Sustainable events: choices that really matter

To make sustainable choices, you need to know where the impact is greatest. When it comes to corporate events, there are a few major sources of environmental impact:

Transportation accounts for 60 to 80 percent of an event’s total CO₂ emissions. This is primarily due to participants’ travel habits: cars are by far the biggest culprit. Actively encourage the use of public transportation through communication and reimburse public transportation costs. Choose venues that are easily accessible by train.

Catering accounts for 10 to 20 percent of the environmental impact. Meat, especially beef, has the highest carbon footprint. A menu that excludes meat or offers plant-based alternatives as the default option significantly reduces the impact. Use seasonal ingredients, local suppliers, and a caterer that actively works to reduce food waste.

Energy and technology is the third major expense. Lighting, sound systems, and climate control consume a lot of electricity. Ask venues and technical suppliers about their energy sources. Opt for LED lighting and avoid unnecessary technology.

Catering is the most visible sustainability choice at an event. It is also the area where organizers receive the most questions from attendees. What works?

Plant-based menu as the default. Make the plant-based menu the default and offer meat as an option, rather than the other way around. Research consistently shows that participants accept this approach as long as the quality is good. Choose a caterer that doesn’t treat plant-based options as an afterthought.

Seasonal and local. Ask the caterer about the origin of the ingredients. A menu based on what’s currently growing in the Netherlands has a fraction of the carbon footprint of imported ingredients.

No single-use plastic. Reusable tableware and cutlery are always a viable option for indoor events. For outdoor events, the logistics are more complex, but compostable alternatives are available. Avoid Styrofoam and single-use plastic.

Tackling food waste. Ask the caterer about their approach: how much food did they waste at previous events, and what happens to leftovers? Professional caterers use standard calculation models and donate leftover food to food banks.

The choice of location has a direct impact on two major environmental factors: transportation (accessibility by public transit) and energy (insulation, energy source, lighting).

Public transportation accessibility is the most important factor. A location within walking distance of a station has a much lower transportation footprint. A comparable location that is accessible only by car does not. For large groups, this factor carries more weight than any other sustainability feature of the location itself.

Ask venues about their sustainability policies. More and more event venues are reporting on their energy consumption and using green energy. Some have solar panels or ISO 14001 certification. This information is quantifiable and comparable.

Hosting the event at your own location is a sustainable choice. Holding an event at your own workplace saves on WKR costs and transportation expenses. Employees are already commuting to the office. This reduces CO₂ emissions compared to an external venue where everyone would have to travel specifically for the event.

Actively manage transportation. Organize carpooling opportunities and actively communicate about public transportation options. Reimburse or subsidize train tickets. Small measures that have the greatest impact on the largest source of environmental costs.

More and more organizations want to make sustainable choices and be able to account for those choices. That requires measurement.

A CO₂ calculation for an event includes several components. These include attendee transportation (based on mode of transport and distance) and energy consumption at the venue, as well as catering (based on menu composition), material use, and waste disposal. There are certified calculation methods, such as the ISO 20121 standard for sustainable event management.

Does your organization want to report annually on the carbon footprint of your events? That’s possible. Live Impact uses tools that track data for each event and generate an annual summary. This is useful for ESG reporting and internal communication about progress.

Please note: Offsetting through CO₂ credits is not a substitute for reduction. Only offset what you cannot reduce, and be transparent about the difference. Greenwashing (claiming sustainability without evidence) is a recipe for reputational damage.

Live Impact is IDEA-certified. This certification, issued by the International IDEA Foundation, requires demonstrable standards in the areas of safety, organizational quality, and sustainability. It is not self-declared; it has been audited.

In practice, this means the following: We actively select suppliers based on their sustainability policies and advise clients on the choices that will have the greatest impact. And we provide transparent reports on the metrics we track.

Would you like to organize an event that takes sustainability seriously? Then we’ll start by discussing your goals, and build the concept from there. Not the other way around.

Call us at 085 401 40 14, send an email to hello@live-impact.nl, or submit a briefing via live-impact.nl/briefing. Seriously Fun.