Whether you’re organising events or supplying events with your services, it’s now increasingly impossible to simply ignore addressing your company’s environmental impact. 

With legislation holding organisations accountable and increased pressure from clients and partners to offer better, more mindful services, starting or progressing your sustainability journey has never been more topical or necessary.

The great news is that there is still time to get ahead and that nobody is asking for perfection. Phew. Rewriting how we run events is no easy task and it will take time and the collective effort of our wider community to get there.

The ins and outs of your own sustainability journey will become clear as the path unfolds, but for now, the best thing you can do? Start or keep going.

1. Event Carbon Measurement Starter Pack – FREE RESOURCE

Understand carbon measurement

Putting the measures in place to successfully assess your event carbon impact is a sure fire way to kick-off your sustainability journey. By implementing carbon measurement processes within your organisation, you’ll get an overview of the environmental cost of everything from your events’ power sources and location, to food and drink offerings and waste solutions – to name but a few. 

Through integrating measurement practices throughout your event cycle, you’ll future-proof your business and de-risk the compliance challenges raised by emerging regulations.

With that all being said, knowing how to start the carbon measurement process is half of the battle and piecing it all together can be confusing. That’s why we created the Event Carbon Measurement Starter Pack, in collaboration with IMEX, to offer a complete introduction to event carbon measurement, all in one helpful document. 

Download your starter pack

2. TRACE

Start your carbon measurement journey

Once you’ve familiarised yourself with the what, why and hows of carbon measurement, you’ll want to set yourself up with a platform that allows you to comprehensively measure and work out ways to minimise your carbon output. 

TRACE is isla’s very own Carbon Measurement tool and makes event measurement simple. The platform empowers businesses and event organisers with the vital insights needed to guide their decarbonisation journey.

For an insight into how TRACE is being used and managed, by an organisation that is successfully measuring their carbon, see our blog post with tips and tricks from Jade Woodall at Pure Communications Group.

You can also watch an on demand demo, or book a free live demo, to get a further understanding of how TRACE can assist you on your carbon measurement journey.

Explore TRACE

3. Temperature Check Report – FREE RESOURCE

Understand where the industry is at

Industry-wide changes need to happen in order to truly limit our collective impact on the planet. By understanding where the rest of the industry stands on their individual sustainability path, we can identify which areas need the most attention and work together to find solutions.  

This is where isla’s Temperature Check Reports come in, the most recent being our 2022-2023 report, which aims to guide the event industry on a continuous improvement pathway, drawing on best-in-class insights from our event carbon measurement platform TRACE and isla’s diverse membership community. 

A 2024-2025 European Temperature Check Report is on the horizon, so watch this space, but in the meantime, our most recent report still offers relevant insights and in depth analysis of the events industry’s carbon impact.

Temperature Check Report – download

4. proseed – FREE RESOURCES INCLUDED

Create policies and plans

Finding sustainable solutions for events can feel overwhelming and it’s completely reasonable that you might need a helping hand to point you in the right direction. 

proseed has been designed with the whole supply chain in mind to standardise how our industry approaches sustainability and makes it easier to deliver meaningful change across the sector.

You can get access to some top tips for sustainable solutions across the entire events sector for free, or purchase editable policy and plan templates, which will make it easier for your business to make and demonstrate sustainable commitments to your stakeholders and customers.

Explore proseed

5. The Sustainable Events Courses

Get some sustainability education

Gathering all the knowledge you’ll need to apply an environmentally conscious mind to events won’t happen overnight and it can be a challenging process to navigate on your own, without a sense of direction.

After listening to event professionals navigating how to take a truly strategic and authentic approach to their sustainability efforts, isla have since created two six-week, virtual courses, in partnership with The Meetings Show, which have been designed to provide an education on the core principles of tackling event sustainability and provide direction for event professionals.

The Sustainable Events Course is brilliant for beginners, who want to lay down a foundation of knowledge on a wide range of sustainability topics, such as travel, transport, catering, and event production – resulting in you having the option to create a simple impact report.

Meanwhile, The Advanced Sustainable Events Course is a level-up opportunity for event professionals who want to expand upon their pre-existing knowledge, with modules on legislation & regulations, communications, and measurement principles – plus much more. You may want to refer back to this course later on in your sustainability journey.

Find out more

6. isla Membership

Everything you need to succeed

Introducing sustainability policies within your business and navigating the organisation and servicing of events is easiest when you have the confidence to move forward and the community to support your journey. 

isla membership provides a tailored approach to helping organisations on their sustainability mission: it doesn’t matter if you’re an agency, brand, venue or supplier – you’ll be given the knowledge you need through training, workshops, webinars, events and one-to-one sessions, whilst surrounded by a community of like-minded people with similar goals.

When it comes to the challenges around environmental impact, we cannot stress the importance of community enough – isla members are transparent with each other about their individual experiences and through this we are able to facilitate a movement which is learning and growing together.

Explore isla Membership