Sustainability specialist, event:decision, has released key findings from its annual ‘State of Sustainability’ report.
The data, which runs from April 2022 – May 2023, shows an average event carbon footprint of 117 tCO2e. Approximately 78% of this overall footprint comes from travel; 7% from accommodation; 6% from materials and 4% from food and beverage.
Of events reported on within this time period, 54% are UK events, and 46% elsewhere globally. 89% are in-person events, with 6% hybrid and 5% fully virtual.
Commenting on the findings, Matt Gray, founder, event:decision, said: “It’s very easy to devote a lot of time and effort on factors that are visible at an event (badges, lanyards, menus etc) which, of course, we still need to do.
“It’s much harder though to devote significant effort to the mitigation of invisible factors, such as travel and accommodation, which affect the meeting format as a whole. But these are the areas which desperately need our industry focus.”
Next steps
In the report, a sustainability action plan is outlined:
According to event:decision, event planners need to:
- Create a projected carbon footprint
- Select destinations carefully and plan with travel in mind
- Select venues carefully and choose those with renewable power
- Consider F&B carefully and move away from meat
- Use local supply for kit and crew
- Build stands locally
- Post event, measure the projected carbon footprint to demonstrate savings
