Can you tell us about your journey into corporate responsibility and sustainability? What experiences have shaped your approach to sustainability in the events industry?
Like many people when I finished university, I didn’t quite know what I wanted to do but I quickly realized I wanted to a job with purpose. After a short stint in the charity sector, I worked for a charity focused on responsible business practices. It was my experience here that really drove my interest in corporate responsibility and how businesses can be agents for positive change. Inspired to cross over into the corporate sector I joined RELX – RX’s parent company – in 2011 where I worked in a variety of CSR roles. My responsibilities included managing and developing RELX’s global community programme and human rights policy, engagement on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including managing the RELX SDG Resource Centre. Most recently, I helped to develop and implement RELX’s inclusion and diversity strategy and goals which have now been rolled out globally across the organisation, including at RX. At the beginning of 2022, the opportunity arose to lead sustainability for RX which presented lots of new challenges but there is so much potential within this industry for impact that my role is never dull and I am constantly learning.
As the Sustainability Director at RX, what are your primary responsibilities? How do you balance the various aspects of your role?
In 2021, RX became a founding signatory of the Net Zero Carbon Events pledge, which forms the foundation of our sustainability strategy. We have developed a sustainability strategy encompassing three pillars: Measurement, Reduction and Communication & Engagement.
Up until now, our primary focus has been on collecting data to better understand our global carbon emissions. Back in 2022 we began asking our venue partners to report energy and waste data and we continue to prioritise this as we prepare to report externally in 2025. We are also conducting carbon footprints of selected events to get a fuller picture of data availability and the emissions of other categories such as production and logistics.
It is important to collaborate with external stakeholders, whether other organisers or our own partners and suppliers. We want to make sure we have a consistent approach to measurement across the industry and we can learn from each other.
Can you describe some of the most impactful projects you have worked on during your time at RX?
At the beginning of 2022 we launched a sustainability playbook, supported by several webinars. The playbook was written with event teams in mind and was to equip them with ways in which they could take action to reduce their environmental footprint at events.
Building on the playbook, we published our RX net zero roadmap at the beginning of 2023 which sets out the key milestones on our journey to net zero carbon. Both of these, have been the catalyst for some event teams to have focused action on sustainability. Pollutec and Renodays run by RX France are great examples of this – where they took steps to reduce waste and improve recycling.
Waste management is a significant concern in the events and exhibition industry. What strategies do you employ to address the unique challenges of waste management in the sector?
We are all familiar with the saying ‘what gets measured, gets managed’. Waste can be measured and therefore we can not only understand our total waste but we can see how much waste is recycled and in some instances re-used. Events typically produce a lot of waste – during the construction phases of the event this is plastics, wood, flooring offcuts, cardboard; during the event itself it is typically food and food or drinks packaging.
There are several strategies that can help reduce waste, following the Reduce-reuse-recycle philosophy:
- Use re-usable materials as much as possible, such as rental furniture for exhibition stands, sales lounges, theatres etc
- Reduce areas of flooring which is carpeted and if purchasing carpet ensure it is a carpet that can be recycled or re-used at least three times.
- Signage materials should be made of recyclable materials.
- Don’t overorder on food and consider food donation programmes.
- Investigate alternative food serveware: reusable is optimal but not always possible.
- Have water stations and promote re-usable water bottles to reduce plastic waste from water bottles.
- Incentivise and encourage re-usable exhibitor stands.
These are just a sample of the actions that can support waste reduction.
What according to you are some of the innovations that you find especially effective in reducing waste and promoting sustainability at events?
Event carpet typically is very wasteful as it is single-use and often sent to landfill. However, there are several options where the carpet is recyclable. This carpet significantly reduces emissions and reduces waste sent to landfill. More and more exhibitors are opting for modular stand systems they can re-use many times. These stand systems still look and feel custom made and unique to the exhibitor and yet they reduce waste because they avoid the stand build being sent to waste after only one use. It is exciting to see these innovations which move away from single-use exhibition stands.
We are seeing a lot of digital innovations at our events too, which have sustainability impacts by reducing the amount of printed material needed on site. We have a number of events now where they don’t print any event catalogues – it can all be found on an app. I love these because not only are they improving the customer experience they are helping our carbon footprint too.
Looking ahead, what is your vision for the future of sustainability in the events and exhibition industry?
Events continue to provide magical experiences for exhibitors and visitors with sensitive material choices. People attending our events make considerate environmental choices. The venues use renewable energy to power the events. The whole events ecosystem collaborates for sustainability.
