As the global business events sector grows and evolves, the call for sustainable events is increasing. What are sustainable business events, one would ask. Sustainable business events are events whose preparation and execution takes into consideration their effects on the environment and the communities in which they are held.
Events which are mindful of their negative effects such as littering the environment or increasing the organisers’ carbon footprint by taking preventative measures are regarded as environmentally-friendly and termed green events. The process of ensuring that an event is green is termed greening an event.
Business events are also regarded as sustainable if they leave a positive and sustainable legacy in the neighbourhoods of their venues in terms of the lives of the community’s inhabitants. If, for example, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is set to hold a Solar Power Conference at one of the hotels in the resort area of Nyanga in Zimbabwe, the event would be adjudged as sustainable if the regional bloc assists some youths in the Nyanga District to come up with a company or co-operative for sourcing and installing affordable solar systems in their area.
Sustainable legacy initiatives need not be this elaborate and expensive. A business event could be remembered by a host community through the donation of a market shed, a borehole or some other initiative which uplifts the livelihoods of the people. Apart from the foregoing, other areas and initiatives which can assist business event stakeholders to push sustainable events include the following;
- Paperless processes
One area which sees most event stakeholders scoring poorly in terms of sustainable business events is the use of paper and its negative effects on the world’s forests. Reducing or eliminating the use of paper in processes such as registration and ticketing goes a long way in responding to the call for sustainable events. Technological advancements in business events industry processes such as electronic registration and ticket systems enable organisers to register attendees and visitors and issue them event tickets without contributing to deforestation and the resultant negative effects such as climate change.
- Reducing carbon footprint
Carbon emissions are one area which worries environmentalists. This is because they contribute to climate change and its negative results such as floods, droughts and deaths. In the past when carbon emissions and their results were discussed people spoke of emission from huge factories and very little about the carbon emissions from motor vehicles which are used to transport goods and people daily. As the effects of climate change increase, focus is also shifting to motor vehicles which were deemed inconsequential.
In view of this, even the seemingly small sources of carbon emissions are being considered as cumulatively contributory to damaging the environment. Business events organisers and other stakeholders therefore can play their part in the sustainable events crusade by reducing their carbon footprint through organising their events in such a way that they reduce distances between connected or related events to reduce the need to drive between two venues. One way of achieving this is by having the activities at the same venue, facilities permitting.
The construction of facilities which allow for a number of activities such as team building by the Rainbow Towers and Conference Centre in Harare recently under the Heritage brand means that conference attendees can be accommodated at the hotel, attend conferences at the hotel’s conference centre and relax using its Heritage zip line and participate in team building activities all at the same venue. This enables event organisers who use the venue to reduce their carbon footprint by reducing the use of motor vehicles to transport attendees from one activity venue to another.
It is common for some business events especially those held at the country’s tourist resort areas to comprise meetings held at hotels and tours of nearby tourist attractions. In order to reduce their carbon emissions footprint, organisers of such events can use buses and trains to transport attendees for such tours instead of them using their own individual motor vehicles.
- Green energy sources
Another area where business event stakeholders can enhance the sustainability of their events is the source of energy which they use to light and power their event. This includes buildings whose architecture facilitates the use of as much of natural day light as possible to reduce the demand for non-renewable energy. Another option for green energy in the business events arena is the use of solar energy. In Delhi, India, the Expo Mart, a business events venue housing 14 exhibition halls and 29 conference halls, is 100 percent solar-powered. This illustrates that it is possible to have business event infrastructure which is sustainable.
Zimbabwe has a number of business events infrastructure projects which are being planned by various stakeholders. These include hotels and conference centres which the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) is set to construct in Binga and Masvingo and the hotel and conference centre which the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair Company (ZITF Co) and the Zimbabwe Agricultural Society (ZAS) are set to put up in Bulawayo and Harare respectively in response to the need for more events infrastructure in the country. These projects present the venue developers with an opportunity to incorporate many sustainable initiatives into the buildings such as solar power and facilities for handling refuse for recycling among others. The call for sustainable events is not directed to organisers only but to all business events stakeholders.
The planning stages of these projects present their drivers with an opportunity to incorporate solar geysers which use clean energy. Some Zimbabwean hotels are already migrating from mains-powered geysers to solar ones in view of the twin challenges of electricity supply problems and steep tariffs. Although the decisions are not in any way related to the need for sustainable events, such hotels score better in terms of event venue with sustainable practices.
- Green gifting and awarding
One of the main components of business events – whether they are conferences, exhibitions or other types – is the use of promotional products which are given away to delegates and visitors as a way of marketing organisers or exhibitors’ brands. Most of these items are made of plastic which, in most cases, is not biodegradable. Sustainable events mean giving away promotional products which are environment-friendly both during use and in disposal.
In some countries some event organisers are pushing for the use of crafts made from local materials such as straw. Instead of handing the items to delegates, organisers give them gift tokens which are redeemable at local craft villages. Some have managed to brand such gift crafts so that they do not lose the marketing aspect of traditional give aways. The initiative enables the organisers to gift sustainably and to leave a positive legacy among the craft village members who would enjoy business during such events.
Other business events such as award nights are characterised by handing away trophies as symbols of the awards won. Some of the physical representations of the awards won are made of materials such as glass or plastic which do not contribute towards green business events. One way of going round this is the use of materials such as recycled wood. This initiative could support the livelihoods of youths who could be taught how make such awards from used wood such as old crating material for various business award events.
- Exhibition stands
Exhibition stands are another area where business events stakeholders can address the call for sustainable events. In countries such as South Africa focus is already shifting from outstanding exhibition stand design to stand sustainability. Stakeholders are becoming more and more concerned with the use of sustainable and re-usable materials. Focus in such markets is also shifting to the sustainable disposal of used stand-making materials.
- Planning for event refuse disposal
In Zimbabwe it is normal for some business event organisers to just pay for the use of a venue and leave the responsibility for the cleaning up of resultant litter to the venue owner. Going forward, event organisers should be responsible for the sustainable disposal of the after event litter. They should proactively plan for this responsibility.
Sustainable events are a business. One such business is the Harare-based specialised event refuse removal company, Functions Bin which handles events greening by placing litter bins and personnel at venues during events so that any litter generated by attendees during the event is placed in bins and later sorted to recover recyclable items before non-recyclable material is carted to municipal dumps. As the calls for sustainable business events get louder, event organisers will sooner or later be required to team up with such organisations in order to manage their event waste.
- Requirement
The foregoing are some of the areas which the sustainable business event crusade addresses but there are lots more. These are only an indication of what business event industry players should expect as the call gathers momentum globally. In the future event sustainability is not going to be a nice-thing-to-have but a legal requirement and international events will require that those countries which are bidding to host them should have sustainable practices on the ground. All stakeholders should, therefore prepare themselves for this inevitable eventuality.