<p><span class="color-class-teal">60 seconds with Lauren Stanislas, </span><br><span class="color-class-teal">Aspect Producer and Sustainability Champion</span></p>
1. What can event agencies do to move the sustainability debate on within the industry?
I don’t think anyone would disagree with me when I say that our sector needs to up its game a little bit. Or more than a little bit.
As an events agency, we recognise the role we play in putting sustainability on our clients’ agendas and providing guidance on something that can feel overwhelming. To help them put achievable, measurable steps in place and make us all accountable.
It’s not a hard sell into our clients from a moral or ethical standpoint. But the time and dedication required is another matter. So it’s our job to help our clients get the balance right between commercial objectives, audience expectations and sustainability goals – the holy trinity.
2. How important is the collaboration between agencies, suppliers, and clients in reaching industry sustainability objectives and how well is that working at the moment?
It’s vital. There’s a lot of collaboration between agencies and suppliers in the shape of events, discussion forums, lunch & learn sessions, etc. What’s refreshing is that there’s a lot of honesty about the situation – nobody’s hiding from the issue and everyone wants to make progress. As a sector there’s no sense that we’re competing with each other – the opposite is true, we’re all facing the same challenges and working towards the same goals.
Sustainability isn’t about calling people out. It doesn’t matter where you are on the journey – it matters that you’re on it.
One of the only positive aspects of the fight against climate change is that it’s unifying. We’re all in the same boat.
3. What do you consider to be the most significant barriers to the industry making progress in sustainability?
The first one is the idea what we need to solve these problems overnight. That’s not possible so those expectations are unrealistic. Yes, the pressure is on and time is of the essence but don’t strive for perfection straight away and don’t be put off if it takes a while to get things right. Even if an organisation wants to shoot for the stars, their suppliers might not be in a position to support those goals yet – so it’s being aware of those limitations.
The second one is that there’s no point looking at sustainability in isolation. As a strategic imperative, organisations need to bring their partners, customers and suppliers on the journey with them. Departments within companies need to be less siloed in their approach to sustainability. And everyone needs to buy into the process – a lone sustainability warrior should be a thing of the past.
4. What do you see as the most effective measure organisations can put in place right now to help them achieve their sustainability objectives?
Just get started. Put it on the agenda for your project meetings as standard, add it to your project plan template and discuss it alongside any other commercial objective.
Start measuring the carbon footprint of your events using a tool like TRACE. Consult organisations like isla and Earthly who exist to facilitate your sustainability journey – their resources are excellent.
Introducing the UN SDGs into a business from a strategic and operational point of view can feel overwhelming. There’s so much to do and so little time in which to do it, and meeting sustainability objectives obviously has to be balanced with other business priorities.But our advice is to just get started. The goals don’t all have to be met overnight but there are measures we can put in place to move the dial a little bit every time. Add sustainability as an action point on every project plan and gradually this will help it to move up the agenda.Regarding UN SDG 13 – Climate Action. ‘Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impact’ we’ve started right at the beginning – by looking at our definition of sustainability and setting clear sustainability objectives which align with ‘what we need’. Such as aiming to be net zero by 2050.
The other thing to remember is that we’re all in it together, working towards the same goals – so collaboration and partnership are key.
Lauren Stanislas, Producer and Sustainability Champion, Aspect