5 minute read
EVENT GREENING FORUM
The grey in greening (Part 1)
Event greening – incorporating sustainable practices into how an event is managed – can be a confusing space. In this twopart series, the Event Greening Forum unpacks a few common dilemmas, addressing the sustainability issues at stake and what is the better thing to do.
Is there a quick way of understanding the three-bin system?
A popular event greening practice is to separate event waste at source, diverting landfill waste, organic waste and recyclables into three separate bins. This prevents contamination between the waste streams (such as food waste making paper waste unrecyclable), allowing for higher recycling rates.
However, ensuring that event attendees throw the right waste in the right bin can be tricky. Grace Stead, a sustainability consultant for the events industry and Founder of Steadfast Greening, shares a few tips that can help make this system work:
• Always place the three bins together, and make sure that there are enough bin stations throughout the venue.
• Use colour, a label, and clear visuals to identify which bin is for which type of waste.
• Bin placement is also critical and needs to reflect the type and volume of waste anticipated.
• Colour coding also helps with consistency, such as “GREEN goes straight to recycling so make sure it is clean, ORANGE you need to be cautious and check if it is really organic and RED is for all the rubbish going to the rubbish dump — the last stop”. This kind of consistency of colour and placement, if done across events, could help to make the system more universally understood.
She also suggests asking yourself these questions when you need to quickly decide if something belongs in the following types of waste bins:
• Would a pig eat it*? If yes, then it goes into the organic waste bin.
• Would you be willing to stick your hand in a bin filled with this? If it’s a recyclable material (paper, tin, glass and plastic — the bin should indicate which of these belong here) and you answered yes (i.e. it’s clean) then it can go in the recycling bin.
• Would you be willing to stick your hand in a bin filled with this? If no (i.e. it’s dirty) then it goes into the landfill bin. *Organic waste should not be fed to pigs, but rather composted. This question is just an easier way for people to assess this type of waste.
Why is going paperless considered green when paper comes from trees?
The paper industry does necessitate planting trees, and paper has a place in our world. But paper flyers and brochures – often printed specifically for events – can be hugely wasteful, says Grace. This is especially true as event attendees are known to throw them away almost immediately or are reluctant to take them in the first place (especially if they are flying home and don’t want the extra weight). Post-event waste highlights this problem, with boxes of glossy brochures being dumped by the bins, which creates waste and wasteful expenditure.
About the EGF
The Event Greening Forum (EGF) is a non-profit organisation that promotes sustainability within the business events sector. It does this by hosting educational sessions for industry and lobbying government in an effort to implement sustainability principles into the daily operations of the events industry. The EGF was established through dedication and support of eight industry associations who are recognised as founding members. The founding members are key industry associations working together to promote South Africa as a destination for various types of events.
Want to know more?
If you would like to know more about event greening, visit www.eventgreening.co.za where you can browse the free resources, sign up to the monthly newsletter, or contact them directly with any queries.
Contact: Lynn Mcleod
T: 082 891 5883
E: lynn@eventgreening.co.za
Mike Lysko, chief executive officer and founder of Flock Eventing Platform, added that technology brings multiple advantages to an event, specifically in comparison to printed materials. For example:
When information needs to be changed, paper items must be reprinted. This not only carries a cost and requires extra time (which events are typically short on), but it creates additional, unnecessary waste. Using technology eliminates these pain-points.
Technology allows you to have multiple screens and multiple messages on one device, whereas printed banners, agendas, brochures and so forth are limited by space and cost.
Event attendees almost certainly have a smart phone in their pocket. Using these existing communication channels is more efficient (not to mention convenient) than creating new paper channels.
“Technology is improving all the time,” Mr Lysko said. “From the rise of cloud computing (which uses fewer servers and less power, and therefore has lower greenhouse gas emissions) to the improved energy efficiency of devices. There’s also a trend for data centres to use renewable energy, and servers – which need to be kept very cool – to be placed in cold climates.” These factors all help to make technology increasingly sustainable.
