Green Monday is a monthly news and networking event that brings together senior CSR, Sustainability, and climate change leaders and related green business innovators. Each monthly event will be a mixture of news, insight, analysis and networking.
Green Business Events is focused solely on organising events that help companies understand the implications of climate change and the ways in which business needs to engage with the problem. Green Business Events' first event was in November 2007. They have now held seven events that have attracted over 1000 people. Their extensive marketing resources now connects them with over 10,000 individuals directly linked with this space.
Alan has nearly 20 years' experience of working with global and national organisations advising them at board level on global sustainable development issues which affect business, society and individuals.
He is the independent advisor to the Virgin Group, ensuring a single co-ordinated approach to Sustainable Development. He also runs the Virgin Earth Challenge (a US$25 million prize for carbon sequestration), The Virgin Rainforest Challenge and its HIV programme.
He works with other clients as diverse as Coca-Cola, Prudential and Calgary City. He serves on the UK’s Sustainable Development Commission, is a senior associate of the Cambridge University Programme for Sustainability Leadership for Industry, is a fellow of WWF UK, a former director of the Tropical Forest Trust and a current director of the Forest Stewardship Council.
He was awarded the OBE in June 1998 for Services to the Environment and in 2005 the US-based Rainforest Alliance gave him a lifelong award for his contribution to finding solutions to rainforest destruction caused by the timber industry.
For more on Alan and his work see here: http://www.singleplanetliving.com/
At Green Business Events we have begun organising all our events, including Green Monday, within a framework that offers compliance to the British Standard for Sustainable Event Management. By integrating this framework to be central to all aspects of our event planning we hope to improve the sustainability of our events, event by event. We will keep you updated on the progress we have made in our news feed, and if you have any feedabck or suggestions on how to improve our events sustainability then please do contact us. Below you can see the Sustainable Development Policy for Green Business Events.
Sustainable Development is defined as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs' as defined by the Brundtland Report, 1987. At Green Business Events we aim to create outstanding events that are environmentally and ethically aware. We recognise the impact that our actions have on the environment and are committed to reducing our negative footprint.
Scope of commitment to sustainability
Communication
Green Business Events strive to communicate the principles of sustainable development at every stage of their business operation, from suppliers to clients. In respect to Grreen Business Events' events it is important that any environmentally friendly initiatives undertaken are communicated to all participants, both at the event and during the planning stages. Attendees at the event should be aware of the environmental concerns which have been addressed. This educates the audience, makes them aware of the thinking behind any out of the ordinary aspects of the event, and leaves a legacy of the event for others to continue.
A few examples: If all communications are carried out via a website, or emails to minimise paper usage, then this should be explained within all messages. Ideally a separate area of the website would be devoted to explaining this. If paperwork and event material are provided only on request to minimise paper usage this reasoning should again be communicated during any speeches. If event materials such as conference packs or invitations are made of recycled material, this should be printed on the item itself.
Supply chain
All event suppliers should be notified of the environmental policy and assessed for their compatibility. Green Business Events have a list of approved green suppliers; however it is likely that for each event some new requirements will be sought. The supplier should complete a short environmental questionnaire to assess the measures that they already have in place. The supplier should be encouraged to expand their environmental policy if appropriate and measures should be taken to amend or offset any existing anomalies. It may be the case that a standard supplier can modify their behaviour or their own suppliers to offer an environmentally sound alternative. For example, an AV company which usually supplies high wattage lighting and standard generators may be able to source LED lighting and bio diesel generators for specific events.
Company buy-in
Green Business Events would encourage communication of the environmental policy of the event to all senior members of the client company. It is important that support is given at all levels which again educates, encourages awareness of broader issues and hopefully results in good practice extending across the company's other activities.
Priority
We recognise that ethical and environmental policies vary across different companies, each having differing priorities. Whilst we would endeavour to address all issues and ensure environmental damage limitation to all aspects of the event, we accept that this may not always be possible. It is important to identify the key priorities for the client. Financial and resource parameters also need to be set, as would be expected for any contractual service. If, however, the only acceptable environmentally sound alternative is in excess of the budget the client would need to advise of the importance of delivering this.
The Future
We recognise that today's best practice may be out of date tomorrow, and are committed to monitoring our actions to ensure that we are constantly improving our standards.
Sustainable development is at the core of Green Business Events work and whether a client requests an event to be run in a sustainable manner or not, we will still strive to achieve the highest levels of sustainability. Considerations will be given to all stages of the event management process from creating the concept, through to planning, implementation and finally during the evaluation stages.
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