How to organise greener events
Here are a few suggestions to help you reduce the carbon footprint of your event. Any more suggestions very welcome! In my opinion the key ’green’ factors to consider when organising or supporting events are:
- Venue choice
- Co2 emissions
- Locally produced food
- reducing waste
The planning you do or don’t do with respect to the above points can greatly affect the carbon footprint of your event. So here are some suggestions to help you with your ‘green’ planning. Remember the 3 Rs:
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE!
Venue
- Find a venue with ‘Green credentials’. Find out what their Green Policy is eg. recycling, energy saving etc.
- Find a venue that is easily accessed by public transport and as close to a mainline train station / bus station as possible
- Make sure the venue has good disabled access
- Where possible use the in-house AV and Technical services to reduce equipment transportation
- Better still - do you need to have a physical event? Why not try and organise an online event?
- Consider video conferencing and/or recording the event for wider access via the internet
- Minimise unnecessary lighting, heating / air-conditioning
- Perhaps look at offsetting Co2 emissions arising from the event
- Work with the venue to ensure that all lights and air-conditioning units are switched off when rooms are not in use
Travel
- Put as much information on the event website as possible about how to travel to your event including pedestrian routes
- Encourage delegates to take public transport and encourage car sharing. Perhaps set up a car-sharing page on the website/wiki?
Delegate Packs
- Don’t give out notepads and ask delegates to bring their own
- Try electronic delegate packs - send the pack out by email before the event, with pdfs or urls to webbased documents. Delegates can download them onto their laptops, PDAs, iPhones etc. and use on the day. Have a plasma or two around the main areas of the conference showing the programme/schedule for the day.
- NOTE: putting everything onto a memory stick does reduce paper, but think about how the USB stick was manufactured, was it produced in an environmentally way and is it made of green materials? Plastic is not a good solution!
- If you cannot do without a programme or programme guide, reduce the size of it or print on recycled paper.
- Provide delegate bags made from 100% recycled material or reusable bags or better still do without!
- www.ecopromogifts.com do a green USB stick made from 100% recycled ABS plastic - a green way of distributing documents!
Recycling and Reducing Waste
- Use websites and emailing lists to promote the event
- Use electronic registration and publish event itinerary online
- Use double-sided printing for promotional materials and handouts. Use recycled paper where possible.
- Use portable and re-usable display materials
- Seek naturally lighted meeting and exhibition areas
- Format any handouts so as to minimise the amount of paper used
- Where possible, write material in a re-usable format (general rather than event specific)
- Ask the venue to provide paper recycling bins to be placed in all main areas of the conference and by the exit doors
- Take all the event signage with you and recycle or ask the venue to recycle or donate to local charity art projects. Better still also produce the event signage on recycled material!
Catering
- Check whether the venue caterers are able to source local ingredients/produce, to reduce food miles and consider going organic if your budget allows!
- If serving fish, use fish from sustainable sources
- Plan food requirements carefully to avoid unnecessary waste
- Ensure that all dietary requirements are catered for and offer vegetarian choices
- Wherever possible ensure fruit is provided as an alternative to sweet desserts
- Consider donating leftover food to local charity or sending for local composting
- Ensure tea/coffee is Fair Trade and provide tap water as an alternative (if you must use bottled water make sure it is local!)
- Or place water coolers throughout the building and encourage attendees to bring water bottles from home to use throughout the conference
- Minimise use of individually packaged food/drink items (eg. provide milk / cream in jugs rather than individual plastic cartons)
- Use reusable crockery, glassware and cutlery where possible (to reduce waste) or if not make sure it is compostable
- Ask the caterer to use bulk dispensers for sugar, salt, pepper, cream and other condiments.
Exhibition
- If you are having exhibitors at your event, encourage them to bring as little literature as possible. Alternatives could be distributing CDRoms with information or USB sticks made from recycled materials.
- Encourage exhibitors to source conference giveaways that have as little impact on the environment as possible (eg. nothing plastic)
On the day
- Avoid mass distribution of handouts - allow attendees to download copies from the internet
- Ensure presenters are aware of electronic presentation facilities and that their presentation will be available online after the event
- Provide re-usable name badges (and remember to collect them at the end of the event!)
- Minimise use of accessories that are harmful to the environment (eg. plastic leaflet wallets)
- Feature conference name and date on holding slide rather than use single use stage graphics
- Promote energy and water efficiency to participants eg. switch off lights when rooms are not in use
- Use drymark eraser boards rather than paper in workshp presentations
- Request that any usused items be collected for use at another event
Post-event
- If not issued at the event, sent out an online delegate feedback questionnaire by email
- Give any feedback you have to the venue
Accommodation
- Choose a hotel with a linen reuse programme and that uses bulk dispensers for soap and toiletries
- Choose a hotel within walking distance of the conference venue
A useful website listing hotels that are part of the official Green Tourism Business Scheme: www.green-business.co.uk 
Tell people!
- Make sure you advertise the fact you are making efforts to reduce the environmental impact of your event
- Write an Environment Policy or Statemtn for your event or statement and share it with all delegates, speakers, exhibitors etc.
JISC Conference 2009 update
Parallel sessions launched
The parallel sessions for the annual conference next year have been posted onto the conference website: www.jisc.ac.uk/jiscconference09
There are more than ever this year, so there should be something for everyone! More sessions means smaller numbers, which hopefully means better quality sessions. We plan to record or live blog all the sessions so that no-one will miss out on anything.
Exhibition sold out!
We are also pleased that the exhibition has sold out over 3 months before the event! We are looking into the possiblity of expanding the exhibition onto another floor to meet demand.
There are still lots of sponsorship opportunities available including the Conference blog which will be the online hub of all activities on the day for those attending physically and remotely. This provides an excellent branding opportunity for a potential sponsor.
For further details of all sponsorship opportunities and contact details visit the website: www.jisc.ac.uk/jiscconference09
See you in Edinburgh!
