ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN EVENTS MANAGEMENT

Abstract

The events industry has always taken on a role to provide business and leisure to targeted audiences, and is a multifaceted sector to bring different people together with different purposes. As it continues to evolve with different demands and regulatory compliances set out by different organisations, the importance of sustainability has now been a key consideration for various sectors especially with the concerns of the carbon footprint of the events industry.

This research dissertation aims to evaluate the effectiveness of current environmentally-sustainable practices by extensively reviewing the standards and guidelines set in place by the industry aligning to Singapore’s Green Plan as well as discuss the challenges to implement these sustainable practices.

This research dissertation will explore the case studies and examples from sustainable events in Singapore, as well as interviews that was also conducted to actual event professionals in various organisations to reflect their experiences, as part of a two-tier approach to draw similarities to research and actual practices in the events industry.

There are however, differences between research and actual practices in the events industry, which is evident for smaller companies that does not have sustainability as part of their business focus yet. There must be steps taken, with the stakeholders and industry players as a whole to address these gaps which are discussed in Chapter Five onwards.