Green meetings- The Importance of Sustainability in B2B Meetings at Events

Green B2B Meetings
The Importance of Sustainability in
Meetings at Events

© 2019 Jifflenow | Proprietary & Confidential | 2
The Need of the Hour

• Sustainability practices are being adopted increasingly worldwide across all realms,
including the event and meeting management space.
• Although most contemporary events induct eco-friendly practices in minor ways, the
need of the hour is to try to convert an event and its meetings to become as sustainable
as possible.
• B2B Events and meetings are one of the biggest drivers of a business and also require
a lot of investment from the company.
• These mostly extravagant affairs involve a number of processes that can sometimes
ignore the implications on the environment.

• For example, there is a large amount of paper waste that is generated after a meeting
during an event. This is also the case when it comes to brochures or pamphlets that are
usually left behind.
• Most meetings at events also provide catering – which in turn, if unfinished can result in a
lot of food waste.
• Other issues include waste generated by plastic, increased carbon footprint due to
vehicle emissions, littering, environment degradation if an event is taking place outdoors
in a sensitive ecological area, and so on.
• It is imperative for enterprises to measure the environmental impact of their events and
meetings, and should understand their diverse impact as this is also a factor taken into
consideration by most event sponsors, visitors, as well as participants.

• The International Standard on Sustainable Event Management, ISO 20121 was
developed in order to encourage the event industry to employ sustainability practices.
• This international standard also helps organizers and enterprises identify the impact of an
event and reduce those that have a negative effect on the environment.
• One of the pillars of corporate social responsibility initiatives is the environmental impact
of all activities of the enterprise. There are a plethora of ways through which meetings
can be organized in a sustainable manner while remaining cost-effective as well.
• A number of enterprises today are implementing preventative measures to ensure
meetings at events are organized in an eco-friendly manner. The first step is to identify
the negative impact of the meeting and providing strategies to reduce the same.

Sustainable Meeting
Practices

Sustainable Meeting Practices
• Sustainability practices must be implemented from the conception stage. Meeting
• Managers generally coordinate with other stakeholders such as vendors, caterers,
suppliers, and so on. For example, instead of letting leftover food go waste, donating
them to a local shelter will be better.
• Activities that contribute to pollution are mainly those that are travel-related, therefore,
taking steps such as emphasizing on public transport, carpooling, walking, and biking
can be adopted.
• While choosing a venue, partnering with those that have been known to indulge in
sustainability practices and are environment-friendly is also encouraged.
• Although most meetings are known to take place indoors, there are those that can be
conducted outdoors as well. This applies to caterers as well. Thanks to the surge in
eco-consciousness, such vendors will be relatively easy to find and employ.

Sustainable Meeting Practices
• Another step that meeting managers can take is to rely largely on online
conversations, communications, and platforms, thereby reducing the necessity for
print-outs, brochures, and pamphlets.
• While choosing a venue, partnering with those that have been known to indulge in
sustainability practices and are environment-friendly.
• Another step that meeting managers can take is to rely largely on online
conversations, communications, and platforms, thereby reducing the necessity for
print-outs, brochures, and pamphlets.
• Meeting Managers should also note that once a meeting is done, steps to recycle,
donate or discard necessary items/products should be taken.

Tips to organize sustainable
B2B Meetings

Bye-Bye Paper
• Start off with a paperless planning process. Ditch those
print-outs and brochures for emails, and online posters and
drive digital engagement.
• Thanks to the impact of digital media, everything can be
viewed online. What this does is that it also removes
potential waste that could be generated from the meeting.
• However, if spreadsheets and e-mails to organize meetings
result in more disorder than necessary, which it does, our
solution would be to migrate to a Meeting Automation
Platform which automates all aspects of meeting
management. After all, more meetings mean more
revenue!

Green Locations
• We mean this figuratively! A number of events today
comprise of meetings that do not always take place in
closed-off rooms.
• Many managers are hosting meetings out in the open or in
locations that are as committed to sustainability as you are.
• A lot of counties and cities also indulge in dedicated climate
combating measures. Selecting venues in such areas can
also have a significant impact.
• Additionally, choosing venues that are relatively closer to
airports or bus stations can also significantly reduce the
carbon footprint that will be a result of all the travel.

Ditch the Water Bottle
• The sheer amount of plastic waste generated after a meeting
is quite appalling and a large contributor to this are water
bottles.
• Instead, having one large water-cooler with biodegradable
cups will be a better choice for the environment.
• Apart from this, if attendees bring their own water bottles
(hopefully not plastic), wastage will be avoided.

Go Local and Organic
• Leftover food is usually discarded and this amounts to a lot
of waste. Contributing to the local economy by ordering local
food can cut down expenses.
• Additionally, serving organic food is also healthier for all
participants.
• A lot of enterprises today also implement measures wherein
all the leftover food is donated to a local shelter so as to
prevent undue wastage.

Reuse and Recycle
• The mantra to be followed by every meeting manager who
wishes to organize ‘the’ sustainable meeting of the year.
• A lot of waste is generated by discarding things that can be
recycled or reused.
• For example, instead of using plastic sign boards or banners
that need to be discarded, why not use chalkboards or
whiteboards that can be reused?
• Additionally, instead of spending money every year on decor,
repurposing the previous year’s decor and using
biodegradable products such as flowers will go a long way in
promoting sustainability.

Productive B2B meetings can generate pipeline, drive sales while
boosting influenced ROI pipeline for enterprises. Meetings are an
essential component of events and have a huge impact on not just the
business but also the environment due to the sheer scale at which they
are organized. The above points are just a few ways in which meetings
can be greener, more sustainable without going over-budget.
Got more innovative ideas to make meetings sustainable? Let us know
in the comment section below!

© 2019 Jifflenow | Proprietary & Confidential | 16© 2019 Jifflenow | Proprietary & Confidential | 16
You may also like this
Podcast: Meeting Automation
Platform
In this podcast, Ravi Chalaka, CMO at
Jifflenow discusses the new Meeting
Automation Platform software category with
Jim Lundy, Founder, CEO, and Lead Analyst
at Aragon Research
Listen Now

Jifflenow is the world’s #1 Meeting Automation Platform (MAP) that helps enterprises accelerate
business growth by automating the scheduling, management, and analysis of strategic meetings at
events, briefing centers, roadshows, executive sessions, and training forums. This advanced SaaS
platform offers enterprise-class analytics, security, GDPR compliance and integration with leading
sales and marketing software. Jifflenow is the most trusted MAP with over 200 enterprise customers
including numerous Fortune 1000 companies.
The company is backed by Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and Saama Capital and is based in San
Jose, California.
THE WORLD’S #1 MEETING AUTOMATION PLATFORM
Copyright Jifflenow 2019. All rights reserved.
https://.jifflenow.com

Green meetings- The Importance of Sustainability in B2B Meetings at Events

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Green meetings- The Importance of Sustainability in B2B Meetings at Events

Similar to Green meetings- The Importance of Sustainability in B2B Meetings at Events (20)

More from Jifflenow

More from Jifflenow (9)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Green meetings- The Importance of Sustainability in B2B Meetings at Events