecting and preserving natural resources, reducing pollution, and minimising the impact on the environment so that future generations have the resources they need. From a meeting and events perspective there is much we can do to reduce emissions by looking at our destinations, venues and supply chains.

From the initial planning, the meeting location with the lowest carbon footprint should be selected. From then, careful choice over all other aspects of the meeting is to be considered from a sustainable perspective.

A few handy tips for planning meetings:

• Be careful in selecting destinations and venues – look to minimise the travel distance for all attendees and closely look at the meeting space and/or hotel you are considering
• Paperless meetings should be a goal – having an app can play an important part in achieving this
• Aim for locally sourced food – food can have a large transportation carbon footprint, providing locally sourced food reduces this considerably
• Low energy AV kit – evaluate whether you can use a venue’s technology, reducing the need to ship in your own, and if you are able to use an in-house technician/resource, this would have further benefits
• Waste management – always think about the 3 Rs of reduce, recycle, and reuse in every element of your meeting

There are many other ways we can create sustainable meetings, at C2 we can offer knowledge and experience in all areas.