The venue should also know the local market and involve local businesses in supplying the event .
A representative from Central Hall Westminster , said : “ We push for sustainability as we recognise that our operations have a local and global environmental impact , and we are committed to reducing this as much as possible by following sustainability best practices .
“ It is crucial for our future that we operate a sustainable business and we proactively encourage it wherever we have influence , such
as with our catering and AV partners and our suppliers .”
This alignment between venue , organiser and suppliers is paramount , and Central Hall Westminster recognises that catering is a key factor in keeping an event ’ s waste to a minimum . Thus , by highlighting key waste factors at traditional live events , it was able to work with the supply chain to keep sustainability top of the bill throughout the event cycle .
The representative from the venue added : “ The team also worked closely with our on-site catering partner , Green and Fortune , to provide sustainable
The panel of eventprofs share their views catering for the event . Sustainable catering is just as important to Green and Fortune as it is to us and includes reducing food miles as much as possible . Menus embrace seasonality and the food service is reviewed regularly to ensure the most sustainable material possible is being used .”
Formulating formats EventLAB was a hybrid event , which gave attendees the opportunity to attend content sessions remotely , keeping travel to a minimum for those who had specific needs outside of networking . But this new format does have its own sustainability connotations , meaning looking into suppliers for this stream was also important for Hire Space .
Poland said : “ We live-streamed the content so that delegates could watch the event without travelling . Hundreds of event professionals chose to do this . We know ‘ going digital ’ presents some of its own issues on sustainability , so we chose as our AV provider White Light , who invest in updating their equipment to lower-impact technologies like LED , leading to energy savings of up to 34 % year on year .”
Working with the supply chain boils down to effective communication , alignment of goals and education of the importance of sustainability to businesses that may be further behind in their journey to going green .
Poland concluded : “ The events industry has come a long way on sustainability very quickly , but we are all still learning . Every event should be a chance to learn and improve , and to educate all stakeholders in that event so that they can go away and implement things that will improve their own events .” CN www . conference-news . co . uk