Meetingselect
Want to plan more sustainable meetings or events in the new year? This guide will take your sustainable event planning to the next level. With tips on how to provide eco-friendly transportation, green accommodations and so much more.
Now’s the time to start planning sustainable meetings and events
Meetings and events are a fundamental part of our work. In fact, they often represent a significant portion of the working week. With some meetings and events lasting several hours or even a few days, they’re directly making an impact on the environment.
Many aspects, such as the transportation from and to the location, can harm our planet. Even the resources used by staff can be damaging. Luckily, there are countless ways to start hosting more sustainable meetings and events right away. This could even be one of your good intentions for the new year (because why not?). Read on and discover the most helpful tips for your sustainable event planning.
1-Provide eco-friendly transportation
Hosting sustainable meetings is great, but your guests have to make their way to the location first. Some might go by bus, others by car. Anyhow: even before the meeting has started, the first polluting gases have already been emitted. While you can’t always prevent this completely, there are definitely more environmentally ways to commute.
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Pay for public transport
Motivate your guests to use public transport by offering to pay for their trip. This will likely make them think twice about taking the car to the meeting. Why is this more sustainable? Your guests would be using the means of transport that would also travel without them. However, if they were to take their car, it would be an additional polluter.
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Offer carpooling
Public transport isn’t ideal for everyone. In that case, motivate your guests to offer carpooling (and do it yourself, too)! In the end, this will make the commute more sustainable - and it’s also a great way of getting to know each other better.
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Avoid meetings in or right after rush hours
Why not plan your meeting or event at 10 o’clock in the morning, instead of at 9? This way, you and your guests can drive there and back without congested roads. Less stop-and-go traffic, means less car consumption and less stress at the same time. This way, you don’t only host sustainable meetings, but also efficient ones.
2- Compensate your CO₂ emissions
Sometimes, work trips by car or plane are necessary. However, there’s a way to do this somewhat sustainably. There are many platforms that allow you to fully offset your carbon emissions impact, such as CarbonCancel.
You can also choose to compensate your carbon footprint when booking a meeting venue. When you book through our platform, you have the option to offset the carbon impact of your event by planting trees. A simple and efficient way of sustainable event planning.
3- Provide green accommodations and meeting spaces
For sustainable meetings, the venue itself should also be as eco-friendly as possible. Look out for the following features while doing your sustainable event planning:
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Easily accessible location
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Electricity generated by solar and wind
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Circular waste management
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Sustainable design choices
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Supporting the local community and ecosystem
Or find your eco-friendly venue through our platform, by filtering on sustainability. Our database gives you access to more than 500,000 hotels and meeting spaces around the world, from which many are great supporters of sustainable meetings.
4- Minimize your materials and reduce waste
Do you really need a flip chart to outline your projects? And is it necessary to buy the newest devices for all your colleagues? Try to minimize the materials you use for more sustainable meetings or events.
If you do need to use specific materials, make sure they’re reusable and recyclable. Use recycled paper and print doubled-sided when paper is a necessity. And buy refurbished devices instead of brand-new ones. They service you the same at significantly lower costs and you’ll use less scarce natural resources.
5- Offer eco-friendly meals and snacks
Usually, meetings and events contain some sort of snack. This too, is a big part of sustainable event planning!
Serve local, organic and seasonal food (which is often cheaper anyway) whenever it’s possible. For example, use local fruits instead of imported bananas. Also, the more plant-based your meals and snacks, the more sustainable they are. Vegetarian options are usually better for the environment.
Plan your sustainable meetings with Meetingselect
At Meetingselect, we care about meeting your needs. But we also care about the needs of our planet. That’s why with our platform, you:
- Easily book, manage and track your meetings online
- Can filter over 500,000 meeting venues on sustainability
- Reduce your carbon footprint with every meeting you book
