The live events industry is notoriously environmentally unfriendly. The focus is very much on entertaining the planet, not saving it. In this series Live Design applauds the manufacturers, distributors, and designers who are working to make our industry more sustainable, one step at a time.
The Environmental Considerations for Live Events session at this year’s InfoComm featured a wide-ranging discussion between Kellene Morris, director, Technical Operations at the Opus Agency and Nico Nicholas, founder of Trees4Events, Zeero, and Trees4Travel agencies which supply free tools to calculate and offset CO2 for the live events and travel industry. The session was moderated by Robert Bartolucci, also of the Opus group, and the main takeaways emphasized the fact that sustainability is everyone’s responsibility, but finally businesses are beginning to take it very seriously as well.
The social movement, flight shame or flygskam, which started up just before the pandemic, seeks to shame frequent travelers because of the carbon emissions associated with flying. Nico Nicholas explained in his introduction that he created the free tools to track carbon emissions for event attendees because, he says, he wanted to empower people, rather than shame them. Depending on travel and event requirements, the carbon offsets can be minimal, many people can offset their emissions for as little as $3. He also points out that if you took away the events industry, people would have to travel ten times as much to see the same number of clients or networking and education contacts.
Nicholas shared some interesting facts with the InfoComm audience, saying a rush to fix things with more efficient technology is not always the most sustainable path. For example, he says, "Commercial aircraft are typically built for 22 years of service, but in the travel industry people are keen to fly on newer planes that use 20% less fuel. This means retiring planes up to five years early—which in turn means emitting millions more pounds of carbon to build and upgrade a fleet before many of the planes have reached their natural end.” Nicholas suggests there is no way to future-proof industrial engineering, there will always be better and more efficient upgrades, so discarding cars, planes or even buildings before the end of their usefulness can cancel out any good the efficiencies might do. Kellene Morris pointed out that the same is true of lighting fixtures, consoles, loudspeakers and all the other gear the industry relies on and suggested that a mix of tried and trusted gear can last a long time with carefully selected new gear. Morris said, “We are at a turning point in the industry. As AV professionals we have a huge opportunity to use our voices to ask vendors or in-house suppliers to use best practices. For example, tell them to stop using plastic wrap on palettes and replace that with blankets, ask for sustainable choices for scenic elements, and ask if materials like carpeting is donated after an event.” Carpeting at trade shows is problematic, it is typically manufactured for high-traffic rather than residential use so usually, the GC for the event will take it back and reuse it, rather than donating it. Despite this, between 3 and 5 percent of landfill in the USA is made up of carpeting. A better solution for exhibitors is to supply reusable rubber pads to stand on and ship them to each trade show as part of the booth set up. But just asking event organizers (and employers) to find the most sustainable solution starts the conversation and will eventually lead to changes in policy. LDI no longer uses carpeting, and AVIXA has stopped using paper surveys in favor of digital one to reduce material waste. Little changes start to add up until major changes happen.
Some obvious ways for corporations, and individuals, to cut down on their carbon footprint are already mainstream. Things like reducing plastic bottle use have been embraced both as a way to reduce single-use plastics and as a marketing tool by major industry players. Sphere Las Vegas sells water in reusable aluminum PATH bottles, a great keepsake and definitely reusable, they retail for three times the original price on eBay. It should be noted, though, that ticket holders cannot bring reusable metal water bottles into Sphere, only empty plastic ones or sealed clear plastic bottles. In fact, most major venues do not allow metal or heavy-duty reusable bottles, whether to protect beverage sales or for security purposes. This can lead to a situation where consumers purchase multiple reusable bottles and end up with a cupboard full of them. According to Nicholas, the three Rs of recycle, reuse, reduce should work together, so unless investing in one water bottle leads to a reduction in purchases of other water bottles, the impact is limited. Putting pressure on event venues to allow reusable bottles is the correct path forward. Interestingly, Nicholas says that the data suggests that wine has a much lower carbon footprint than bottled water, do with this piece of information what you will.
So what can industry professionals do to take responsibility for their own carbon footprints? Trees4events has a free tool to track the impact of a particular trip or event, and you can purchase “trees” and carbon offset credits on the website. Tree planting is not the only way to offset your footprint. Nicholas says, “Whenever we mention trees we put it in quotes because there is a whole other selection of stuff we invest in. A tree costs $3 to plant, but we also invest in nature-based community projects.” My own trip to InfoCom required 10 trees to offset as I flew to Las Vegas from the East Coast, a pretty manageable investment. Typically, attendees are offered tools to estimate carbon emissions and offset them (LDI uses Trace and Earthly) but Trees4events is a good, easy interactive one that can be used for any trip or event.
Nicholas also commented on how our “gotcha” culture can sometimes dissuade people from sharing news about initiatives that work. He said that, “The flip side of green wash is green hush – where people doing great things don’t talk about it because they are afraid.” Many companies are making longterm commitments to sustainability, including Elation's use of solar power, ETC's new eco-friendly building in London, and companies like Pvilion making sustainable products for use in live events.