Sustainable Events Guide
This guide is a practical tool to help staff and students integrate sustainability and inclusion when organising meetings, conferences, and general events.
Planning your event
Sustainable events improve environmental performance, deliver social value for participants and the wider community, and support the University’s sustainability ambitions, including our net‑zero carbon target by 2038.
Events can have impacts through energy and water use, materials, travel, and food waste. By planning ahead, choosing lower‑impact options, and measuring outcomes, you can significantly reduce an event’s carbon footprint while improving attendee experience.
Set goals
Define why you are running the event, who will attend, and what sustainability outcomes you seek (e.g., lower travel emissions; reduced food waste; accessible, inclusive delivery). Include a sustainability meeting early in the planning process.
Identify impacts and risks
Map impacts across venue energy, transport, catering, waste, accessibility and inclusion. Complete a simple risk assessment covering both sustainability and accessibility.
Plan lower-impact options
Prefer hybrid/online formats; right‑size rooms; choose sustainability certified venues; design for active/public transport; set plant‑based menu defaults; use reusable kit and signage.
Measure
Put indicators in place (e.g., % arriving by active/public transport; kg of food ordered vs. consumed; % single‑use items avoided; % accessible adjustments fulfilled).
Report and share
Collect attendee feedback, share results with the University Sustainability Team, and record lessons learned to improve future events.
