isla has announced the launch of TRACE, a purpose-built carbon measurement platform dedicated to the event industry.

Developed to give insight into the environmental impact of event operations, TRACE captures and reports emission and waste data from live, hybrid and digital events. The TRACE platform is designed for event agencies, exhibition organisers, brands and in-house teams.

The mission behind TRACE is to support the events industry transition to Net Zero by empowering event managers with knowledge and data to make better decisions. Carbon measurement and reduction in events is more critical than ever, and TRACE is the product of two years of planning, research, development, consultation and testing. TRACE is designed around making measurement and emissions reduction clear and simple for event managers.

Reports for clients, sustainability teams and stakeholders are generated in real time, pre and post-event. TRACE evaluates emissions from venue energy, impact of event location on travel and accommodation, production and graphics materials, food and beverage emissions and waste and recycling volume.

Designed by event experts, TRACE is the brainchild of isla, the independent body and action driven network for the events industry with a focus on accelerating, and ensuring alignment, as we transition to a Net Zero society.  Multiple carbon consultants were involved in the methodology behind TRACE with verification by Avieco, a sustainability consultancy part of Accenture UK.

Ben Quarrell, co-founder, isla, said: “Reduction guidance is a key feature of the platform – the whole point in measuring carbon is to try and reduce it!  We expect to see more foot-printing tools leaning into this over the next few years.  We’re really excited about the transformational capacity TRACE can have for the industry, and we’ll be continually updating and developing the platform around the needs of event managers.”

Early adopters include Cannes Lions, Momentum Worldwide, SAP, The Creative Engagement Group, ITV, Birmingham Ceremonies Ltd, Amplify, Smyle, IMEX, The Meetings Show, EMC3, Goose Live, XYZ, TBA, Top Banana, The Live Group, Shelton Fleming, TTA, 2Heads, 2LK and Touch Associates amongst others.

Selina Donald, Global Sustainability Director of Momentum said: “Momentum will be rolling out TRACE to every market, to measure the footprint of our client projects across the globe.  We spent some time researching the right software for us, and TRACE came out on top.  It was important to us that the product was simple to use, relevant for the scope of our work and provided clear data analytics which will help us meet our goal of reducing our carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 from our 2019 baseline.”