Hi, please introduce yourself! – What’s your name and what do you do?
Lisa Sweeting, founder of Green Sense Events
Great to see you both exhibiting and speaking at the upcoming Sustainable Events Show, Lisa. What specific steps has your organisation taken to reduce the environmental impact of the events you help produce?
- Promote car sharing and public transport at the point of registration.
- Organising mini bus and coaches to support with this, Using electric taxi’s for transport from the train station to the event.
- Encouraging a plant based menu and/or vegetarian options over meat.
- Look at waste management and whether improvements can be made on what is already in place at the venue, particularly food waste which is often overlooked.
- Favouring hire over purchase.
- Choosing a venue which is energy efficient and has many of the above things in place where possible.
- Using local suppliers within a 50 mile radius of the event to cut down on transport emissions
- Using TRACE to measure, manage, understand and repot on the events carbon footprint.
- Can you share how your company is promoting the use of sustainable materials or reducing waste in the events industry?
We regularly post on social media about sustainable materials and reducing waste. At our events we try to hire items over purchase. Favouring reuse over recycling. Using digital technology such as event apps over printing. Seed based badges over plastic and non branded or dated items where possible.
What new technologies or innovations is your company using to create more sustainable event experiences?
In terms of experiences it depends on the event, but we like to provide experiences that connect people with nature and or focus on wellbeing. For example we have organised a willow making sculptor to come in before and create a piece with the staff from the company as part of their summer party, we also had someone come in a make seed pots with children and give a talk providing an interesting activity and educating children about nature at the same time. Sustainability is not always about reducing the carbon footprint of the event its also about people and leaving a lasting legacy.
How do you ensure your suppliers and partners also adhere to sustainable practices, and what challenges have you faced in achieving this?
We have a supplier sustainable procurement policy that outlines our expectations of suppliers, when we agree to use a supplier we let them know that we will need to collect certain data from them. This is often the challenge post event obtaining their travel data as a minimum. Most of the clients we work come to us because they want a sustainable event however sometimes this can be challenging especially if the delegates are international and have to take flights to get to the event. So far these types of events have also been about deforestation and education – hugely important topics and so the importance of the event and the impact of that event outweighs the impact from carbon emissions. Sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture and the purpose of the event overall
Is your company working towards achieving carbon-neutral events? If so, what strategies are you implementing to make this a reality?
It depends on the client, we try and keep the carbon footprint to a minimum but its not often that a client then wants to invest in carbon credits thus making the event carbon neutral, we can only suggest and advise on this.
How are you engaging event attendees and clients in sustainability efforts, and what impact have you seen from these initiatives?
Social media generally to educate and inform we also have a downloadable guide on our website for those getting started. We wrote a carbon literacy course for events last year and have been promoting this to clients, suppliers and general events professional – more information on our website on this. As mentioned most of our clients that come to us as a ‘sustainable events company’ are already engaged in sustainability. In terms of the audience its about communication and often the invite/ registration page is the start of this..
Best Live event (concert, etc) you’ve attended?
This is a tricky one but probably Glastonbury Festival for the sheer size and variety. I have only been twice; once stewarding with Oxfam and once as a paying punter! Both times quite different but great fun, tiring but I don’t think any other event is so all consuming and makes you feel like you’re in a different world for a few days, there really is something for everyone.
