Greener by Design: Collaborating with the supply chain
Event organisers across all sectors face unique challenges — from production waste to supplier practices — but also major opportunities to cut environmental impact through collaboration. This session focuses on making the event supply chain and delivery process sustainable by design. Panellists will discuss how to engage delivery partners and contractors as collaborators, encourage sustainable materials and reusable builds, streamline logistics, and enforce supplier standards (such as requiring carpet recycling or low-VOC printing). Industry data underscores the need: in one study, waste from live event operations and back-of-house services totalled approximately 114,000 metric tonnes annually, with over half ending in landfill — a staggering figure that smart planning can reduce.