Good vs. Bad: Real Lessons from Sustainable Event Choices

As President of MeetGreen, the past 30 years of experience has given me real life lessons.  Making sustainable event choices in the events industry has guided myself and the MeetGreen team.  Pushing sustainability in the events industry, there have been both wise and bad choices along the way. Each one of these decisions has served as a “learning experience.”

Often, those choices are made by sustainable event organizers. Other times, they are choices vendors make on our behalf. Either way, here are a few examples.

Good Sustainable Event Choice – No Styrofoam Cups

One of the first choices of my career focused on not ordering Styrofoam cups. This story was worthy of its own blog post. It was a moment in time that changed MeetGreen and how we impact the world through the events industry.

Bad Choice – Not Verifying Sustainable Programs In Advance

Not asking for a back-of-house tour during the site inspection was a bad sustainable event decision. I should have checked and verified that there was a recycling program at the venue. In this case I believed the sales person that the recycling program was in place. This decision had an impactful consequence that effected the event’s sustainability initiative.

When I arrived for the 3,000-person event and asked where the recycling bins were, the operations staff said they were making them and would put them out. After intense questioning, the staff finally admitted they didn’t have recycling at the facility and would throw the bags marked as recycling in the trash dumpster.

This is an example that ensures I do a back-of-house tour every time.

To help you avoid this situation here’s the MeetGreen back-of-house tour checklist!

Good Sustainable Event Choice – Verify Wild-Caught Seafood

When ordering large amounts of salmon for an event, ask the chef to ensure it is wild-caught. Ensure it is not farmed, and then “trust but verify” by checking in the kitchen before the meal. Too often, farmed salmon has been substituted, and we have learned the hard way.

Here’s the Monterey Bay Aquarium seafood guides to help you navigate this situation.

Bad Choice – No Food Signage

Here is a real life situation of what can happen if you do NOT provide food signage. At a large tech event a person was exposed to something they had a severe allergy to. This situation included emergency responders and hospitalization.

This was preventable with due diligence on everyone’s part.

By asking the caterer to put out signs for each food item listing the contents and alerting guests when the food contains: peanuts, tree nuts, or seafood this can be avoided.

Emergencies occur when a guest doesn’t ask, and there are no signs for labeling the food items.

Good Sustainable Event Choice – Include Sustainable Event Policies

Include your organization’s sustainable event policies in:

• RFP
• Selection process
• Contract with the venue or vendor

This will ensure that all key stakeholders know early what is required and how the goals can be achieved.

In our Sustainable Event Kit we provide a sustainability policy template if you need help getting started with documenting this for your event.

Bad Choice – Individual Packets

Once, at an environmental conference that included a keynote presentation by Al Gore, the catering staff put out tiny ketchup bottles on the buffet table. Hundreds of them! This after the BEO expressly required bulk dispensers. Knowing that our speaker would be passing the buffet on his way to the stage, it was vital to change to bulk dispensers.

The catering manager actually told me the hotel and nearby stores (in NYC) didn’t have any ketchup bottles and that they had to use individual ones. Furious, I had the small bottles removed and went down the street to buy ketchup for the event.

Good Choice – Donate Leftover Meals

Ask the caterer or venue where leftover meals will be donated during the planning process. If you receive pushback, you can point them to the Bill Emerson Act or Feeding America, which has a food bank directory by zip code.

Also, prearrange for any material donations that may serve local community organizations.

Bad Choice – Including Year & Location on Signage

Putting the year or location of the event on the signage is a bad choice. The signage can never be reused for subsequent events and must be tossed out.

Word to the wise, if the attendees don’t know the date or the location when standing at the registration desk, you have more significant problems.

In Conclusion

While bad choices make good stories, they are NOT the goal. By sharing these real-world examples of how an event organizer’s or venue/vendor’s decision-making can impact the event in a good or bad way, I hope you can learn from them and “Make a Good Choice.”