A Practical Guide to Reducing Environmental Impact of Corporate Events

Meet our Guest Author

Hannah Pattison (SEPC, DEC, MSc.) is an Event Manager at Mackenzie Investments, part of the IGM Financial family of companies, and part of a team responsible for planning and executing internal and external events across Mackenzie Investments, IG Wealth Management, and IGM Financial.

As a certified Sustainable Event Professional (SEPC) and an advisory board member of The Sustainable Events Forum (TSEF), Hannah considers sustainability throughout the event planning process and works closely with vendors and partners to minimize the environmental impact of the events she plans.

The Global Impact of Corporate Events on Climate Change

• According to an article in nature.com, the global events industry accounts for approximately 10% of annual GHG emissions globally, the same as the entire United States, one of the world’s top three emitters alongside China and India.
• Canada has committed to reduce emissions to 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, and the US has committed to reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by 50% below 2005 levels by 2030.
• Increasing legislation in Europe, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and climate reporting laws in California, affects companies doing business in California and Europe.
• Increased instances of flooding, wildfires, food insecurity, etc., impacting communities where events are held.
• Events fall mostly under Scope 3 emissions, making them both hard to manage but also extremely impactful as there is an opportunity to influence the entire supply chain.
• 58% of all food in Canada is wasted, according to Second Harvest, and globally, food waste accounts for more greenhouse gas emissions than air travel, according to Our World in Data.

3 Key Strategies for Sustainable Event Management for North American Event Planners

Measure, mitigate, and communicate your event's impact, then do it all over again!

1. Measuring Event Environmental Impact

• Track how far staff and attendees are traveling to your event and what mode of transportation they use. Then, calculate travel-related carbon emissions using an online tool.
• Ask your F&B partners to track how much food is prepared, served, donated, and composted at your event.
• Sort and measure all other waste streams, including landfills and recycling, by separating and weighing waste at the end of the event. TIP: Get a handheld luggage scale to help weigh garbage and recycling bags.
• Ask your vendors to measure and report on their emissions.

2. Mitigating Carbon Footprint Through Smart Planning

Travel and Transportation

• Consider where goods and attendees are coming from and how they will get to your event.
• Select destinations and venues that limit the travel required to attend.
• Encourage attendees to opt for low-emission modes of transportation. Offer discounts and incentives for walking, biking and taking transit.
• If you and your attendees must fly, pack light, and opt for direct flights where possible.
• Source goods and materials locally where possible to minimize transportation and maximize impact on the local economy

Food & Beverage

• Select low-emission proteins such as chicken, fish, and vegetarian dishes. Replacing beef with chicken alone can reduce emissions by around 50%, and savings are even greater when serving vegetarian and vegan dishes. Refer to the protein emissions grid here for more eye-opening data on the emissions per 100g of different proteins.
• Use the food hierarchy to ensure composting and landfills are the last resort for managing food waste, with donating edible leftovers to people first.

Materials

• The most sustainable items are the things that you already have, so opt to reuse and rent items as needed before buying or producing new items.
• When procuring materials, gifts, and swag for your event, less is more. Consider where things are coming from, what they are made from, and what will happen to them after your event and at their end of life.
• Encourage attendees to pack their travel mugs and reusable water bottles for refill at water and coffee stations throughout the event and eliminate disposable cups and bottles.

3. Communicating Sustainability Efforts to Stakeholders

• Create a sustainability plan with all or some of the tactics above and share it with partners for buy-in before sharing it more widely with other stakeholders, including your attendees, and let them know how they can support your efforts.
• Look for opportunities to highlight your actions, for example, by adding labels on buffet stations and menus to show emissions and include high-level details about your sustainability plan in remarks from the stage.

As an event professional, you have both the opportunity and the responsibility to influence and impact the sustainability of the events you produce. Measuring the impact of your event operations, mitigating the impact by tackling the travel, food and beverage, and materials at your event, and communicating your efforts are all simple strategies for improving the sustainability of your events. Then, using the data, baselines and reduction targets will be established, and the cycle will start again.

Practical Next Steps:

• Bookmark tsef.ca for useful event sustainability resources. Bonus: for those looking for more education, take the Planners for the Planet course.
• Start asking your event vendors and partners today about what they are already doing and how they can help you reduce the impact of your event.
• Make sustainability part of your small talk.
• Get creative and consider sustainability at every point of the planning process.
• Connect with Hannah on LinkedIn and let her know what you are going to start doing today!
• Once you know better, you do better. So make a commitment to change, then take that first step! The next step will be much easier once you get started!

More About the Author

Hannah is an Event Professional with almost 20 years of experience, spanning virtual and in-person meetings, conferences, and events for groups of 50 to 600+ across corporate and non-profit sectors in Europe, the Middle East, and North America. She is driven by the urgency of the climate crisis to leverage the potential of meetings and events as a powerful catalyst for positive change. She is dedicated to creating impactful, climate-conscious gatherings that inspire attendees and contribute to a sustainable future.

IGM Financial is one of Canada’s leading diversified wealth and asset management companies that provides a broad range of financial planning and investment management services to help more than two million Canadians meet their financial goals. IGM believes it has an important role to play in building a better tomorrow for Canadians. It works to accelerate positive change in areas where the organization can make the greatest impact, including building financial well-being among Canadians, advancing sustainable investing, and accelerating DEI in finance.