Green Tips

 






How to reduce the ecological impact of your event?
Here are some tips in different categories that you can try to follow. If you have more ideas, feel free to let us know about them, so we could add them here.		  
Facilities and office supplies
Print on both sides of paper. Try to use recycled paper and folders, sometimes you can even find pens made of recycled material. When making signs, you can use the other side of old posters.

In many European countries, environmentally friendly products (e.g. food, paper, cleaning products) and services (e.g. accommodation) have ecolabel, that means that it´s certified by certain control systems. More about ecolabels look:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/index_en.htm,
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/other/int_ecolabel_en.htm

If you are providing plastic name tags, ask participants to return them after the event, so you can use them again.

Try to choose rooms for your activities, where you can use natural light - so you don´t need to use electricity. Use data projector with reason. Not everything needs to be shown with PowerPoint - it also consumes energy. Sometimes, if weather is good and nice places around, you can even move your activities outside.

Transport
 Try to organise your event in a way that participants can walk or use public transport instead of ordering extra transport.

Give participants information about other ways besides travelling by plane to the event, or at least promote the opportunity to offset the flying impact, for example:
www.myclimate.org/index.php

Food
Use as less packaging as possible: buy food in larger containers. If you are giving participants lunch packages, at least try to avoid plastic bags.

If possible, buy food from local producers, prefer products produced not far away - in this way you support local economy and less carbon emissions (that come with transport with imported products).

Dishes
Try to avoid disposable dishes - if you are using catering company, ask them about it. You can buy your antenna set of reusable plastic dishes that are light-weighted and can be washed - in the end that saves you money. You can also ask participants to bring their own fork and knife.

When washing dishes, use just hot water or environmental friendly dishwashing liquid. ¨Fairy¨ for example takes years to dissolve in the water.

Other
When giving gifts to guests and participants, choose things that have good use - bag made of fabric (with logo of your event maybe) instead of plastic bag, their own cup to be used during the event, etc.

If possible, create possibility to separate waste - depending from the country you can separate glass, plastic, paper, organic (food leftovers), metal. In some countries you can even get refund from recycling plastic and glass bottles - that can be extra pocket money for you ;)

NB! Don´t forget to inform your participants why you are doing all these things! Educating people about these small things is also important and may help them understand why some things are done differently. You can also add extra question to your evaluation form asking participants´ feedback on the environmental side of the event and maybe even ask for more ideas and tips.

Good luck making your event more environmental friendly! Sometimes it might be hard, so be patient, in the end it will be beneficial to all of us J


Home | About us | Activities | Photos | Green Tips | Links | Documents | Contacts
 

Copyright © 2009 AEGEE Europe EnWG