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With global conversations increasingly focused on climate change and resource conservation, reducing the environmental impact of events is no longer optional. Event planners understand this charge and are seeking ways to deliver memorable events while prioritizing sustainability.
Among North American meeting professionals surveyed in the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amexglobalbusinesstravel.com/content/uploads/2023/10/2024-Global-Meetings-and-Events-Forecast.pdf">American Express 2024 Global Meetings and Events Forecast</a>, 69% said that sustainability is extremely important for their organization, and 70% said that sustainability has been strongly adopted in events. Still, nearly a quarter said that a lack of sustainability knowledge, skills, and resources is a big challenge.
Here are five strategies that can help you host more sustainable events.

<h2>1. Reduce Single-Use Items</h2>
The reliance on single-use items, from plastic cups to tote bags, is one of the most visible sources of waste at events. Efforts to lower the waste you generate are likely to be noticed and appreciated by attendees.
Many suppliers specialize in innovative reusable cutlery, plates, drinkware, and packaging. <a target="_blank" href="https://marriottbonvoyevents.com/news-and-highlights/article/482/how-to-talk-with-vendors-about-your-sustainability-goals">Consider talking to your existing vendors</a> and seeking out new ones to add to your list.
You can encourage attendees to take part in the event's sustainability focus by inviting them to bring reusable containers for water or coffee and providing refill stations. Incentivize participation by offering discounts on paid services or perks such as entry into a prize draw.
Although paper products can be recycled and reused, going paperless can help stop the environmental impact at the source by saving energy from the paper’s production and transportation. Reduce your reliance on printed materials and <a target="_blank" href="https://marriottbonvoyevents.com/news-and-highlights/article/35/optimal-use-of-event-apps">use an app</a> for schedules, maps, and communication. Apps also can provide a richer attendee experience, through personalized notifications and messaging options, to help boost engagement. A venue’s electronic signage can display real-time information, which may eliminate the need for paper programs entirely.

<h2>2. Repurpose Ingredients to Reduce Food Waste</h2>
It is reported that food waste is a pervasive issue, including at events, where large amounts of leftover food are typically discarded. By making food management a priority, you can help minimize the environmental impact of your event.
Meeting planners should work together with their hotel Event Manager and culinary team when designing menus. Consider reducing the variety of commonly over-produced items like breads, fruits, and grains. Hotels may also be able to repurpose ingredients across multiple dishes to help create minimal waste.
Events are likely to have <a target="_blank" href="https://marriottbonvoyevents.com/news-and-highlights/article/371/how-to-manage-leftovers-from-your-meeting">leftovers</a>. You can work with your hotel to develop a plan for donating excess to local food banks or community organizations so food is not thrown away or ask about other landfill diversion options such as composting.

<h2>3. Choose Venues with Strong Sustainability Credentials</h2>
The sustainability of your event can start with the venue you choose, as you take into consideration the environmental impact along with cost, location, or aesthetic appeal.
Including sustainability questions in the RFP can help illuminate expectations throughout the venue selection process. Utilize industry standardized questions related to topics such as energy, water and waste reduction, responsible sourcing, and renewable energy use to help understand what each hotel is doing to reduce their environmental impact. And when reviewing venues, look for third-party sustainability certifications, such as Green Key Global or The Green Key, which are operationally-focused sustainability certifications, or building-focused certifications, like LEED.

<h2>4. Prioritize Local and Responsibly Sourced Materials</h2>
By making thoughtful choices about the origin of the products used at your event, you can enhance its overall sustainability.
First, think local. Many elements of your event—including décor, catering, signage, and structures—can be sourced from businesses near your site as a way to help minimize the environmental impact of shipping items from faraway places.
Next, source sustainably harvested, organic, or fair-trade certified materials whenever possible. Food may be the first thing that comes to mind, but responsible sourcing extends to a variety of other areas. For example, you could rent furniture and temporary structures made of bamboo or reclaimed wood.
To help planners in their sourcing decisions, Marriott produced a <a target="_blank" href="https://serve360.marriott.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Marriott-Responsible_Sourcing_Guide_August-2021.pdf">Responsible Sourcing Guide</a> in 2021–22 with criteria and third-party sustainability certification information that encourage responsible sourcing in key areas, such as animal welfare and low-impact agricultural practices.

<h2>5. Understand and Measure Your Environmental Impact</h2>
When discussing your event’s needs with the hotel, ask about the ability of the hotel to provide impact reporting on the sustainable practices they have implemented and/or footprint data associated with the event, as well as any major initiatives they may be a part of to reduce their environmental footprint behind the scenes.
For example, hotels in the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio are actively focused on their carbon footprint reduction, as part of the company’s science-based target and net-zero journey. A champion of climate action, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) develops standards and resources to help organizations achieve emissions reduction targets; as of April 2024, Marriott is the largest global hospitality company to receive approval from <a target="_blank" href="https://news.marriott.com/news/2024/04/22/marriott-international-celebrates-milestone-on-journey-towards-net-zero">SBTi</a>.
When it comes to reporting on an event’s sustainability impact, Marriott’s <a target="_blank" href="https://marriottbonvoyevents.com/#sustainability">Connect Responsibly</a> program - available at hotels from participating brands globally in fall 2024 - provides planners with a detailed <a target="_blank" href="https://marriottbonvoyevents.com/sustainability/article/687/meeting-impact-report">Meeting Impact Report</a> and sustainability impact metrics tailored to their event. These include property-specific sustainability practices implemented during the event and the calculated carbon and water footprints of the event.
The Meeting Impact Report also provides planners with a list of vetted and third-party verified carbon offset projects that their event can support.
To enhance transparency with attendees, you can share your event’s estimated and final footprint values, including the implemented sustainable practices and any funding of a carbon offset project, which may help build credibility and educate attendees about the actions being taken collectively to reduce the event’s environmental impact.
“We understand that sustainability is a priority for our customers, which is why we created this robust program,” says Jennifer Kellogg, Vice President of Meetings + Events for Marriott International. “Now, event planners can focus on working with our hotels to deliver memorable experiences while using strategies that can help minimize their environmental impact.”

Global

Consider Using These Strategies During Your Planning and Execution.

5 Tips for a More Sustainable Event

If you’re like most meeting planners, you’ve already made ground in your sustainability goals: 70% of survey respondents in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amexglobalbusinesstravel.com/content/uploads/2023/10/2024-Global-Meetings-and-Events-Forecast.pdf">the American Express 2024 Global Meetings and Events Forecast</a> say that sustainability has been “strongly adopted” in their events.
The best sustainability practices are strategic, meaningful, and specific, avoiding falling prey to <a target="_blank" href="https://marriottbonvoyevents.com/news-and-highlights/article/482/how-to-talk-with-vendors-about-your-sustainability-goals">greenwashing</a>. That said, introducing high-visibility sustainability flair into your meetings can underscore your event’s commitment to the planet. Couple that with your food and beverage program and you’re serving up not just sustainability but delight.
Here are four ways to bring conspicuous sustainability into your food and beverage service:

<h3>Try Edible Servingware</h3>
Basil-infused spoons made of ground grains for caprese tastings. Espresso cups crafted from ice cream cones, meant to be eaten after an espresso shot. Cupcakes presented in flexible, edible wafers. And for the most daring, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bizbash.com/catering-design/food-trends/media-gallery/22885168/creative-catering-trays-we-love-from-recent-events">cocktails served in snowballs</a>.
Think of these edible items like a bread bowl taken up a notch. Swapping traditional serving elements for edible, sustainable replacements can add convenience and joy to your environmental program. Make sure attendees are aware of what’s edible; otherwise, that aspect of your catering could be lost in the shuffle.

<h3>Get a Little Fruity</h3>
The classic fruit tray can get an upgrade by using jumbo-size fruit as a component of service. Watermelon baskets, pineapple boats, and pomelo cups all add a decorative, sustainable spin to your buffet table.
The trick here is to make sure the fruit itself is actually used, though. Talk with your catering team about handling fruits meant for presentation in a way that preserves both the casing and the inside. It may not be practical for the team to extract watermelon slices from a watermelon meant to be carved into a serving basket, but they can use the fruit for purees and juices.

<h3>Elevate Family-Style Serving</h3>
Banquet service doesn’t have to be waitstaff-only. Let colorful dishes such as family-style salads be the “centerpieces.” If you want to elevate family-style service both literally and figuratively, place these dishes atop complementary centerpiece elements, like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bizbash.com/catering-design/tabletop/media-gallery/22883889/ideas-for-unexpected-centerpieces-at-events">tree-stump platforms</a>.

<h3>Use Food as Decor</h3>
There’s a reason landscapers often include kale in their plans—it’s beautiful. Attractively bundling fruits and vegetables for an opening-night kickoff celebration and using them as decor evokes a feeling of being connected to the earth. And the next day? Dinner. (Be sure to check with your catering team’s policies first.)

<h3>Remember: Sustainability Goes Beyond the Visible</h3>
Sustainable flair is both fun and practical, but it’s not enough in and of itself to lower your meeting’s carbon footprint. Think of it as an add-on to the program you’re already developing, which may include donating leftovers to reduce food waste, offering reusable servingware (if you’re not using edibles), using local and seasonal produce to avoid unnecessary transportation costs, and having recycling and composting options on hand at the event. For more ideas and event sustainability news, turn to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mpi.org/tools/sustainability-resources">MPI’s sustainability resources</a>.

Fun, Functional, and Friendly to the Planet.

Add Sustainable Flair to Your Food and Beverage Service

Over the last decade, the meetings industry has made major strides in embracing sustainable food and beverage options. Enter COVID-19, and a new world of hurdles.
COVID-19 isn’t a foodborne illness, but with social distancing in place, meeting planners turned to individual food and beverage packaging as a precautionary measure. Doing so helped alleviate stress from attendees. It also added up to a lot of waste.
So how can planners soothe people’s nerves about coronavirus-era dining while staying economically and environmentally efficient? Denise Naguib, global vice president, sustainability and supplier diversity at Marriott International, suggests tackling this challenge one step at a time.

“Think about: ‘What is one change I can make at this meeting? It’s not just about taking it all on, but thinking about one at a time, making the change and communicating effectively.”

Use these tips to help you choose individually packaged items that do the least amount of damage to the planet.
Think single-serve, not just single-use.
Individually packaged food and beverage is meant to serve one person at one time. But that doesn’t have to mean disposable, single-use packaging options.
For example, you can reduce waste by serving lunch in reusable, plastic clamshell containers or bento boxes. The same packaging can be washed, sanitized, and repurposed for lunch service on the second day of your event.

Gift individual, reusable water bottles.
In the spirit of single-serve, consider gifting reusable water bottles. Not in your budget? Share your environmental goal with your partners and vendors and see if any of them would be willing to donate branded canisters to your event.
Communicate your goals to attendees, too—let them know that the water bottles are more than just free swag, it’s also an opportunity to reduce waste. Naguib says to remember that thinking sustainably is a change for many people. “To act differently and carry their water bottles around, having refilling stations, that is a step,” she says. Layering in one change like this, one meeting at a time, not only makes it less overwhelming for you and your guests, but it also allows for a feedback loop.
“Get that feedback and insight from your own attendees to see what’s working, what’s not working, and cull ideas from them,” Naguib says.

Consider the materials.
There are ample sustainable packaging options—the trick is to find one that’s within your budget. Here are some considerations to keep in mind as you navigate what is and isn’t feasible for your next meeting.
<ul>
 <li>Glass containers for food and beverages are 100% reusable but are not always recyclable in many communities. While glass bottles (for, say, soda or iced tea) may be the first idea that pops into your mind, this could be the time to bring out your mason jars for easy pre-batching.</li>
 <li>Though paper packaging for food can be tricky to recycle, if you select paper packaging made from recycled paper, you are still reducing waste by not creating products from new materials.</li>
 <li>Metal vessels such as aluminum and stainless steel are highly reusable and readily recyclable. Opt for reusable jars or recyclable cans.</li>
 <li>When using plastic packaging, familiarize yourself with the <a href="https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/g804/recycling-symbols-plastics-460321/">recycling symbols</a> and make sure the recycling facilities in your meeting’s region accept that type of plastic. And avoid plastics with bisphenol A when you can.</li>
 <li>For single-use items such as straws, consider options made from biodegradable materials like paper.</li>
</ul>
Think outside the container.
Individually packaged items don’t necessarily need to be boxed or bottled. Wine glasses can be used to <a href="https://www.bizbash.com/catering-design/food-trends/media-gallery/21319420/15-lowtouch-hightaste-catering-ideas-for-live-and-virtual-events">serve starter salads</a>, and metal cutlery can be individually wrapped with cloth napkins instead of a sealed plastic pack.
And remember that individual items don’t all have to be inedible. Consider bread bowls for soup or ice cream cones to hold dessert candies. Keep an eye out for more <a href="https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=21377">edible packaging under development</a>, too.
Keep the big picture in mind.
As Naguib points out, communication is key. Work with your venue to place recycling and composting bins in a variety of strategic locations, and communicate these locations and your goals to everyone at your event. Additionally, make sure your recycling bins are clearly labeled, so there’s no confusion about which items can and cannot be placed inside.
If you’re reusing food and beverage packaging each day, make sure your attendees know how to use it. Create clear signage to show where water filling stations are located in your venue, or where to place materials meant to be sanitized and reused, such as mason jars and bento boxes. Doing these things will ensure everyone at your event feels safe while (re)introducing sustainability into your meeting’s mix.

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