CIT Magazine

 There is a huge fear of sharing best practice examples amongst the event industry.  Venues, event organisers and suppliers appear worried that sharing their success stories will mean they lose their edge on sustainability. 

However surely the whole process of moving towards a sustainable future should encourage companies to work together to find solutions for sustainable best practice. After all don't we work better when we bounce ideas off each other?

One venue that struggled for space to store their recycling bins, liaised with their fellow venues near by, and found they could all share one bin room, and save money by having a joint recycling collection scheme.  Extensive recycling was something that the other venues were previously not doing and therefore there was a benefit for all involved.

 Think about ways you can engage and work with your industry colleagues to share your sucesses and work with them to overcome your challenges.  You will never know unless you ask and the solutions you find could save you a significant amount of money.

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 Last week we had out Positive Impact interactive workshop day and the key theme that came out from the whole workshop day, was stop thinking about implementing sustainable changes and actually start doing your activities in a sustainable way.

We all find it easy to talk about how we would like to change, but make that decision today and start changing your behaviour so that you will see actual improvements.

Why? Because you will save money through creating efficiencies and improve your sustainability credentials.

How will you know? Monitor and measure your changes by looking at your bills to see your improvements and cost savings.

Where can you start? 

- Start an energy reduction campaign

- Use public transport

- Increase your recycling scheme

- Replace disposable cups

- Incorporate sustainability into staff training programme

Here's a couple of very simple steps you can start implementing in your company today to immediately begin your company's move towards a sustainable future.

- Make sure all lights and electrical equipment (computers, screens and printers etc) are turned off at night and when not in use.  This will noticeably reduce your electricity bill!

- Do away with unnecessary printing, print double sided.  You will see a reduction in ink and paper costs!

- Implement an office recycling scheme.  This will cut your waste handling costs!

- Remove all paper and plastic cups and ask staff to bring their own glass and mug in.  This will remove these as costs and reduce your waste!

- Reuse old files and boxes.   This will remove these as a waste and prevent an unnecessary cost of buying new goods.

- Turn down your heating by 1 degree/turn off your air conditioning and open a window.  This will reduce your bill costs considerably!

 Top reasons why you should implement BS8901:

1. You will create efficiencies

2. You will save money

3. You will have an added USP for your event/organising

Where do you start?

1. Buy the standard, BS8901

2. Get management buy in

3. Nominate a sustainability champion

4. Identify what you can realistically achieve

5. Start implementing sustainable change

For more information on where to go next feel free to contact Positive Impact for some ideas!