Gaining a benchmark for our environmental impact

In 2021, even as the global events world was continuing to push the boundaries of hybrid, and building up client and end-user confidence in this model, at Activate we were experimenting with #sustainability measurement solutions as a way of gaining a benchmark for our environmental impact, and as a way of guiding our global clients towards good-sense business decision-making.

As a global event management company, we are not looking at a single source solution for all our sustainability needs. We are looking at every solution that can help us provide sensible and impactful recommendations in this space.

Our outlook on breakthrough solutions supporting our growth and our clients’ interests, brought us in dialogue with Matt Grey from EventDecision who offer a range of services designed to monitor and mitigate event impact.

In addition to Wi-Fi audits, we were particularly drawn to the TRACK and PREDICT products. “At heart, we are a measurement company, tackling event headaches one at the time,” Matt explains.

TRACK – measures the sustainability of events and places recommendations for mitigation and off-setting solutions. Demonstrating options for measurement from the RFP stage demonstrates both the intent and the ‘how’ of this process, in practical terms. Matt goes as far as to say: “Agencies are gaining a competitive advantage by measuring sustainability from the RFP stage” and moves the ownership of creating a virtuous cycle of positive sustainability decisions on to the agencies, who embrace solutions such as CONNECT – TRACK – PREDICT right from the outset. Then, as agencies, we pass this opportunity to our clients who can say “Sustainability is a buying decision of mine.”

PREDICT – This is a predictive tool which can demonstrate the value for ‘in-person’ attendance and ‘virtual’ attendance, effectively providing two sets of contextual ROI to predict the returns for each model and thus, enable decision making.

Strong focus is placed on ownership, behaviour and intentionality.

Fundamentally, awareness and a favourable sentiment are helpful enablers of sustainability action but change happens at the individual level and this is the point where each of us as individuals and professionals must own the decision and act with intentionality.

COP26 President Alok Sharma stated in his COP26 closing remarks: “We can now say with credibility that we have kept 1.5 degrees alive But, its pulse is weak and it will only survive if we keep our promises and translate commitments into rapid action.”

For small island nations such as Barbados ‘two degrees is a death sentence’ and critically, the time to act is now, the ownership to act is on every one of us.”

We are here for all our clients, prepared with concrete solutions to predict, track, mitigate and off-set events’ only negative impact so that your message and legacy is future-proof, starting today.

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