Green events and CSR with Andrew Williams from Seventeen Events

I wrote a lot before the Olympics about the potential longer term benefits of a sustainable approach to the management of the games. So at what point is it appropriate to start asking about the results? In terms of the dreaded word “legacy,” when will we know whether all the promises and pledges have actually amounted to anything?

The quick – if unhelpful – answer may be “not yet.” In fact it’s possible we won’t really be able to judge the progress made in London until we’re pretty far along with the planning for Brazil in 2016. But I believe there are several significant milestones along the way we can look out for.

Perhaps the first big tests will come in 2014 with the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow offering the UK an opportunity to showcase the progress it has made, and the World Cup in Brazil offering Latin America the chance to show they’re ready to take on the mantle.

In the run up to 2014 there are industry initiatives here in Britain which can help lead the way as we adjust to the sustainable future. The most prominent of these should be the Sustainable Events Summit in January. Tickets for this event are on sale now at www.sustainableeventssummit.com and it promises to be a hugely important event (Full disclosure – Seventeen Events have run this event for the past three years and we’ve been working hard to make this year’s event just as effective).

Finally, it’s a simple truth that no matter what we do as an industry pales into insignificance besides decisions taken at a national and international level. It may be that when we come to consider the sustainable progress made in 2012 in ten or twenty years time, the key factors we look at could be the re-election of President Obama in the US, the decisions made this week by the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing, and the results of the 2015 UK General Election.

No matter what, I believe we will look back on the 2012 games as a milestone on a long, slow journey rather than an overnight sea change.

Event professionals in the UK, and particularly those working in London, should be following the press around London Met with interest. The University is one of a growing number in the UK which offers degree level study in event management, and in my experience the courses there have been of a very high standard (declaration of interest: I have lectured at London Met on the subject of sustainability in the events industry). Our industry relies on a steady intake of well trained, savvy young people and while academic study is certainly not the be all and end all, it can certainly help.

Among the students that I have met have been exceptional people who have proved their worth in a practical setting, running their own events and raising much needed funds for charity.

If we want to build a more professional industry which commands the respect of other sectors, we should be aware and concerned about a situation that could threaten the prospects of our future event colleagues. .

You would be forgiven for having one or two nerves about the upcoming London Olympics. It has not exactly been plain sailing over the past four weeks as we are getting closer and closer to the games. The list is long and if I mention G4S, O2 phone signals, the M4, rooftop surface to air missiles and chips, you’ll probably get the idea – and they’re all just from the past few days. Even electronic cigarettes seem capable of bringing the country to the point of armageddon.

From my point of view, as a sustainability volunteer at the games, I have nothing but praise for the process so far. Picking up my uniform and accreditation was quick and easy, and I was struck by how friendly all of the other volunteers were. I’m confident London will be presenting a  friendly, welcoming face to the world.

In sustainability terms it has not all been plain sailing however. LOCOG has just published its response to allegations made earlier in the year around conditions in factories manufacturing plush toys for the games. The report – which you can read here – is something of a masterclass in the pros and cons of standards such as BS8901 and ISO20121. It is detailed, thorough, and follows a transparent process, but you can’t help but wonder why the checks are occurring now – after the allegations have been made – rather than as part of the initial procurement process. If the checks did take place at an earlier stage, then a fine or penalty for the company involved would seem more appropriate than “corrective measures” at this stage. There’s a lesson here that you can follow standards and procedures to the letter and still not get the results you wanted. I’ve always believed it’s more important for event organisations to pursue sustainable policies as a way of improving their business rather than simply to get a nice new certificate to hang on the wall.

Standards like ISO20121 should be welcomed though, as a great tool for us to use as an industry and as an important legacy of the 2012 games. I am a natural optimist and I am confident that we will see greater uptake of these standards in the years to come. It was a pleasure to be at the recent launch of ISO20121, particularly to hear from Coca Cola who have really embraced the new standard and are using it to make their Olympic activity better. But in 2012, as we await the arrival of the greenest games ever, after 7 years of well deserved hype – should we feel jubilant that a major brand like Coke is taking this forward? Or disappointed that out of all the top tier sponsors, only Coke has risen to the challenge? As always, my glass is half full, but it would have been encouraging to see some of the sustainability partners for the games step up to the plate. The question may be: if organisations like BMW, BP, BT et al aren’t using sustainability standards for their events now, what is it going to take to persuade them to do so?

My official duties start on the 27th, as London welcomes the world to see the greatest show on earth. Let’s focus on the positives rather than the doom and gloom, but let’s not be complacent about the road we still have ahead of us.

The short time remaining before the 2012 Olympics begin was brought home to me today. I received my shifts for my small role in making the event happen. I’m a volunteer on the sustainability team, and we’ll be monitoring what’s happening on the ground to make sure the games live up to their promise as the greenest games to date. It hasn’t been easy for LOCOG over the past few years, and I doubt that anyone would claim that they’ve always got everything right, but the recent Jubilee celebrations must have given them even more sleepless nights.

If it wasn’t torrential rain dampening the spirits, it was the tales of horror that emerged afterwards of so called “volunteers” being treated appallingly by organisations who were being paid to help them. It reinforces the obvious truth that it isn’t just environmental issues which will leave the games open to the charge of failing to live up to their sustainable billing – damage to communities, people and small businesses will also be scrutinised by those who see the games as an easy target.

There are clear guidelines around social media for games volunteers which I feel are sensible – so don’t expect to see any tweeted pics of me inspecting the venues I’ll be visiting. At the same time part of the backbone of a sustainable approach is to be transparent around what worked and what could be improved. I hope LOCOG have the courage of their convictions in this and share their experiences honestly and openly after the games. I’ll do my best to give Event Magazine readers a flavour of how I’m getting on. More news soon…!

I’ve spent the past few years repeating my mantra so often that I sometimes sound like a broken record. “It’s not about being greener,” I’ll say, “It’s about sustainability.” One of the fundamentals of our business is that it’s not enough to look at your environmental impact – you have to be looking at your social and economic effect too. The harmony between those three interconnected themes should in theory mean that creative events prosper in a way that reduces any negative impact we may have.

I’m starting to think I may have to change my tune. Over the past year I’ve heard a new theory start to gain traction across a number of business sectors that I think should worry anyone who is genuinely interested in a more sustainable future.

The problem arises when organisations or individuals look at the financial impact of their event and interpret that as the benchmark from which their “financial sustainability” should be measured.  To give you an example, I might want to use recycled paper at my event rather than the regular paper we’ve used in the past. That would sound like a no-brainer – it’s a more sustainable option. But of course I could decide that as the (tiny) extra cost was going to have an impact on my profit, the most sustainable thing to do from a financial point of view would be to stick with the status quo.

This was illustrated perfectly by a debate on Radio 4 recently between conservationists and housing developers who wanted to build on green belt land. This would damage the countryside said the conservationists. Maybe, replied the developers, but it’s still sustainable – because we won’t be able to offer low cost housing to people if we don’t build there, and we think it’s too expensive to redevelop brown field sites. They were using an argument around affordability of their end product to justify a relaxation of environmental regulation. To me that is a misinterpretation of the financial element of a sustainable approach.

I have always believed that sustainability should not cost more across the piece of an event. That does not mean that individual elements may be more expensive, with complementary savings made elsewhere. To pretend that because sustainability involves a financial element that nothing will ever cost more is a nonsense and a wilful distortion of the case for sustainability.

Financial sustainability should mean that the decisions you take around environmental and social policy are economically sound and durable, but that does not mean you can dismiss any change in behaviour simply because it costs more.

At the start of every year it’s traditional to gaze into the crystal ball and speculate about what might be in store for the next twelve months. Given our particular focus on sustainability the beginning of 2011 has got me thinking about the progress we’ve made as an industry so far and where we might be in a year’s time.

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We have had a great week working on the Start Garden Party at Clarence House in London. It’s been an inspirational event and also a great example of how all sectors of the event industry are embracing a more sustainable approach. From household names like M&S, Eurostar and B&Q down to grass roots suppliers there is a real feeling walking round the site that green issues are now part of the mainstream.

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While there are a number of sustainable event guides out there (and it would be rude of me not to mention ours here), there has never to my knowledge been an entire book devoted to the subject until now. Earthscan have just published “Sustainable Event Management” by Meegan Jones, and Meegan has done an amazing job of condensing and distilling the wealth of information out there into one reference. The book is by no means lightweight, but then neither is the subject matter. There are detailed sections covering branding and communications, energy, transport, water and procurement. Read More »

We have an ongoing intern programme at Seventeen Towers, which we have found really valuable. The extra resource helps us with special projects around the office and also hopefully offers our interns a bit of hands on experience in an events agency. As part of our ethical approach to business we pay our interns – not a fortune, but more than a lot of other places, which makes us feel better about ordering them around allows us to treat them as real team members, albeit on a short term scale. Read More »

Let me first of all wish you a very peaceful Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

As I write this, Barack Obama is on his feet making what could be the most influential speech of the two week Copenhagen Summit. It will probably take months, if not years before we can give an accurate assessment of whether it’s been worthwhile or a collosal waste of time. What we can say is that once again a face to face meeting has proved to be the most effective way of getting world leaders together. This is a tremendous endorsement of our industry.

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