In Crone & Co we are focusing on sustainability and climate-friendly congresses. We think it is fantastic that sustainability has become a trend in the industry and not only in our everyday lives. In 2019 we had the pleasure to arrange a big part of the C40 World Mayors Summit, which was among other places in Copenhagen held at Tivoli Hotel & Congress Center. Through the planning of the congress, we had the opportunity to share all our creative thoughts about sustainable solutions and the chance to learn from the rest of the team behind the event.
It is important for us to focus on environment-friendly solutions in our everyday life and we always strive to use the most sustainable solutions when creating and planning events for our clients. Nowadays, there are a lot of fantastic solutions to be sustainable and climate-friendly and it is easy to bring this into the world of events. In this post, we will share our experiences from previous and upcoming congresses and hope that we can help to inspire.
A sustainable venue
An important part of the planning phase is the choice of venue hosting the congress and we love when the venues are also caring about the environment. There is a lot of things that hotels and other venues can do to focus on this. For example, we have been working with venues having focus on sorting waste, provide bicycles for the guests, reuse materials, use digital solutions for signage and are aware of food waste as well as they are using reusable or climate-friendly plates, cutlery and glasses. In May we are a part of EMS (European Emergency Medical Services) for the fifth time and this year it is going to be held at SEC in Glasgow. SEC is doing a lot of different things to protect the environment. They are for example supporting “Trees for Life”, which is the conservation charity dedicated to linking up several fragments of the Caledonian Forest. For every major congress, SEC will fund the planting of an acre of trees and for smaller events, they will fund 8 trees. Among a lot of other things, they are also using environment-friendly or biodegradable cleaning materials. You can read more about SEC and their sustainable solutions here.
Reuse of conference materials
When we are talking about creating sustainable and creative solutions there is a lot of other things than the mentioned above. For example, name tags, lanyards, and signage. We are always doing our best to reuse these things in other contexts. Stena Recycling has been helping us with recycling name tags and we have donated lanyards for a school that could use them for creative projects.
The banners created for a congress can be reused to create goodie bags for next year’s congress, which is a great way to reuse materials. Alternatively, nametags created of flower seeds and climate-friendly pens that can be planted afterward can be used.
Thoughts about production of materials
Normally when arranging congresses there is a huge use of paper when producing programs, goodie bags, etc. Fortunately, the technology has been improved and today we are using app’s and websites in our everyday lives. We always offer our clients to let us create an app where the program of the congress is showed as well as an opportunity of having interaction among participants. It is also possible to have a function where sponsors can upload material, instead of the traditional method of making goodie bags.
At a congress there is sometimes something to celebrate and confetti is a nice way to do it. Unfortunately, this is not climate-friendly. Therefore, it is a nice idea to use fallen leaves from the trees in beautiful colors and cut them into small pieces to use as confetti. After use, they can just be thrown in the garden – nice and sustainable solution for making confetti.
When talking about nice and beautiful things, it is obvious to talk about decorating the venue. Flowers are often used, but it is a good idea to use plants instead of cutting flowers as they cannot be reused in the same way. In more than one case we have been working with Copenhagen Lounge, who have decorated venues with natural materials and among other things used apples for this. Later on, the apples have been used to create a delicious apple juice produced by Copenhagen Lounge.
Environment-friendly transportation
Transport when having a large congress in town is of great importance when we are focusing on climate. Previously we have been working with the Danish taxi company, called Drivr, who is providing taxi only using electricity and hydrogen, which means that we could secure a climate-friendly transportation for the participants.
We also often need busses to transport participants around in for example Copenhagen. But there are no companies providing busses only using electricity in Denmark, so we have been working with Egons Busser, who is using environmental certification filters to reduce particle pollution, and are working on less Co2 emissions through energy-efficient driving.
There is a lot of nice methods to be sustainable when it comes to congresses and events. With this post, we hope to inspire others to more sustainable events and give some ideas to focus on this important topic. We love to share our knowledge and you are always welcome to contact us if you need ideas to creative and sustainable solutions for a congress.