Event Greening

Event greening is the process of incorporating socially and environmentally responsible decision making into the planning, organisation and implementation of, and participation in, an event. It involves including sustainable development principles and practices in all levels of event organisation, and aims to ensure that an event is hosted responsibly. It represents the total package of interventions at an event, and needs to be done in an integrated manner. Event greening should start at the inception of the project, and should involve all the key role players, such as clients, organisers, venues, subcontractors and suppliers.

Grace Stead is a member of Green Meeting Industry Council and a Director of the Event Greening Forum in South Africa. She established Steadfast Greening in 2007 to focus on event greening and is a founding member of icologie.

Services

Our services include:

Consultancy and advice on planning and implementing event greening
Energy, Waste, Water and Biodiversity assessment for baseline purposes
Auditing and carbon foot printing
Monitoring and reporting

Training

We provide scheduled training courses that include the following main elements:

What is event greening? What are the benefits and why is it important?
What is climate change, global warming and carbon off-setting?
What are the main greening practices that need to be implemented, such as waste reduction, eco procurement and energy efficiency?
The section on practical implementation will include how to get started, the management principles and high impact areas that need to be considered, such as venues, exhibition, F&B, marketing and transport.

Have a look at our training courses that we provide around event greening.

Experience

Experience specifically relating to event greening includes:

Eco Audit for Meetings Africa, March 2011
Compilation of the Smart Events Handbook for the City of Cape Town
Key role player and facilitator for the Event Greening Forum established in Cape Town in October 2009
Event Greening for the Green Building Council of SA Conference, Oct 2009
Eco Audit for Rocking the Daisies Music and Lifestyle Festival, October 2009 and 2010
Input into the Event Green Guidelines for the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), compiled by ICLEI, March 2009
Compilation of Business Plan and Minimum Environmental Standards for Greening 2010 FIFA World Cup (stadia, fan parks, transport, accommodation, media, etc); in partnership with Sustainable Energy Africa and appointed by FIFA LOC, 200
Compilation of Greening Guidelines for Large Sports Events, with a specific focus on the 2010 FIFA World Cup; in partnership with the Environmental Evaluation Unit of UCT appointed by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, 2008
Event greening of the Green Building Council of SA Conference, Nov 2008
Eco audits for Spur, Bishops, Steenberg Estate and others. Compilation of a booklet about Eco Audits for Schools in partnership with CCT and ACCESS (African Centre for Climate and Earth System Sciences) from UCT
Training and support to Spier Leisure and the Vineyard Hotel in developing a green conference option, 2007
Event Greening for the Mother City Queer Project (MCQP), Dec 2007
Event Greening for the SAF-Q Year End Function at Ratanga Junction, Dec ‘07
Event Greening for the Green Building Conference and Green Living Expo at the CSIR in Johannesburg, Nov 2007
Event Greening for the Promotion of Renewable Energy in Africa (PREA) at the Sustainability Institute, Oct 2007
Development of a Greening Policy for Fairfield Tourism Group, Sept 2007
Assisted Seven Star Events with the event greening of the Live Earth Concert at the Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg, July 2007
Event Greening for the Western Cape Provincial Government Renewable Energy and Climate Change Summit, June 2007
Event Greening for the City of Cape Town World Environment Day, June 2007