Making Your Event Green & Sustainable
- Provide clearly labeled bins to collect and separate recyclable materials.
- Purchase materials for your event that are made from recycled goods.
- Purchase materials for your event that can be recycled after your event. DO NOT PURCHASE STYROFOAM!!!
- Don’t over buy when purchasing food for events.
- Remember, most events are typically for fun or learning purposes, not to provide a meal. Provide enough for your planned attendance to have a treat, but don’t be afraid of your numbers running high and having your event run out of food. When you’re out, you’re out.
- Purchasing Guidelines (source: Aramark Campus Dining – Catering)
- Drinks:
- “Punch bowl” service: 1 gallon of drink will typically serve 12 people.
- 2-Liter Bottles – 2 bottles should be enough for approximately 12 people.
- When dealing with bottled or canned beverages, 1 drink per person is typically enough.
- Chips:
- Individual sized bags - 1 bag per person.
- Cakes:
- As of March, 2009 - ordering decorated cakes from Aramark was found to be cheaper than going through Wal-Mart or HyVee. The quality is great!
- More items will be added as determined.
- Advertise in advance that participants should bring their own foodware items (reusable utensils, cups/mugs, cloth napkins) to minimize the use of disposables. Offer a discount or prize for people who bring their own. If possible, set up convenient dishwashing stations.
- Use unbleached, recycled content or biodegradable foodware whenever possible. Some examples are:
- Unbleached and uncoated hot & cold cups, clear “plastic” cold cups, and biodegradable straws
- Recycled content, biodegradable bowls, trays, plates, and hinged-lid (clamshell) containers
- Corn starch/wheat-based, biodegradable utensils
- Avoid using water from disposable plastic bottles. If you must use these, buy from a local company that sells local filtered water using a reverse osmosis process. This is preferable to spring water that has been shipped thousands of miles before reaching you.
- In order to distribute water more sustainably, ask participants to bring their own cups/bottles. If you have gate security, remind them that you are encouraging people to bring their own containers so that they are prepared if they are searching bags.
- Provide/sell recycled content water bottles, which can also serve as a promotional item for your group.
- Offer discounts on beverages to those who bring their own containers or who use the reusable ones for sale, and advertise this in your outreach materials and event promotions.
- Consider not providing disposable cups at all, prompting participants to use reusable souvenir cups or the cups they brought with them. Be sure that signs are placed prominently reminding attendees of these options and summarizing the many environmental and social benefits of using reusables.
- Managing the waste stream starts long before your attendees are standing in front of the garbage/recycling/compost bin. Focus on the adage, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” — in that order. Think about every item of trash, recycling or compost that might be generated at your event. Can you reduce the quantity of each? Can you promote reusable foodware that attendees bring with them? Can you eliminate paper towels entirely? Less waste means less of a need to recycle or compost.
- Create “resource recovery stations” that have recycling and compost bins in addition to trash. It is also a good idea to post signs, photos and/or samples of materials that go into each bin to help people find the right bins for their items. Place them in highly visible areas so that more people will use them.
- Station a volunteer or two at the recovery stations to assist and educate your attendees. In our experience, constant oversight is necessary to ensure that attendees dispose of items in the right bins.
- Consider displaying some of the contents in clear bags so that people will see where to place their recyclables. (It is easy to poke holes in them to remove any misplaced items later.)
- Consider charging for parking. People will carpool much more if they have to pay to park. Consider setting a parking policy that charges more for large vehicles with few passengers. Advertise this fact in your handouts and materials so people know it in advance and can plan to carpool. Consider reducing the rate for people who have all the seats in their vehicles full. Always have a group rate to encourage carpooling and additional attendance! Have your parking managed by a local nonprofit or environmental/social justice organization in exchange for a percentage of the parking fees as a donation. This helps spread the benefit of your event to allied groups and models a positive way of encouraging sustainable transportation.
- Use only high-content recycled, non-chlorine bleached, and tree-free paper for your brochures, flyers, posters, signs, handouts, etc. Use soy-based inks for printing. Note this info on your materials!
- Minimize paper use by using e-mail, listservs, phone banks, and your website to promote your event.
- Online registration/RSVPs for the event should be used whenever possible to reduce paper use.
- Avoid using glossy advertising, and reduce the use of pictures wherever possible. Include a coupon, even for a token amount, on your handouts or promo pieces. This will greatly reduce the number that are thrown away, and increase attendance at your event. Consider using a tri-fold flyer (i.e., three notices to a sheet); this size is easier to put into your pocket and cuts paper usage by 2/3.
- When posting flyers or posters, use transparent, biodegradable cellulose tape instead of acetate tape.
- Whenever possible, buy from manufacturers and suppliers as close to home as possible. This saves energy and supports local job creation.
- If you will be making event T-shirts, use organic cotton or hemp. Also try to confirm that the shirts are made without the use of sweatshop labor (look for the union label to be sure).
- Provide a booth with information on greening your event where participants can get the full picture about what you did and how to implement your practices in their own lives. Solicit art projects from local artists using reclaimed or recycled materials (i.e., scrap metal, old tires, glass bottles, reused fabrics, etc.) for display at your event. Encourage art projects that depict your event’s social, political, or environmental themes. Consider holding a contest for the best display!
Rent, purchase, or find a donation of table linens and fabrics for table coverings instead of paper.
- Reuse nametag holders from event to event. Collect nametags as people are leaving.
- Attempt to utilize local speakers, artists, caterers, etc. to minimize transportation needs.
- Consider making your event smoke-free. Not only does smoking cause illness and air pollution, it wastes a great deal of energy, land, and resources. Cigarette butts, ashes, and so forth are a huge nuisance, another source of trash, and a needless fire hazard.
- Carefully choose your sponsors, making sure that their practices are in integrity with your commitments around environmental sustainability and social responsibility. Sponsorship is essentially advertising, so you should carefully consider who and what you are choosing to align yourself with as an organization.
- Organize a project (like a beach cleanup, a composting party, or creek restoration) that benefits the community and spotlights local environmental groups and issues and ways to make a difference! Donate some or all event proceeds toward an important cause.
Source: Guide to Greening Events © 2003-2006 by Circle of Life