Becoming a leader in sustainable events – 5 steps for a successful transformation

The nonprofit Monterey Bay Aquarium is first and foremost an education and conservation organization. So when Executive Director Julie Packard opened the aquarium for use as an event venue after our daytime guests head home, it was for the sole purpose of advancing our mission: to Inspire conservation of the ocean.

All of us on our events team take that mission to heart. We strive to fulfill this mission with each and every event we deliver.

While yours may not be a mission-driven nonprofit, what we’ve learned about creating environmentally sustainable events should resonate with you as well – for selfish, bottom-line reasons.

There’s a rising generation that expects you to lead. These are the folks who work for your organizations and who attend your meetings and conferences. Audience research confirms they’re likely than any other age group to be concerned about serious environmental issues – and feel they can make a difference.

In addition, your clients expect you to align your practices with their corporate social responsibility mandates. They are making bold commitments to transform their business practices in ways that preserve the health of our planet. They expect that to carry over to the events they sponsor and attend.

If you get ahead of the curve, you’ll differentiate yourself from your competitors – and reap the rewards.

At Monterey Bay Aquarium, we walk the talk with our events. This isn’t to say that we’re a perfect program. There are many challenges that we continuously work to address. That said, we’ve had our fair share of successes.

These five items are the foundation from which we operate – and something you can ask of your other event venues as well. You can incorporate them into your own practices, too

1) No Single Use Plastics

Eliminating single-use plastic waste from the global ocean is one of 17 sustainable development goals to which all 198 members of the United Nations have committed. It’s also a priority for the Aquarium’s policy and science teams. Our culinary team removed all plastic straws, cutlery, serving dishes, beverage containers and other single-use plastic items not only from our events but all front-of-house foodservice. Within our events program alone we kept 30,976 plastic straws from ending up in our waste stream. Our teams also moved towards a linenless table program, which helped on several fronts. Linen usually comes from the laundry wrapped in plastic. In 2018 we were able to eliminate 206,510 pieces of single-use plastic based on this initiative. And there was a bonus benefit: Our event designers liked the look of linenless tables better than traditional linen-covered tables. This year we did away with disposable (albeit recyclable) paper drink tokens and replaced them with branded reusable tokens made from 100 percent reclaimed and recycled fishing nets. Not only did this eliminate single-use paper tickets, but now we have a story to tell with our drink tokens!

2) Local Sourcing

The Aquarium is truly blessed by geography. We’re situated next to the Salinas Valley – the salad bowl of the world – which supplies our produce. Monterey Bay provides a bounty of seafood, and we even get some of our sea salt from the majestic Big Sur cost. Executive Chef Matthew Beaudin is able to source approximately 90 percent of his products from producers within a 100-mile range. Chef Matt has gone so far as to contract with a local farm, Evergreen Acres, to produce his goat’s milk, cheese and duck eggs. The same farm has leased out some acres to growers who raise much of Chef Matt’s seasonal produce. This supports our local producers and it also reduced the carbon footprint of transport to the Aquarium. This means that the mouthwatering dishes served at our events are truly a reflection of our region. One of the other benefits of working with local producers is that we’ve been able to shift how our product is delivered – from hard-to-recycle waxed cardboard boxes to reusable food-safe totes. In 2018 alone we cut our use of cardboard by more than 2,500 pounds. Now, other businesses are following our lead.

3) Minimizing Food Waste

One of the top issues in the culinary world is food waste. Our event planners are doing their part, in collaboration with our clients and culinary team, to ensure that our events are properly planned to minimize any excess food. Our event managers order enough food to satisfy parties large and small – but without over-ordering. This means digging little deeper to fully understand what the client’s schedule looks like prior to the event. What time did their day start? What other meals will they experience prior to our event? What considerations should we make to accommodate food allergies, vegan attendees and other factors so, when our guests arrive, we have tailored the event to fit their needs. When there is leftover food, our culinary program ensures that as little as possible ends up in the landfill. Through composting, recycling and other approaches, we’ve cut landfill waste down to just one pound per 100 guests.

4) Make Decisions Based on Carbon Footprint

This can be one of the most challenging issues we face as we provide food and services at our events. As an example, we source local wines, beers and other beverages because this results in huge savings to our carbon footprint. When we serve wine or spirits produced overseas, it involves a substantial carbon emission burden. In 2018, our events program was able to eliminate 1,500 metric tons of carbon just by purchasing locally sourced alcohol. When we can’t find low-emission suppliers, we are purchasing carbon offsets until we are able to find better solutions to minimize our carbon emissions.

5) Sustainably Sourced Seafood

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch® program, which celebrated its 20th year in 2019, helps consumers and businesses choose seafood that's fished or farmed in ways that support a healthy ocean, now and for future generations. Its recommendations indicate which seafood items are Best Choices or Good Alternatives, and which ones you should Avoid. Seafood Watch also advances policies and management measures to Improve traceability in the global seafood supply chain, end illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Our culinary team sources all seafood to meet Seafood Watch standards for environmental sustainability.

Everything we do is driven by our mission, and by one simple fact: There is no Planet B. We all have an obligation to protect the health of the living ecosystems of Planet Earth on which our survival depends. What we’ve seen in seafood and single-use plastic is that market demand is a significant driver of innovation toward sustainability. When you demand that destinations offer you green meeting options and green events, you become a powerful agent of change.

Increasingly, for your clients and customers, this won’t be a nice-to-do. They will expect this to be a normal way of doing business. Good luck on your journey!

(Chef Matt and the Monterey Bay Aquarium events leaders are available to speak on behalf of sustainable event planning and what you should ask of your venues. Contact us today to discuss.

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