• April 15, 2024

Event industry lagging on ‘S’ in ESG, research finds

Event industry lagging on ‘S’ in ESG, research finds

Event industry lagging on ‘S’ in ESG, research finds 1024 683 micebook.

event:decision has published its first Impact quarterly update, which reveals that the events sector is lagging on the social element of ESG but showing some progress in the areas of governance and the environment.

The stats come from event:decision’s recently launched Impact tool, which quantifies event sustainability performance by assessing a wide range of ESG factors that individual events are actioning.  

These statistics are the results of self-assessment by event owners, directors and producers, scoring if <30 factors across ESG are (1) being actioned (2) not being actioned or (3) not applicable to event type. 

This shows where we stand across the event sector on ESG, from October 2023 to April 2024: 

What does this mean?

Governance (event organising processes) ranks the highest, as befits a professional industry. 

Environmental factors are ranking as more than 60% actioned on average, likely the highest ever, given the surge in environmental consideration within the event sector since 2021. 

Social factors are lagging. No surprise given the relative youth of serious discussion regarding the social benefit of events in many areas of our industry.  

 Key Stats

For the first Impact update, event:decision highlighted the following stats, which stood out, by virtue of being well-covered by planners, or the opposite of such, as defined by Impact assessments. 

Environmental factors: 

  • Local supply is sought by 86% of planners who have assessed their own events. 
  • 33% of planners plan to offset some or all carbon emissions related to their event.

Social factors: 

  • 76% of planners state that their company has a Living Wage policy in place for event contractors and suppliers.
  • 20% of planners state they try to address at least one of the Unites Nations Sustainable Development Goals within their event

Governance factors: 

  • 61% of planners state that their event client sits within scope of the EU’s CSRD carbon-reporting legislation.
  • 72% of planners state that their organisation already holds specific sustainability accreditation.

 Laura Robinson, Head of Sustainable Event Operations at event:decision said: “We’re delighted to be able to bring these facts and figures to the event sector for the first time, based on real events held over the last two quarters. The industry has been talking about a transition to being more sustainable for a few years now, it’s great to be able to see how we’re all doing – but also where we need to focus to improve event performance. We very much hope the tools available at event:decision help planners to do so – and expect to see the numbers improve each quarter as we report.”

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