In recent weeks, my attention was caught by a rare campaign in event sustainability that moved me. Not because it was attention-seeking, but because it was brutally honest. In an epoch when the events industry is suffocating in a recession of ideas, bravery, and credibility, someone suggested something radical: start measuring. But how?
Without making grand promises about carbon neutrality, certificates for “nice manners” or carbon offsetting. Just measuring the most demanding segment – scope 3 emissions, which represent the essence of an event’s effects, but remain conveniently overlooked. The badge they offer is not an accolade rewarding excellence, but a public pledge to act responsibly: I act, which is why I know, and because I know, I can no longer turn a blind eye. This campaign is a far cry from most marketing tricks, but an actual industry maturity test. Measuring data is neither sexy, nor fast, nor comfortable. It is, however, the only alternative to green babbling that has brought us to where we are now: flooded with banners, but lacking data.
Were we to measure the sustainability level of events worldwide according to the number of signed pledges, declarations, and digital promises, the events industry would undoubtedly be looked up to by other sectors.
The reality is less glistening. In practice, sustainability ends as soon as serious questions emerge about data, taking responsibility, and facing repercussions.
Sustainable event management is among the disciplines where many opinions clash, each with its own methodology, calculator, and truth. The result is usually the absence of useful, comparable, and operatively sustainable tools.
Over the past twenty-plus years with Conventa, we’ve learned that event sustainability requires a systematic approach and clear structure. This led us to develop an in-house model based on five key segments essential for long-term success.
First, an event organiser must manage the carbon footprint by accurately measuring, tracking, and reducing emissions. Without garnering this information, no tangible progress can be achieved. Second, an event must comply with standards, ensuring that it follows global sustainability standards and local legislation. Third, an event organiser must manage an event’s effects, plus legacy and understand the broader environmental, societal, and economic effects. Unavoidable emissions should be addressed through carbon offsetting that must be implemented transparently and without misleading practices. Lastly, communication with and inclusion of attendees is paramount for every sustainable event. Without their understanding, cooperation, and engagement, sustainability is just another empty promise.
Among these segments, carbon footprint management is today the most advanced in terms of methodology, as it is based on the GHG Protocol, as well as well-developed and regularly updated databases of emission factors. This represents a solid, internationally accepted foundation that ensures comparability, traceability, and scientifically sound results.
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Here is where my problem arises with the emerging practice that reduces sustainability to mere badges, certificates, and feel-good posts. The market is replete with tools and solutions that sell the impression of sustainability, without diving headfirst into the management of events’ impact. Yet, event sustainability is not a communication campaign – it is a management process. These processes are not based on promises, but on data, verified systems, and taking responsibility.
When calculating the carbon footprint of events, we rely exclusively on recognised and globally established sources of emission factors, which ensures comparability, traceability and scientifically verified results. Among the key sources is the British database DEFRA, which provides trustworthy conversion emission factors for various greenhouse gases and a slew of activities. The French Base Carbone and Agribalyse database also plays a key role, as it enables the precise assessment of emissions, including those of services, products and cuisine. For detailed industrial and process analyses, we rely on the German database PROBAS (UBA), which provides verified LCI data and the globally renowned database Ecoinvent, comprising over 20,000 samples. The latter represents an indispensable basis for in-depth LCA analyses. Recently, we further expanded the selection of emission factors by adding the Chinese database dubbed China Products Carbon Footprint Factors Database (2022). With this latest addition, we have reached a level that allows us to calculate the carbon footprint of events in virtually all segments, regardless of the location of suppliers or the complexity of supply and value chains.
If an organiser has no clue where emissions are generated, on what scale and how they will reduce them in the long run, no pledge or claim will change that.
All of the above-mentioned databases contribute to a transparent, scientifically backed and internationally comparable evaluation of emissions, which is essential for transparent sustainability reports. Here, the difference between sustainability as a system and sustainability as a symbol is apparent. If an organiser has no clue where emissions are generated, on what scale and how they will reduce them in the long run, no pledge or claim will change that. Even worse, it will create a false impression that the deed has been done.
Real sustainability begins when it becomes uncomfortable
It commences when data reveals the greatest sources of greenhouse gas emissions: air travel, energy use by venues, catering services and supply chains. Sustainability is certainly not about recycling name tags or the number of signatories of a pledge.
The events industry doesn’t need more promises today. It must be brave enough to look into the mirror of its own data without superficiality. It needs fewer checkboxes and more honest questions; fewer symbols and more responsibility claiming. Above all, it needs to be mature enough to admit the blunt truth: sustainability is not an add-on to an event or an obligatory appendix to a final event report. Sustainability is the guiding principle of how an event is designed, led and evaluated at the end.
Why pen this down? Because I have been coming across far too many approaches that strive to reduce sustainability to a trivial common denominator: registration, pledge, or digital badge. Doing these small acts feels good, but it is not the same as creating actual effects.
Although these shortcuts may not be ill-intended, they can be perilous
They give the impression that work has already completed when it has not even started. Once sustainability becomes a symbol rather than a system, it can quickly become greenwashing. Measuring all relevant impacts is not idealism, but an elementary requirement for credible event management. Without this, sustainability remains a drill in selective transparency. The events industry thus needs not fewer events, but more bravery. It should be brave enough to measure the entirety of an event and bold to use the results – not for visually attractive reports, but to foster better events. Event sustainability is not a problem that needs solving; it represents an opportunity to create a smarter, more responsible and successful industry in the long run. However, only on the condition that we take sustainability in the industry seriously. As I like to say, we need to make our industry responsible towards society, the environment, attendees, and the science behind sustainability.
Whoever hopes to understand the difference between promises and event management, between a symbol and a system, should look no further than Conventa’s report. It is not a promotional press kit, but proof that sustainability can be addressed in a structured, measured and responsible way.
I thus welcome 2026 with open arms and clear expectations. In the future, we will continue our mission and stick to the path we set out on. I am honoured that our work has been recognised by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB). This confirms that we are approaching sustainability the right way. I believe that the project we are preparing will serve as inspiration in the future. Above all, I hope 2026 brings more understanding, more responsibility-taking event organisers and more bravery for making decisions that may not be the easiest, but are justified in the long run.
A promise lies between clicking and forgetting. Real sustainable events are born when we measure and act!
