Louisa Daley chats to industry experts to understand why forming a sustainable baseline is crucial to greener events

ustainability has been the talk of the town as of late . It ’ s a fact that , as an industry , we are one of the most wasteful by nature . However , we have been making strides to flip this script . By sharing best practise and integrating more sustainable measures into our events – we ’ re looking to leave a positive impact on both our attendees and planet .

Yet , the question remains : how do we push the needle further when we ’ re all operating without an industry standard ? How do we know we are doing the right thing , if we don ’ t have something to compare it to ?

I spoke to Christianne Beck , founder , Worlds Better ; Warren Campbell , general manager , 15Hatfields ; Priscilla Lim , events manager , IR Magazine ; Carina Jandt , director and co-founder , Event Cycle ; Matt Grey , founder , event : decision ; as well as Kate Kieran , TRACE customer success manager ; and Rebecca Lardeur , climate strategist , isla ; to find out what this standard would like in an ideal world , who needs to be involved and the challenges creating one may bring .

“ Because the events world is so unique and so bespoke led , it ’ s really difficult to provide a standard .”

– Carina Jandt

Different strokes All of the eventprofs interviewed agreed that there should be a standard when it comes to sustainability . “ I wholeheartedly believe that there should be an industry standard ,” says Campbell . “ A standardisation is something that will be very helpful when meeting sustainable goals ,” adds Kieran .

However , the practicalities of implementing just one sustainability standard for every type of event is unlikely . But why ? It comes down to the very nature of our industry : “ because the events world is so unique and so bespoke led , it ’ s really difficult to provide a standard ,” says Jandt . From conferences and exhibitions , to brand activations and live music events – each require different guidelines and strategies . To add to this , isla ’ s recent ‘ Temperature

Check Report ’, reminds us that ‘ not all event emissions are created equal ’. Grey echoes Jandt ’ s view and explains : “ You could say that the event industry is too diverse , that sustainability is a complex and context-dependent