“ For the most part it is more expensive , you can ’ t get around that . If you want to buy a shirt from Primark and think it ’ s genuinely okay that they can sell you a shirt for £ 2.50 and think back to what has been done to whoever made it , it doesn ’ t take a lot of brains to realise that ’ s not reasonable .
“ If you spend a fairer amount of money , it is not ruinous .”
Through the charity Toilet Twinning 73 Media helps provide sanitation in developing countries and has planted 20,000 trees through ForestNation .
“ We went through a UN accredited process to find out how to do that ,” explains Tranter . “ Our first forest is in Tanzania , so it also provides work and we can work out how many hours of work the community is getting from it . We can measure how much oxygen is being released . It ’ s a detailed and ongoing process by the end of this year we will have reforested 80 hectares , which isn ’ t huge , but is a decent area and it ’ s a measurable way to show what we ’ re doing .
“ It ’ s a tangible thing . Clients really love that . Sift followed the same example , Nineteen Group are now doing it with Manufacturing and Engineering Week . All these little things added together become a huge thing . That ’ s the key element .”
“ On the agency side we get asked all the time ‘ what ’ s your sustainability policy ?’ It ’ s increasingly a factor in sponsorship and engagement . We ’ ve had clients choose us over other agencies because of that single thing .”
Tranter implores other events businesses to think about what they can do and adds that the effort makes ethical businesses more attractive to work for .
“ If every event organiser went out to their team and asked ‘ how can we be proactively helping our community , making a difference , thinking about sustainability , how can we be better , who would like to volunteer to be part of a panel ?’ People would be biting your arm off .
“ The gains you make if you ’ re transparent from a staff perspective are huge . They want to buy into a company ethos where they do good . That culture is a really great selling point for recruitment . It genuinely matters and its increasingly important for bringing new people into the industry . Something like this gains you a lot of support and engagement from your staff .”
Has Tranter hit the holy grain of perfect sustainability ? More of a work in progress he concludes .
“ I ’ m certainly not trying to be holier than thou , he says . “ There ’ s a lot of things I could be better at . I ’ ve got such a sweet tooth . I always try to buy [ fairtrade and paper-wrapped chocolate brand ] Tony Chocoloney – but if they ’ re not around I ’ ll still scoff a Mars bar . There ’ s always work to do . I ’ m not 100 % perfect . For me and for us as a business it ’ s about doing what you can do . Doing something is always better than doing nothing .” EN
May — 21