In essence, sustainable conferences are not just about ‘doing the right thing’, but also about creating a positive impact on the environment, enhancing brand image, boosting attendee experience, and promoting a culture of environmental responsibility. Your conference may even inspire your attendees to adopt eco-friendly practices in their own lives. 

You will attract eco-conscience attendees, sponsors and media attention (your marketing people will love you)! Attendees appreciate the efforts of a sustainable conference and are more likely to feel positive about the event. 

– 15 ideas to help you run a small footprint event –

1. Put someone in charge to ensure the small footprint theme is consistent and promote it as such.
2. Produce an environmental policy for future conferences and meetings.
3. Offer attendees the option of purchasing a tree when they register (we can help out here).
4. Advise speakers about your small footprint event and ask them to consistently keep participants informed.
5. Don’t laminate! Do you really need your signs to outlast us all?
6.  Use a venue that has a sustainable policy. Check out the Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre (GCCEC) which is the benchmark for sustainable practices.
7. Make it a ‘paper free’ event, or at the very least use double sided pages and recycled paper (best brands include Evolve, Vision and Fuji). Avoid Reflex, they are still using our native forests for their pulp supplies.
8. Encourage public transport by offering prizes, discounts, free glass of wine etc when they present their train/bus ticket. Give instructions to attendees as to which tram, bus or train will get them to the event.
9. Give promotional sustainable gifts that are made from local producers (with little/no packaging).
10. Distribute a low ecological impact lanyard. Use regular thread with a knot/bead linking both extremes.
11. Encourage recycling with a simple bin system.
12. Offer only vegetarian/vegan meals.Plant based food has a lower carbon footprint.
13. Don’t offer plastic water bottles. Have glasses and water jugs on hand. Ask the venue to adhere to this.
14. If you must use plastic name tags, collect them at the end of the conference to reuse the next year.
15. Ditch the straw. Again ask the venue to adhere.

Fifteen Trees can help make your event just that little greener by organising the planting of one tree for each attendee at a cost of $9.65/tree (includes GST).  The trees will be planted by community groups (such as schools and Landcare). Once planted (in the wetter months of the year) you will be able to see photos of the trees and read the comments by the community groups who have planted them. You are then able to use these images on your website to promote your green policies. This is a tangible and visible contribution to Australian forest restoration projects and will resonate deeply with your attendees.

It’s not so hard to ensure your events are sustainable, it just takes a little forward planning and a couple of killer colleagues to work with. Go all out and up the ante at your event this year. Purchase your trees for an event here.

We’d love to know how you go! Did you hit any snags and if so, how did you work around them? Let me know via <[email protected]> so I can update this article with your creative suggestions.

Writer; Colleen Filippa

With a background in Environmental Science, Colleen is the Founding Director of Fifteen Trees. In 2009, after 20 years in primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions, Colleen left the classroom to start the company. Fifteen Trees is a social enterprise assisting individuals and companies to reduce their carbon footprint by supporting community groups such as Landcare, schools and environmental networks.