With the world abuzz lately about everything green, I thought it apt to share 3 essential ways to make your next event a more sustainable one.  And certainly, the transition from Christmas to Carnival season here at home means plenty liming – concerts, all-inclusives fetes, breakfast parties, cooler sessions, and the like.

A major consequence of these social gatherings is the volume of waste produced. More often than not, garbage collection is an oversight during the planning phase. Typically, leading to under-provision of waste receptacles during the event, littering and higher custodian/clean-up costs after the event. Not to mention, hardly any,  if at all, recyclables – materials worthy of diversion from the landfill – are collected. Plastic bottles, aluminum cans, glass bottles, cardboard/tetra paks by the binfuls are all needlessly dumped. Each of these materials represent a resource or waste stream that has a value on the commodity market. Green industry truly worthy of our investment.

This leads me quite nicely to my first suggestion to green your event/festival – recycle! Separate receptacles according to major streams expected. For example, bins for plastic bottle and aluminum can collection should be easily differentiated from bins for food boxes; and glass bottles can be controlled at the bars by emptying contents into reusable cups.

A second green strategy to implement when hosting your next event is alternative transport options like carpooling, public transit or shuttles. Of course, the size of crowd you expect will dictate to a large extent your transportation arrangements. If and when possible, coordinate with local public transit schedules or service providers for shuttle service for the elderly, differently abled and so on. Encourage carpooling to and from your venue as well for those who are bound to travel in their personal vehicles.

The third green strategy is perhaps the most obscure. Although they relate to the initial planning stages, marketing and branding, are rarely considered areas to be ‘greened’. Going paperless is the hallmark of greening strategies. However, using social media and other electronic marketing platforms is only one way to improve your ESG bottom-line. Sourcing recycled content materials for printing billboards, banners, buntings and the like is also a great way to reduce our event’s impact. The traditional hand-painted signs which are often crafted on discarded wood scraps is another very sustainable approach to marketing that simultaneously celebrates a local folk art tradition.

So as you patronise and participate in the various festivities, look for ways to reduce your impact (footprint). Ain’t nothing wrong with being the conscious reveler in the crowd.