Promarta Conference Organisers
Professional events for the public sector
Sustainable Events
All human endeavour has an impact on the environment and the community. We recognise our responsibility to minimise that impact both in the operation of our business, in the provision of our services; and through our influence on others.
We appreciate this isn't something that we can do once and forget about, but something that needs to be practiced every day and reviewed regularly.
A little bit of history
Transport
Energy
Venues
Food and drink
Communications
Conference materials
Business stationery
Promotional materials
View and download a copy of our Sustainability Policy (in pdf format)
A little bit of history
Our first event (back in 1993) was a conference for young people interested in improving their environment. The involvement of local and national environmental organisations ensured it was a truly sustainable event.
And we've applied the same principles to every event we've run since then, not least because what makes environmental sense usually makes commercial sense too.
Over the years we've updated our policy and practices to reflect the advent of electronic communication, the widespread availability of Fair Trade products and the emergence of new environmentally friendly products.
Transport
We use public transport for all journeys. Where underground, rail or bus transport is not practical we use taxis and hired vehicles.
In discussion with our clients we encourage delegates to travel to events by public transport. Where public transport isn't available or convenient we will discuss the provision of courtesy buses with our client.
Where we are involved in selecting a venue accessibility by public transport is one of our key selection criteria.
Energy
We use low energy light bulbs and energy efficient equipment. We are also very good a turning off equipment that is not in use.
Venues
We ask all venues for a copy of their sustainability policy and take this into consideration when selecting a venue. We are particularly interested in their awareness of sustainability issues and their practical changes even if they are quite small in themselves, for example using low energy light bulbs or recycling office paper.
Food and drink
Where we provide refreshments the tea, coffee and sugar will be fair trade and the milk and juices organic. Where fair-trade and organic products are available these will be used. We use reusable crockery and cutlery rather than disposables to minimise waste.
Unless specifically requested by the client (following a discussion of the relative merits) we will provide chilled tap water rather than bottled water to minimise packaging waste and distribution emissions.
Where venues have tied caterers we will request fair-trade, organic and local food and drinks. If these aren't available we encourage the venue and the caterer to consider offering environmentally friendly options in the future.
Recognising that most conference food is high in fat, salt and sugar we encourage our clients to specify healthier options including fresh vegetables and fruit. (Lighter, healthier food may also keep delegates more alert after lunch!)
Communications
Printed communications consume resources and are expensive, so where possible we use electronic communications. Where paper is used we use recycled and recyclable materials.
We are working with our suppliers to source recycled paper and card made from UK sourced post-consumer waste. In addition to directly reducing landfill and reducing the distance the materials travel this develops the market for these products and makes UK recycling financially viable.
One of our print partners is working towards and another has achieved BS8555 in recognition of their Environmental Management System. They have reduced landfill waste by over 90%, use vegetable rather than mineral based inks, reduced chemical usage and recycle all their waste paper and card. They also use recycled paper as standard.
We encourage our suppliers to communicate with us electronically and have reduced the paper that comes through our letterbox by over 50% over the last two years.
Conference materials
Conference materials often have a short life span. We adopt the classic reduce-reuse-recycle mantra to minimise the environmental impact of our event materials.
Reduce
- Carefully estimating the amount of materials required to avoid over production. By understanding our delegates we've typically halved overproduction from 20% to 10%.
- Producing materials "just in time" to avoid late changes requiring reprinting.
- Using duplex printing where possible to reduce the amount of paper required.
- Questioning whether information needs to be in every pack, or whether it is equally useful displayed on screen or published online.
- Promoting online evaluation which not only reduces paper usage but leads to better feedback.
Reuse
- Avoiding the production of single-event materials, for example pens or bags printed without the event name and date so they can be reused at other events.
- Where materials need to be printed we encourage the use of general rather than event specific logos so any surplus items can be used for other events or purposes.
- Donating surplus materials to community organisations for reuse.
Our letterheads are printed on Evolve Business 100gsm paper which is a 100% recycled paper. You can read more about Evolve paper at www.evolve-papers.com
We also use Evolve Business 90gsm recycled paper as our general office paper and for most of our printing and copying requirements. We also use Evolve 100% recycled envelopes.
One of the main attractions of the Evolve products is that much of the recycled paper they are made from is collected from London offices. This keeps the whole use-recycle-reuse process as local as possible. Evolve paper is widely available through general stationers and is competitively priced.
All our postcards produced from 1 April 2008 are printed on Gemini CS-1 recycled board made in the UK from 50% de-inked post consumer waste and 50% ECF pulp. These postcards are unlaminated and can be recycled in most office paper collections.
The Promarta Guide to Effective Presentations is printed with soya based inks on Era Silk paper. Era Silk paper is made from post-consumer waste collected in the UK and fibres from certified forests.
Sustainability Policy
Reviewed and updated August 2009