It is no news that events, and event-related activities, are responsible for a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Time is running out to respond to the climate challenge and the event industry’s commitment is needed more than ever.
We know that it is not an easy task to take the step towards carbon neutrality alone and face the challenges that may be encountered. That’s why the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat, and the Gulf Organization for Research and Development (GORD) have teamed up to develop the Sustainable Events Tool to help event organizers and other stakeholders in the industry to plan their events in a more sustainable way and to understand and calculate their greenhouse gas emissions.
Through a set of practical checklists covering nine key operational areas of event planning and delivery, stakeholders will be able to integrate more sustainable practices overall and to calculate and reduce the carbon footprint of their events. The tool will be freely available for use later in 2021.
We invite all stakeholders interested in collaborating to help us gather data to improve the tool, as way to encourage carbon neutrality and sustainability as a standard in the events sector. The data will be used to compose averages, can be provided anonymously and will not be shared with other stakeholders.
