Pur­chas­es & Mate­ri­als

The car­bon foot­print from event pur­chas­es and mate­ri­als, mean­ing event struc­tures, tech­nol­o­gy, dec­o­ra­tions and mer­chan­dise, can be reduced by choos­ing eco­log­i­cal and recy­cled options. In an ide­al sit­u­a­tion the event orga­niz­ers work in paper­less offices and do not print pro­grammes, but rather share infor­ma­tion via info screens, mobile apps or web­sites.

After an event the ser­vice providers take the equip­ment and appli­ances with them. Pur­chas­es are recy­cled or returned to where they were bor­rowed from. Lan­yards and name tags are col­lect­ed.

What else? You can learn to plan ahead a more sus­tain­able chain for each event pur­chase!

Do this

Begin­ners

Use the sus­tain­abil­i­ty cri­te­ria when ten­der­ing pur­chas­es.

Pre­fer durable pur­chas­es and mate­ri­als. Plan how to reuse your pur­chas­es after the event already when pur­chas­ing.

Min­i­mize the amount of mer­chan­dise and goods giv­en to audi­ence. The less mate­r­i­al, the less lit­ter!

Advanced

Take the envi­ron­men­tal friend­li­ness of prod­ucts and ser­vices into con­sid­er­a­tion. Check if a busi­ness is using an envi­ron­men­tal man­age­ment sys­tem or if they have received an envi­ron­men­tal label.

Do not print dates or years so it is pos­si­ble to reuse the same mate­ri­als, for exam­ple signs, ban­ners, fes­ti­val shirts or oth­er mer­chan­dise, in the future.

Do not pur­chase any­thing that you can rent from event busi­ness sub­con­trac­tors or, for exam­ple, bor­row from oth­er event orga­niz­ers.

Next Lev­el

Uti­lize old and reuse exist­ing mate­ri­als. Explore flea mar­kets and recy­cling cen­tres. Be cre­ative! You can find the flea mar­kets in Oulu on kirpputorit24 web­site (in Finnish).

Do not buy any new plas­tic junk for, for exam­ple, give aways or for dec­o­rat­ing an event.

Dec­o­rat­ing with domes­tic flow­ers and plants is a car­bon-neu­tral choice!

More could be done to pro­mote local joint use. Lainaamo, oper­at­ed by Korkardik­lu­bi (site in Finnish) and locat­ed in the old bar­racks area in Hiukkavaara, bor­rows equip­ment and appli­ances for small events.

Would it be a high time time to cre­ate a social media group or an event trad­ing place for recy­cling fes­ti­val stuff, mean­ing objects, mate­ri­als and equip­ment left use­less by oth­er event orga­niz­ers?