Brand Green Meet Green
Green Events for a Green Brand
Introduction
How do Events Define a Brand?
Events are an opportunity to create an environment and an experience that represents the brand you are building. An event is a logo and marketing strategy in real time. It is an opportunity to create the experience your customer expects to have by owning your product or service.
Logos, sponsorship, color choices, brands of beverages, menus, entertainment, venue and time of day are a few examples of how an identity is set at an event. A sports drink promotional event may be held at an arena featuring popular athletes, health food and take place in the afternoon while a high-end vodka manufacture may choose a hip nightclub with a popular DJ and require fashionable attire to promote its products. These are product specific choices that carry out the image and identity a product or service wants to portray in the market place.
Event and brand pairing are seen often in co-branding and sponsorship – companies want to know that by participating in an event they are reaching their potential or current customers and associated with supporting causes important to their clients. Sponsorship is another avenue that brands use to associate themselves with a particular clientele through and event.
Who or What is a Green Brand?
Green Brands have become popular in the marketplace, advertising themselves as being environmentally friendly. Cars, cleaning products, buildings, food and beverages, clothing and home décor, gas and energy providers, office supplies and even cities are setting themselves apart for consumers as being ‘Green’, ‘Blue’, ‘Eco’, ‘Sustainable’, ‘Good for You and Good for the Planet’, ‘Zero-Waste’, ‘Carbon Neutral’, ‘Hybrid’, ‘Recycled’, ‘Recyclable’, ‘Reusable’, ‘Compostable’, ‘Bio-Degradable’, ‘Local’, ‘Organic’, ‘Fair Trade’, and ‘Free Range’.
Branding your product or service green is a marketing opportunity to reach a growing number of consumers who are making more environmentally friendly choices as the threat of global warming has grown. In addition to promoting a brand’s green prowess, it is also popular and hip for consumers to buy eco-friendly products or services —opening up lucrative business opportunities. Ironically, companies who may be practicing environmentally friendly policies in their manufacturing and services but do not market themselves as green are losing footing in their markets.
Companies who are not producing environmentally friendly products or services have started to market themselves as a green company through adapted environmental policies and operations. Yahoo!, Google, VM Ware, Genetech, IBM, Cisco, BASF have adapted and marketed policies for environmental stewardship while not producing green products. The have made eco-friendly contributions on their campuses and facilities.
Green Brand + Event = Green Event
A well-crafted event is the desired experience created to embody the brand or service being marketed. An event is an opportunity to create life around your brand. In order to maintain brand integrity with a green brand the event must be green. A successful green brand examines the entire life cycle of the product or service from conception to disposal for its environmental efficiency – events (marketing, product launches, holiday parties, conferences, tradeshows, special events) are typically the informative and celebratory portion of that cycle.
Green Brand – Green Brand = Green Washing
The risk of not having a green event brings criticisms of “green washing” and illustrates a lack of follow through for the promotional campaign. Eco-savvy attendees know the difference between organic and not, farmed versus fresh water, seasonal versus imported. Your customer spends money on your products and services and they will notice that your company did not go another step further to incorporate their green product choice into their green lifestyle, a lifestyle presented via an event.
As a marketer, the goal is to have your customers buy in to the success and identity of your product. When it comes to green branding and events – Practice what you preach, it will be noticed if you do not. The London Times article noted the lack of consistency promoting Masdar, the world’s greenest city being built in the UAE. “The stage was floodlit, the power supplied by whirring generators. The flowers were flown in and wrapped in shiny cellophane. There was valet parking for the SUVs”, wrote The Times. This event was designed to celebrate and represent a city designed by Foster and Partners to be zero-carbon, zero-waste and powered by alternative energy. Not only did the event fail to present an environmentally-neutral lifestyle to be obtained in the new development, it raised doubts in the minds of critics whether this project was all hype and no substance.
What is a Green Event?
A green event or meeting is one where the environmental impact of the gathering is taken into consideration and dramatically reduced by various planning organizational efforts. Like the nature of events, the types of sustainable procurement and conservation vary and are assessed based on the needs of the function and the area it is located.
The “greening” of an event starts with examining all the segments of the event such as location, food and beverage, transportation, energy usage, water conservation and waste management.
The standards for determining a green event and the technology to create a green event are becoming more sophisticated. There are many tips and guidelines for holding a green event. As of April 2009 international green event and meeting standards will be completed from a combined effort of the Green Meeting Industry Council, the Convention Industry Council, the Accepted Practices Exchange and groups of experienced green event producers and providers.
Pairing Green Events with Green Brands
Quality and Experience Not Sacrificed
There is a false conception that a green event will become brown. The elegance of a corporate cocktail party or the energy of a product launch will not be diminished by addressing the environmental impacts of your event and reducing them. High technology solutions, innovative design and emerging food products from local farmers are becoming standard in green meetings and events.
Interactive and new technologies integrated into an event create a sleek environment and a futurist feel while eliminating printing of large banners and posters that are expensive and have a long lead time for production. Cell phones have become small widgets that can exchange information through Bluetooth and texting. Improvements in the energy consumption of monitors and audio/visual systems mixed with powering from alternative energy sources not only reduce the amount of energy consumed but are a beneficial cost trade-off with eliminating printing costs.
Event designers have added to the quality of events by using more linens, re-usable place settings and silverware, locally grown and seasonal flower arrangements, extravagant design creations from re-use and recycling. Succulents and seedlings are being incorporated as plantable centerpieces and gifts at events as well. “Succulents are a wonderful green promotion and a sensible alternative to cut floral designs. They are beautiful, drought tolerant, flourish with minimal care, and can be sustainably resourced,” explains John Bork of Eco-Imprints. The longer life décor will live with your attendees much longer than any logo’d stress ball and does its own part in carbon sequestering.
Steps to Incorporate to Have a Green Event
There are several “Green Event Tips” and guides available from green event planners and organizations of how to green your meeting or event. The most thorough is the Green Meetings Report prepared by the Convention Industry Council. A more comprehensive guide is being written as this paper is getting typed with an international collaboration from event planners and suppliers, the CIC, GMIC, ASTM and many other environmental organizations.
Each of these lists can seem overwhelming to incorporate into an event program. Most events have a very fast turn around and hit the ground running once production has started. Interjecting new ways (new suppliers, new venues, new contracts, new policies, etc) when a planners method is the only non-variable in their day is inconvenient and scary to demand a over-haul. The following are process minded tips to greening your events:
• Incorporate one process at a time, get it right and then add more processes. This is most essential for existing programs and events. As the game plan shifts, event stakeholders need to be guided along. There is education, trainings and research necessary to figure out how each green model will successfully work into the event structure. New events have the opportunity to set precedent from the beginning and can create an entire green infrastructure more easily than their established counterparts.
• Examine your options and study their feasibility and effects on your event. What is your location’s waste management facility structure? Is composting available? Is there time and staffing availability to properly sort your waste stream? Will they collect and process plastics numbered 1 through 6? Do they ship off a majority of those materials to the highest bidder in India or China? Does your budget double by ordering name brand, organic food? What are the expectations of presentation? What will your attendees REALLY do with your promotional items? What goes in, must come out – so design what goes in based on the most environmentally friendly, available ways to take it out.
• Don’t make your green event brown. Success in green event production is essential to the argument that a green event does not mean lower quality, forgotten service or diminished aesthetics. You have an opportunity to educated a concentrated group of people on the ease, importance and beauty being more eco-friendly can offer. The environmental movement is demanding a lifestyle and procedural change – a green event is an opportunity to illustrate there doesn’t have to be anything lost in our need to convegne for both business and personal.
Share Your Goals and Successes
Once you have determined how green or waste-free or carbon neutral your event can be, it is essential to communicate to all the stakeholders of the event to guarantee success and repeat business.
Vendors, providers, venues, clients, sponsors and attendees must be aware of your green goals because they each contribute to what goes in and what comes out of your event. Requests For Proposals (RFPs) and contracts must have green clauses to inform and require low waste options from the initiation of the project. Green cannot be successfully incorporated into an event overnight – as incorporating efficiency and removing excess waste must in any program overhaul, not just events. Eco-Event information should be incorporated into the marketing to attendees sponsors and the media to generate excitement and encourage support.
Measurement of your successes enables your events to be worked into your company’s environmental policies and goals, improving the incremental progress. Some tangible and transferable ways to measure are waste diversion, mileage reduction, water bottle removal and power consumption. Illustration of policies, explanation of training and management, vendor and venue selection and attendee amenities that incorporate local, organic and waste free products, ease in participating, and incentives for alternative transportation are examples to list in an events audit. An event audit sets the bar to go even further with subsequent events as well as illustrate the hard, important work your event is achieving, especially in relation to the important challenges your product or service is solving. The old adage: What gets measured, gets managed. What gets managed, gets the money. Measure the green results of your event and ensure its relevance and repeat performances.
What is Gained from Greening?
Remove the altruistic reasons for greening your event and begin to look at the resource savings, participant appreciation, sponsorship opportunities, press generation, thoughtful design and innovation of your green event.
Resource Savings
• Reduced transportation by shuttles, carpooling and locale
• Paperless communication via Bluetooth and WiFi
• Material waste by detailed recycling programs
Participant Appreciation
• Whole experience by embodying the brand identity
• Identify with their passions and social needs
• Provide a higher quality environment
Press Generation
• Places you as a business leader in the marketplace
• Illustration of adaptability of green practices
• Another ‘angle’ to publicize your event
Thoughtful Design
• Heightened understanding of movement through the event
• Your participants’ relationship with your brand is not one time use – why should your event be?
•By rethinking production to go green, ‘Business as usual’ can be retooled
Innovation
• Incorporating new technologies to power and communicate
• Procurement and Waste Management redesign
• Supporting emerging business and industries
Events are about experience and communication. By producing a green event you have expanded the assumed experience and communication models and permeated deeper into your attendees exchange with your brand.
For More Information here are the following resources:
• Green Meeting Industry Council (GMIC)
www.greenmeetings.info The Green Meeting Industry Council is leading the meeting industry in improving meeting management by supporting collaboration and the development and dissemination of resources and opportunities that improve the environmental performance of meetings and events. The GMIC is the central location for information and tools to provide you with the green edge in creating meetings and events that achieve economic objectives, tread lightly on the earth, and contribute to host communities.
• Blue Green Meetings
www.bluegreenmeetings.org We’re making it easier for you to hold meetings that don’t cost the earth. Whether you are a host, planner or supplier, this is where you’ll find the tips, tools and resources to make environmentally responsible choices for your meetings.
• Convention Industry Council Green Guide
http://www.conventionindustry.org/projects/green_meetings_report.pdf The Convention Industry Council’s Green Meetings Task Force was charged with creating minimum best practices for event organizers and suppliers to use as guidelines for implementing policies of sustainability. The task force was composed of individuals from the EPA, the Ocean’s Blue Foundation, the Society of Incentive Travel Executive’s Green Meeting Group, the World Travel Organization, hotels, convention and visitors bureaus, convention centers, and meeting-planning organizations. For more information, visit the Convention Industry Council online at www.conventionindustry.org.
• Environmental Protection Agency
www.epa.gov/oppt/greenmeetings/index/htm This site can help you plan meetings while minimizing negative impacts on the environment. The site enables you to access information that can assist you in “greening” your conferences. Whether you are a meeting planner, supplier of meeting services, meeting host who contracts with meeting planners or attendee of meetings.
To Reach Us please call Twirl Management at 415.864.4118 or email info@twirlmanagement.com. Thank you for taking the time to read this paper. Any suggestions, comments or feedback are welcome.
Johanna Walsh is the CEO of Twirl Management, and eco-event planning company. She is on the membership committee of the Green Meetings Indsutry Council and is working on building a GMIC Chapter in Northern California. Ms. Walsh also sits on the Audio Visual Subcommittee to write the Green Meeting Standards with APEX, GMIC and the CIC.
