TCU Place is committed to leading the live event industry toward a more sustainable future for conferencing and events. We work hard to limit our impact on the environment and have created this guide to help event planners walk a little greener and achieve significant carbon savings at your events.
What Makes A Green Event?
Adopting eco-friendly practices to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, minimize waste, and effectively communicate to attendees how an event is reducing its environmental impacts, are all part of hosting a sustainable event. Whether it’s a large-scale, international conference or a simpler event, this guide illustrates that planning a sustainable event doesn’t need to be complex or expensive – in fact, sometimes the most simple and inexpensive initiatives are the most effective.
Why Hold a Green Event?
The events industry generates approximately 1.2 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year, with single-use plastics, food waste, and energy consumption being some of the significant contributors. Planning a sustainable and eco-friendly event can help to reduce this impact significantly, leaving a positive legacy behind. This is good for both the environment and your company or association’s reputation. A study by the Events Industry Council found that implementing sustainable practices can result in a 20-30% reduction in costs and a 60-80% reduction in waste.
As an enthusiastic partner, interested in the best practices of sustainable event management, TCU Place is here to help you run a successful event that achieves the following impacts:
- Reduces costs: Something as simple as eliminating paper administration or opting for local suppliers can reduce your event costs.
- Enhances your brand and reputation: Clients have come to expect a certain level of eco-friendly performance from business. Holding a sustainable event with us will not only enhance your brand and reputation but also meet or exceed the expectations of today’s standard practice.
- Encourages market transformation: We work closely with suppliers to change the way goods are packaged and delivered, encouraging the development of broader sustainable closed-loop systems and industries.
How To Reduce Waste At Your Event
Your Event Coordinator is available to help you increase the sustainability efforts for your event. We encourage the following practices to minimize environmental impact:
- Reduce Plastic Waste
Plastic is among our planet’s most significant environmental challenges. To reduce plastic at your in-person event, you can specifically request only washable dishes, provide attendees with refillable water bottles or encourage attendees to bring their own, and eliminate straws. If you must use single-use dishes – ask for biodegradable plates, cups and cutlery. - Use sustainable event marketing products/signage
Sustainable event marketing products, including eco-friendly swag bags, waterproof badges, or recycled lanyards, are a great way to show your commitment to sustainability. You can also work with vendors who use green manufacturing processes and offer to use only recycled paper when you do need to print. Choose digital signage rather than poster board or foam core for larger signage. - Choose eco-friendly transportation to our venue and within the city
Transportation is one of the most significant contributors to carbon emissions and air pollution. By encouraging eco-friendly transportation options for event attendees, you can reduce the carbon footprint associated with the event. Encourage guests to carpool or use public transportation. Your Event Coordinator can even help you arrange it. For attendees coming from out of town, look to arrange shuttle services for attendees staying at hotels downtown, or provide walking maps on an app to encourage fresh air in our walkable downtown area. - Use recyclable and eco-friendly swag
Encourage greener habits with eco-friendly swag options. Traditional swag like T-shirts and keychains often get tossed in landfills, leaving behind a hefty carbon footprint in our environment. In their place, consider environmentally friendly gifts that speak to attendees’ ecological values. Consider:- Recycled notebooks and journals
- Recycled mugs or tumblers
- Bamboo cutlery
- Plants and seed packets
- Reusable, natural tote bags
- Eco-friendly USB’s (maybe even with conference materials)
- Local food gifts like honey, mustard, or coffee
- Choose more sustainable menu offerings
TCU Place uses a wide variety of sustainability practices including composting and using local suppliers where possible. Some food offerings are also more sustainable than others because they are local or plant forward. Look for local offerings highlighted on menus. Work with your event coordinator to discuss opportunities here. - Choose to donate leftover food to a local agency in need
Food waste is a massive concern, not just a humanitarian one. Food wasted in enormous amounts is sent to landfills, which releases greenhouse gases like methane and is a direct cause of global warming. To avoid wasting food, you can donate leftover food to a local food bank or shelter. This can reduce waste and help those in need. It’s a win-win! - Go digital with program materials. TCU Place has gone paperless – we invite you to as well
Consider an app or electronic program rather than printed programs. Request monitors to show program schedules rather than expensive and wasteful paper or plastic signage. - Use local suppliers rather than shipping items to the convention centre
Did you know that we have a variety of local suppliers that can work with you to provide your conference materials – from marketing to wearables, gifts and artisan products. Save the shipping costs and materials. Choose local. Your Event Coordinator can help you with your objectives. - Choose water refill stations rather than water at tables
Offering water refill stations instead of providing bottled water or pitchers of water on the tables can significantly reduce waste. When we have water on the tables, much of it is unused, which causes waste. Refill stations with attendees’ reusable water bottles allows you to help your guests stay hydrated and help protect our environment. - Educate your attendees on sustainability efforts and ask for their help to help the environment
Educating your attendees is crucial in promoting eco-friendliness and sustainability. You can use digital signage on-site, social media, and email to inform attendees about your sustainability efforts and encourage them to participate. Maybe even turn it into a competition to see how much saving you can achieve at your event compared to others. Friendly competition serves our planet well!
Our vision statement at TCU Place says that we will LEAD THE WAY – and we want to make sure that encompasses environmental initiatives. We thank you for considering ways to make your event more sustainable and look forward to working with you to make our world a little greener.
Read more about our TCU Place Sustainability Initiatives here.