Thanks to new technologies and earth-orbiting satellites, we can access many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. A mounting body of data, collected over many years, is providing us with a bigger picture of climate change. According to NASA, 97% of climate scientists agree that human activities are the likely cause of climate-warming trends. Most leading scientific organisations across the world agree. Loss of sea ice, sea-level rise and longer, more intense heat waves are some of the observations. Plants and animals are shifting in their range and trees flower sooner. Climate change is having a serious impact on the world’s water systems through more flooding and droughts, according to the WWF. Our oceans, forests and wildlife are all affected, our whether patterns more extreme. You can explore the effects of climate change on the WWF website in a bit more detail.

The good news is that we can do something about it, both at work and at home. We can use energy more wisely and use cleaner energy, and eat better for a climate-stable planet. Our offices can also be greener, if we put pressure on our companies. If you would like practical examples of what to do, this website provides a good range. It is not hard these days to get more informed about key issues and to come to your own conclusions and actions.

At Ripcord Promotions, we work in the meetings, incentives, conferences and events industry, also called ‘MICE’. Given that events and conferences are our focus, we want to share a practical approach you can champion in your place of work to run events that are kinder to our environment. It only takes a small group of committed citizens to change the world, said Margaret Mead. Perhaps you will be one of them?

1. Measure

Measure the likely impact of the event you are running. Measuring impact makes us more aware of our choices and gives us a starting point to take action. Food and Trees for Africa offer an easy-to-use calculator for this task. You can find the calculator here. It covers air travel, motor travel, electricity consumption and paper. They offer a ‘copy and paste code’ for the calculator to be embedded on any website, helping others to get informed about their carbon footprint.

2. Offset

Now that you have a base measurement, use this to offset your carbon footprint and to become carbon neutral. The Food for Trees calculator takes you to a results page that tells you exactly how many trees you need to plant, based on the consumption of your event.

Why plant trees? Planting trees enhances our landscapes but functionally, through photosynthesis, trees absorb carbon dioxide to produce oxygen. Increasing the number of trees can help to offset CO2 emissions as well as provide more wildlife habitat. Planting native South African trees (in South Africa) is recommended too. There are many organizations that will plant trees on your behalf. Most also carry out proactive work in communities, so they are well worth supporting.

3. Reduce

Reduce where you can. It saves costs and generally lowers the carbon future. Ways of reducing include:

• Go paperless where possible. In the conferencing industry – this is a big one! Don’t print what you don’t need to. Make use of digital options such as apps for programme information and digital signage (where the venue permits). Most of the paper in conference bags ends up in the bin.

• Go local and seasonal on your menus. Ask venues about what they can offer. The more these questions get asked, the more likely venues are to respond. Local and seasonal options reduce transport and storage requirements.

• Source conference items and gifts locally. Stop importing plastic bags and other items, and choose our fabulous, local fabrics for bags and gift ideas. This also supports small businesses, which is good for our communities, our economy and our country.

• Provide recycling bins at your large event.

At Meetings Africa 2016 we scooped the Green Award from the Event Greening Forum in the Small Stands category. We used recycled crates for our furniture and presented potted succulents in place of cut flowers. Information on greening was displayed at our stand and we offset our carbon load for the event by planting trees. Our pens were eco-friendly cardboard pens and the boxes that housed our delicious chocolates came in plantable seed paper. Even our cushions were made from banners used the previous year. It is easier than you think to put these small measures in place.

The Event Greening Forum is an organization committed to the principles of event greening. They have launched a set of standards for sustainable and green events, and it identifies environmental, quality, regulatory and social performance criteria that guide us in reducing our environmental load. They offer an event greening database of suppliers to help us all make better choices.

We can be kinder to the environment and build a better future for those who come after us. What can you champion at your next event?