As sustainability became a norm, events consistently started to change.
Venues swapped outdated lighting for energy-efficient systems, plastic bottles began disappearing from buffets, paper signs gave way to digital screens and short-haul flights lost ground to train rides. What once felt like one-off eco gestures now signals something deeper: events are being designed with sustainability at their core.
For planners, that shift comes down to hundreds of possibilities that shape the event experience. Where people travel from, how materials are sourced and even what happens to leftovers once the lights go out. Each one either adds to the footprint or reduces it. Together, they tell whether an event delivered on its responsibility to be greener.
10 Simple ways to create sustainable events
1. Make low-impact travel the easy option
Travel is where the majority of events rack up their environmental cost. It’s also the area with the highest potential to reduce it, if the proper infrastructure is in place.
Start by looking at how people are expected to arrive and move around. Can they step off a train and walk straight to the venue? Is there a shuttle option that uses biofuel or electric vehicles? Would a simple digital transport guide help attendees avoid taxis and navigate local routes with less friction? Can the schedule itself be designed to reduce unnecessary travel?
These aren’t dramatic changes. But they make sustainable options feel like the default instead of the alternative. Hybrid formats are part of this conversation, too. Streaming keynotes or offering virtual breakouts doesn’t make an event less valuable; rather, it makes it more accessible.
2. Choose venues that back up their sustainability claims
The venue is the first big signal on whether your event will meet sustainability standards.
Certifications like LEED or ISO 20121 show that the property has made significant investments in energy efficiency, waste reduction and mindful sourcing. But don’t stop at logos on a website. Ask how the venue powers its operations: do they track energy usage, purchase renewable power or use intelligent lighting and cooling that adapts to occupancy?
Details like this are often overlooked. But they make a difference, not just to your footprint, but to the kind of partnership you’re building with the space.
Planners who lead with environmental priorities during sourcing help shift the standard. Every time a venue wins business because of its sustainability profile, the bar moves higher for the next event.
3. Design with waste reduction in mind
Every event generates some waste. The goal is to ensure it’s not the kind that ends up in a landfill or in the background of post-event photos.
While planning the event, opt for digital programmes over printed brochures. Use signage that can be updated and reused. Work with caterers who minimise single-use packaging and build food donation or composting plans into their preparation.
Onsite, it’s about habits. Water stations instead of bottles. Compostable serviceware. Setting up collection points for lanyards and name badges, as well as recycling bins that are clearly labelled and easy to find.
When such processes are built into the plan, attendees follow the lead. And you avoid the scramble of last-minute sustainability gestures that don’t really land.
4. Make food a significant part of the sustainability story
Menus carry more weight than people would want to think. Sourcing decisions shape emissions, dietary preferences shape perception and how food is handled after the event shapes the outcome.
Local ingredients reduce transport impact and support nearby producers. Seasonal menus align with lower energy inputs and tend to be fresher. An appealing selection of plant-based dishes can help represent a clear emission drop when they’re offered.
Waste also needs attention. What happens to untouched meals? Can leftovers be safely donated?
These questions show that sustainability applies to every aspect of the experience, including the one people look forward to most.
5. Invite attendees to participate in the process
Attendees want to make greener choices. But they need to know what’s already in place, and how their actions fit in. Focus on that. Show what’s compostable. Explain why menus are structured the way they are. Let them know where unserved meals go.
Then go one step further. Include prompts in your event app that encourage participation. You can incentivise attendees to bring their own bottles, return their lanyards, volunteer for clean-up events or donate to the conservation efforts tied to the host city.
Just let people know they’re part of the effort so they leave feeling like their presence helped reduce environmental impact.
6. Make your sustainability story visible
A part of what makes an event sustainable happens behind the scenes. That doesn’t mean it should stay there.
Tell the story behind your venue by using digital signage to show how you reduced waste, introducing a section to the event website that explains your sourcing and donation strategy, and sharing photos of local partners or kitchen teams helping to bring the plan to life.
Sponsors usually want to be part of this narrative as well. Give them space to co-own it with joint messaging or shared signage that highlights their role.
7. Replace paper with digital
Printed schedules and paper surveys used to be essentials. Now, they’re just a waste.
Digital-first communication is more environmentally friendly and easier to manage. A well-designed app can do everything a printed programme once did, and more. QR codes can connect people to content and surveys can be filled out and analysed on the same day.
If there are materials that still need to be printed, choose recycled paper and responsible inks. But make that the exception.
8. Track your impact and share the results
If sustainability is part of your event’s core, it should be baked into the process. That could look like tracking carbon emissions with a basic calculator and keeping straightforward records on things like shuttle use, donated meals, waste diversion, energy and water.
You don’t need a full-blown audit every time. Some effective metrics are the simplest: how many single-use bottles were avoided, or how much food didn’t go to waste? These numbers are tangible and are easy to explain to attendees.
And when the event wraps up, share what you learned via a closing slide, a quick post-event email, or maybe even a few highlights on social media.
9. Partner with the host community
Events don’t happen in isolation; they take place in real places, with real people. So, why not build the experience around that?
Sometimes it could be as simple as working with local farms or sourcing ingredients from nearby vendors. In other cases, it might mean collaborating with artists, non-profits or community leaders who know the city inside and out.
When these connections are intentional, they lend your event a context and a lasting impact that extends beyond the emissions.
10. Treat sustainability as an ongoing practice
There’s no finish line when it comes to sustainability. The bar keeps moving, and that’s a good thing.
Use each event to test something new. Document what worked, flag what didn’t, share findings with your team and with others in the industry, publish your practices and ask for feedback. Look at what leading organisers are doing and adapt what makes sense.
Sustainable event planning is iterative, and the more these lessons circulate, the stronger the collective impact becomes.
Conclusion
Sustainable events are created through hundreds of smaller decisions, such as the venue, food, travel plans, online communication and the way people are invited to participate. All of it adds up.
When done well, these choices not only reduce waste or emissions but also create experiences that feel more aligned with what attendees and partners are looking for.
Each of the steps outlined here stands on its own. But taken together, they form a framework that makes sustainability practical. And every event planned with that mindset helps raise the standard for what green event designs can look like.
