In August 2024, British trip-hop band Massive Attack hosted a one-day music festival with a specific focus on environmental sustainability. The event boasted all vegan catering, composting toilets, electrically powered stages, stalls, and logistics, and perhaps most importantly, no parking facilities, with attendees encouraged to walk, cycle, or get public transport. The event is said to have been the lowest-carbon concert of its scale ever held, though it’s certainly not the first example of a more ‘sustainable’ approach to event management.
Glastonbury music festival is now largely plastic-free; Olympic athletes sleep on recyclable cardboard beds; FIFA is taking steps to measure, reduce, and offset World Cup-related greenhouse gas emissions; and international conference centres and trade shows are taking a stance on green energy. Around the world, sustainable events are gaining pace as brands and businesses face pressure from governments, regulators, and consumers to move with the times and reduce their environmental impact.
While the environmental impact of the events sector is significant, sustainable development in this industry should go beyond merely reducing this impact. It’s important to recognise the value events bring in addressing sustainability challenges. Hosting a sustainable event is an opportunity not only to promote green initiatives but also to explore society’s engagement with pressing environmental issues and trial the innovative solutions that seek to tackle them. In this blog, we’ll explore this idea in more detail and answer the question: Are sustainable events here to stay?
The rise of sustainable events
The events industry is undergoing a significant transformation, with more emphasis placed on environmental sustainability than ever before, and it’s not hard to see why.
The events industry is responsible for large amounts of waste and emissions. The average event wastes between 15–20% of all the food it produces[i], and the average conference attendee generates 1.89kg of waste (of which 1.16kg is landfilled) and more than 176kg of CO2 emissions per day[ii]. In 2022, it was estimated that the events industry was responsible for 10% of total global CO2 emissions, equivalent to the annual emissions of the USA[iii].
With statistics like this, you’d be forgiven for thinking the best solution would be to move away from in-person events altogether or at least dramatically reduce their numbers. However, if the COVID-19 pandemic showed us anything, it’s the importance of interacting with colleagues, customers, and suppliers face-to-face rather than online.
Events are dynamic spaces where people come together to network and share experiences; they serve as catalysts for idea generation, innovation, and collaboration. When it comes to environmental sustainability, events have a key role to play in promoting ideas and innovations aimed at making different industries more sustainable.
With this idea in mind, in the following sections, we will look at how events can also be used to test new concepts and find solutions to pressing environmental issues.
A closed-loop ecosystem
Trade shows, conferences, and brand-sponsored events, such as music festivals and sports tournaments, present a unique opportunity for brands to test new ideas and gather consumer feedback without running a full-fledged trial.
“Events provide an amazing closed-loop ecosystem that organisations can use to run pilot projects,” says Amy Hooper, Innovation Manager, Biffa Waste Services Ltd. “Out in the real world, you have very little insight into, or control over, how a consumer will engage with or discard packaging and products. Events allow businesses a unique opportunity to oversee many key aspects of consumer interaction with items – from usage to disposal. It is even possible to create and test scenarios aimed at enabling more control of the end-of-life phase.”
Within the confines of an event space, brands can take the opportunity to trial new packaging concepts and monitor how their packaging performs, as well as whether consumers dispose of items in a way that is anticipated. This can offer real-world, and often real-time, insight into whether a new packaging design or material is practical for larger-scale use.
The above is particularly valuable when considering the vast challenges global brands face, including how to implement scalable, practical solutions for reusable or returnable packaging. Events can provide a small, controlled environment to test new concepts and solutions for this packaging, such as gamifying the returns process and providing dedicated smart bins that scan returned smart packaging equipped with the likes of QR codes, radio frequency identity (RFID) tags, or near-field communication (NFC) chips.
Whether it’s reusable containers, fully compostable packaging, closed-loop recycling, or a mix of all three, the closed-loop nature of events allows brands to see first-hand how consumers respond to packaging while providing an opportunity to better control or support a more sustainable end-of-life phase.
Consumer engagement
Events also allow brands to engage with attendees about their new packaging concepts and ideas, providing a direct line of consumer contact, feedback, and data needed to adjust product and packaging design.
“When people are at an event, they are already more engaged and more willing to try new concepts. It’s an opportunity for brands to engage with consumers and see their response,” continues Hooper.
As the UK’s leading sustainable waste management company, Biffa offers bespoke solutions for moving the management of more waste up the waste hierarchy. Its innovation efforts focus on trialling solutions that not only reduce waste but promote the circular economy, advancing the reuse, redistribution, and recycling of resources. The company was enlisted as the official waste management provider for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, with over 100 Biffa employees volunteering as Recycling Ambassadors, engaging with event attendees, and helping them use the correct bins for their waste.
“During the event, our Recycling Ambassadors had the opportunity to connect directly with attendees, uncovering valuable insights into consumer perspectives on waste. They were able to see first-hand how different items are typically disposed of and explore the reasons behind these choices in real-time,” says Hooper. “Events provide a relatively unique opportunity to get this level of direct engagement with consumers.”
The growing instance of packaging equipped with technologies like RFID tags, microchips, or QR codes for consumer engagement, gamification, and marketing – also known as ‘connected packaging’ – can also help brands collect this valuable consumer feedback. Are consumers excited by the new concepts? Are there any issues or improvements that would make recycling or reusing packaging easier or more instinctive?
This first-hand data can allow brands to change their packaging strategy to ensure they can create products that are easy to use, have an appropriate end-of-life approach in place, and resonate with their target audience.
Brand awareness
Of course, the benefits of running an event with a clear focus on environmental sustainability extend further than being able to collect consumer feedback and trial new products and ideas. There’s a growing body of evidence to demonstrate consumer support for brands with clear commitments to sustainability.
According to Statista, in 2021, approximately 44% of consumers globally said they were more likely to buy from a brand with clear environmental commitments[iv]. While a 2023 report from Deloitte suggests that consumers want businesses to help them adopt more sustainable habits and are prepared to be loyal to those who do so, with one in three consumers (30%) having boycotted certain brands because of sustainability-related concerns[v].
By running an event with a clear focus on improving current practices with a view to becoming more sustainable, brands can increase brand awareness and educate consumers about their sustainability goals and commitments, making it more likely that consumers will leave an event with a desire to spread the word.
Conclusion: Are sustainable events here to stay?
Sustainable events are more than just a passing trend.
With growing awareness of the environmental impact of the events industry and increasing consumer demand for sustainable brands and products, there’s never been a better time to use event platforms to innovate, collaborate, and trial new ideas and concepts.
We’d love to hear from you if you are a brand looking to explore options for connected packaging for sustainable events. . Please get in touch or visit our CSR pages to find out more about Domino’s commitments to sustainability.
[i] https://www.limevenueportfolio.com/beyond-food-reports/
[ii] https://meetgreen.com/2019/11/cost-savings-of-going-green/
[iii] https://climatetrade.com/how-to-make-carbon-neutral-events-a-guide-to-sustainable-event-planning/
[iv] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1305896/share-of-consumers-more-likely-to-buy-from-sustainable-brands/
[v] https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/about/press-room/high-prices-continue-to-come-at-a-cost-to-the-planet.html