Orga­nize a Sus­tain­able Event

The sus­tain­able event pro­duc­tion guide helps you to orga­nize pub­lic events in such a way that future event orga­niz­ers are also left with an oppor­tu­ni­ty to orga­nize events.

Sus­tain­able devel­op­ment con­sists of three areas, which are eco­log­i­cal, social and eco­nom­ic sus­tain­abil­i­ty. This guide focus­es on eco­log­i­cal sus­tain­abil­i­ty.

The terms sus­tain­abil­i­ty and respon­si­bil­i­ty are often used inter­change­ably. Sus­tain­abil­i­ty can also be con­sid­ered as the end-goal that can be achieved through respon­si­ble actions.

Whether it is a fes­ti­val, con­fer­ence, sports com­pe­ti­tion or a com­mu­ni­ty par­ty, events always put bur­den on the envi­ron­ment. Par­tic­i­pants trav­el to events by cars and planes, and events leave behind piles of lit­ter and cause spikes in ener­gy con­sump­tion.

A respon­si­ble event orga­niz­er recog­nis­es their own envi­ron­men­tal load and aims to reduce it. At best, sus­tain­able event orga­niz­ing can also increase cli­mate cri­sis aware­ness.

Oulu is the Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture 2026. The goal is for events in the area to be as car­bon-neu­tral as pos­si­ble by then. In its envi­ron­men­tal pro­gramme, the City of Oulu is com­mit­ted to strive for car­bon neu­tral­i­ty by 2035.

This guide has been com­piled in The Most Sus­tain­able Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture project, which searched for tools for event orga­niz­ers to help them in their envi­ron­men­tal work, for exam­ple by test­ing inno­va­tions that reduce event emis­sions.

The Sus­tain­able Event Pro­duc­tion Guide

Oth­er oper­a­tors have pub­lished guides, car­bon foot­print cal­cu­la­tors and respon­si­bil­i­ty pro­grammes as well. This guide com­ple­ments oth­er works and pro­vides prac­ti­cal guid­ance from choos­ing a venue to pur­su­ing envi­ron­men­tal cer­tifi­cates. A vari­ety of links from research infor­ma­tion to leg­is­la­tion have been com­piled to sup­port the three-step guide­lines.

Venue

Trav­el & Trans­porta­tion

Ener­gy

Food & Drink

Waste Man­age­ment

Pur­chas­es & Mate­ri­als

Water & Sew­er­age

Noise Pol­lu­tion

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion

Car­bon Foot­print

Com­pen­sa­tion

Cer­tifi­cates

With the help of the sus­tain­able event pro­duc­tion guide, event orga­niz­ers can reduce their envi­ron­men­tal load step by step. There are guide­lines rang­ing from min­i­mum require­ments for begin­ners to actions for advanced event orga­niz­ers and leaps for top per­form­ers. You do not have to do every­thing at once, as envi­ron­men­tal work at events is a process where you can only get bet­ter at or learn from its set­backs.

All inno­va­tion test­ings con­duct­ed in the project are also report­ed in this guide. They will not save the world, but they do serve as inspi­ra­tion for the future. Col­lab­o­ra­tion between event orga­niz­ers and inno­va­tors can open up new hope­ful prospects and cre­ative solu­tions for our planet’s future. What could be test­ed or done dif­fer­ent­ly at your event?

Test­ed Inno­va­tions

View what solu­tions have already been test­ed at events.

Con­tact

Impressed, inter­est­ed or came up with a sug­ges­tion for improve­ment?

We will help you in all areas of event pro­duc­tion free of charge! Con­tact the City of Oulu Event Ser­vices (site in Finnish).

Part­ners

The Most sus­tain­able Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture is the Euro­pean Region­al Devel­op­ment Fund’s ERDF project, fund­ed by the Coun­cil of Oulu Region in 2019–2023.