I remember very vividly sitting down with my cup of hot Kisubi tea to tune into the evening news one evening.
Jumping between UBC, NBS, and NTV, something caught my eye. It was a clip of a half submerged rural home-well built but looking defeated as the lake water swallowed it up.
Reading the headline, I realized that this was yet some more hardcore evidence on the effects of the widespread environmental neglect that is now creeping up on us all in the form of global warming and climate change.
It dawned on me just how serious rising water levels are becoming in Uganda. But is there anything that we can do to help this steadily worsening global warming crisis?
Well if you’re like me and have come to see how important positive environmental behavior is, this article is just for you.
I’ll share how you can implement eco-friendly tactics into hosting a conference to perhaps inspire you as most of these tactics are applicable to many other events as well such as seminars, book launches, networking hubs, and so on.
Ready? Let’s head right into it!
Opt For Digital Resources
The age of handing out printed flyers, programs, and documents at conferences has come to an end.
With the increasing rates of deforestation to meet the paper demands of the 8 billion people on our planet, we must switch to e-documents when hosting conferences.
They reduce the use of paper that is made from the destruction of forests, our extremely valuable carbon sinks, as well as reduce expenditures and make the process of distributing documents easier and faster via social platforms and cloud drives.
It’s a win-win for both you and the planet.
Host a Partially Virtual Event
Now I know I spoke about the importance of in person events in my previous article on How Corporate Events Influence Business Success.
But if you regularly host conferences, you may want to go virtual for a few of them. Here’s why.
Some conferences are education centred and so the majority of your attendees show up to learn, something that is easily facilitated online.
Virtual conferences also reduce carbon emissions from transportation to and from the venue as well as reduce your expenditure on catering, sound systems, and event preparation.
That sounds like a great deal to me. But going virtual is not for every conference, especially if the conference objective leans more towards networking.
In that case, there is still more you can do to push for environmentally sustainability.
Catering
First things first. I’m not saying that you should put all your attendees on a strictly oatmeal and water diet at the conference, but you can make catering decisions that reduce carbon emissions.
Start by letting your catering team know that you’d rather locally made foods as these have a lower carbon footprint due to less transportation from their farmland to your plate.
You can also take steps to reduce food waste by avoiding preparing too much food due to poor analysis of the amount of guests that are attending.
Do Away With Plastics
If you’re really going hard into this, first of all well done I absolutely love the environmental spirit! But here’s something else you can try.
Avoid selling single use plastic bottles for any beverages at your conference.
Provide reusable glass or metal bottles and glasses for all the beverages you provide.
Not only does it look more professional, but it saves the quickly fattening dumpsites from a few more bottles of plastic waste.
What Now?
There you have it. A few very short and concise tips to hosting an eco-friendly conference.
It may seem like just a drop of water added to the ocean, but if we all start putting this into practice we can make an incredible difference here in Uganda and inspire our neighbors who go on to inspire the continent and so on.
The first step is to share this with people who you know have influence in conference planning and management.
If you can, take action. Lets make our conferences a voice for the planet!
If you’re planning a conference soon and would love to get the best corporate event planners in Uganda behind it, setting it up the eco-way while also ensuring to deliver a true spectacle, find out more below about how Tellit Events can get this sorted for you.
See you on the other side!
Find out more below.
