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Earth Day 2024: 5 sustainability insights from inspirational event pros

Learn how to boost your event sustainability efforts with some incredible tips from the event pros who are nailing it 🌎.

Sun rising or setting over a field with clouds

Each year, Earth Day seeks to remind us of the importance of looking after our planet. Through its various initiatives, the movement raises awareness, inspires change, and helps us forge a deeper connection with nature.

Discover 20 Earth Day ideas for event planners >

Sun rising or setting over a field with clouds

Proud to be a B Corp, we’ve always believed businesses should balance profit with purpose, and have a crucial role in making the world a better place. Which is why we’re really thrilled to see so many inspiring, sustainably-minded event pros on the Ticket Tailor platform. A big perk of our job is that we regularly get to chat with these guys – learning all about their events, their sustainability practices, and their goals for the future.

In celebration of Earth Day 2024, we round up some of the incredible insights we’ve garnered from these knowledgeable event pros in recent years. Let’s get stuck in 🌍.

It’s ok to start small 

Thorington Theatre is a beautiful outdoor theatre nestled in the heart of a sprawling forest. It was built in a natural crater from a WWII bomb, and out of wood from trees that were already in need of coppicing. From the outset, its creators were committed to carrying out their work with the lowest carbon footprint possible. Today, Thorington Theatre is thriving. Each summer season it sees a range of brilliant performances hit its stage – from Impromptu Shakespeare to household-name comedians, incredible musicians, and many, many more.

Oscar Brennecke-Dunn, Theatre Manager at Thorington Theatre, advises other event creators who are looking to improve their carbon footprint to start by using a simple tool like MyClimate. This allows you to get a snapshot of what your main carbon emissions are. 

Simon Amstell performing at an outdoor woodland theatre

“My advice would be to always use your calculation as a guide, rather than an exact figure, as there will always be a nuance with your specific venue and often they use global data, as opposed to data specific to your location,” he explains. 

“However, as a small time-poor business, it can be really useful to see your main sources of emissions. And then start working on them one by one. Remember, no one's asking you to snap your fingers and be carbon neutral or to reach Net Zero. But small changes like switching to a green energy supplier, promoting recycling at your event, or even starting conversations with your suppliers about their approach to emissions can make a difference.”

Educating your local community can be powerful

Farm on Central is a beautiful family run farm that focuses on producing “beyond organic” food. Or, in other words, food that’s totally free from GMOs, pesticides, fungicides, microplastics and synthetic herbicides. As well as growing delicious produce with a purpose, Farm on Central also runs a plethora of cooking, baking and gardening classes. Their overarching philosophy? To teach enthusiastic locals all about the importance of truly organic produce – as well as how to grow their own, and what to do with it.

“We bought the farm in the summer of 2020. We weren’t exactly sure what it would turn into, but we knew we wanted a farm where people could see how their food grows, and to educate the local community,” husband-and-wife owners Savannah and Michael Kilpatrick tell us.

Savannah Kilpatrick standing in her kitchen in front of an array of baked goods

“It was a crazy time at the beginning (I mean, we bought a bus and turned it into a farm shop! 🤣) – but peoples’ joy and enthusiasm fuelled us. 

We believe that how we farm matters because it affects the food we grow and the soil we steward for generations to come. We use beyond organic, regenerative principles, making sure that we’re always paying attention to soil health. Ultimately, we believe that people matter, and how we feed ourselves and interact with our neighbours is paramount in how we make choices.” 

If you can lead by example – you should

Martini Film Studios comprises a set of incredible filming locations in British Columbia, Canada. But what makes the studios really stand out from the crowd is their commitment to green film production and providing a net zero experience for the TV and film production industry. 

And this is much, much more than a token gesture. The studios’ sustainability efforts are beyond impressive, and extensive. They’re committed to heating their stages, offices and support spaces using 100% renewable gas. To providing productions with waste diversion solutions. To supplementing their grid electricity with solar panels. To powering their entire operation with quiet, clean electricity, eliminating the need for diesel generators… and so much more. Yep – when they say they prioritise economic, social and environmental sustainability, they really do mean business. Read about their commitment to sustainability in detail here.

Solar panels

We love how Martini Film Studios provides a truly inspirational example of how, when you have the means and the vision, the sky’s pretty much the limit in terms of your sustainability efforts. If you’re in a similar boat, why not see how far you can take things?

Encouraging your attendees to think sustainably is a smart move

The Better Business Network is a platform that seeks to help purpose-driven business owners and leaders “grow their business and make the world a better place”. Founder, Hannah Cox, often offers consultation for large-scale events – helping them to really hone their sustainability practices and ensure their operation is working hard to lower its carbon footprint. 

One of the things she recommends to event planners is to get their customers thinking about sustainability long before they actually enter the event itself. She explains:

“It’s about thinking; when people buy their ticket do they have an opportunity to donate to charity? Do they have an opportunity to carbon offset their ticket price? Are they being asked to consider how they’re going to be getting to the event that you’re running – whether that’s by public transport or car or car sharing? [...] Something I always recommend is to do a bit of a customer journey [...] from the moment a customer starts interacting with your event, where are the opportunities for talking to them about how they can be more sustainable?”

A beach sign reading 'only leave your footprints'

Hannah suggests, for example, making it more difficult for attendees to travel to an event by car through implementing a ‘car tax’ or ‘carbon tax’ for those who choose to do so. Making decisions like these can help widen your sustainability efforts as an event planner, helping you – and your attendees – make a bigger difference overall.

No ambition is too big

Carbon Unbound is the world’s leading carbon removal business summit with the awe-inspiring ambition of removing gigaton-scale CO2 from the earth’s atmosphere. For context, one gigaton is roughly twice the mass of all humans on the planet. The summit sees hundreds of business leaders, scientists, investors, buyers, policymakers, and advocates come together to address this crucial mission, which – until the summit’s creation – had not been attempted by anyone. So – how did one man set the ball rolling on this impressive undertaking? 

Oliver Katz, CEO and Founder at Carbon Unbound, tells us:

“After spending four years hosting senior leadership summits in the food-tech sector, I took some time to travel. During this trip, and while seeing climate change's intensifying effects, I became obsessed with carbon removal. I saw huge potential and an ever-increasing need for it to succeed. 

But there were no focused events on the topic, only broad climate summits that may have had a session around Direct Air Capture (DAC) or carbon removal more broadly. I had experienced first-hand the transformative power of leadership events in helping to scale novel technologies. Speaking with a number of pioneers in the space gave me the confidence to launch Carbon Unbound.” 

A 'Planet Earth First' flyer

Today, Carbon Unbound takes place in Europe and the USA annually, garnering impressive sponsors and world-leading speakers, and selling out every year. The takeaway? No ambition is too big – if you have the vision, the knowledge, and the drive, you can set about achieving something truly remarkable.

That’s a wrap! We hope these invaluable insights have got you feeling inspired to embrace sustainability in events this Earth Day and beyond. To find out more about Ticket Tailor’s B Corp status, and how we’re a great choice if you’re looking for a ticketing partner that aligns with your sustainability goals, just head here 😌👉Ticket Tailor is now a certified B Corp: Our journey so far.

And for more inspiration, read about these awesome event industry B Corps.

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