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- Events and meetings organisers are stepping up demands for sustainability when using South Africa as a destination.
- Local associations and businesses are working together to ensure a sustainable environment for events and meetings, including educating communities where these take place.
- The formation of the Event Greening Forum allows us as the events industry to create awareness of how to deal with questions from local and international event organisers.
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Demands for planting trees and requests for projects to support form part of the increase focus by local and international conference organisers and delegates to have peace of mind about the sustainability of attending events and meetings in South Africa.
Glenton de Kock, CEO of the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI) says the local meetings and events industry has recognised this growing trend already some time ago.
"Our associations and businesses are working together to ensure not only a sustainable environment for events and meetings, but also educating communities where these take place about the importance of ensuring the longevity of opportunities created in this space," says De Kock.
"The formation of the Event Greening Forum allows us as the events industry to create awareness of how to deal with questions from local and international event organisers about our destination and supply chain in terms of the impact on the environment."
Grace Stead of the sustainable consultancy WrapZERO, is also seeing an increase in the greening of events in SA. The film industry, for example, has an initiative called Green the Bid, which focuses on the importance of hosting sustainable events.
"I believe sustainable procurement is key and an area where organisers can focus on right from the start. When I get a request about greening an event, I look at the client and see what their focus areas are. For example, recently I recommended an NGO which focuses on micro farming in the townships to a beer manufacturer with a focus on agriculture as a project to support in terms of greening their event," says Stead.
"The idea is to avoid what you can and offset what you can't. For example, see how you can reduce energy consumption and the carbon footprint. Planting trees is a way to responsibly offset the carbon footprint, for example. Another way is to support an initiative which has been certified to reduce carbon emissions."
Olivia Gradidge, marketing manager travel and tourism at RX Africa, says over the past seven years, the company has seen a large shift in people's cognisance around sustainability and its importance.
"We expect this awareness around sustainability to continue to grow and amplify in the coming years. Sustainability has been a core focus for RX Africa for years. Events like World Travel Market (WTM) Africa no longer have printed show catalogues but rather digital guides that are hosted on a website and places signage around the event with a QR code to access it. We have also noticed that most of our exhibitors don’t have printed collateral either and their corporate gifting is limited," she says.
In 2023, delegate badges were also all made from 100% recycled plantable and biodegradable handmade paper products. RX Africa reached out to Growing Paper for the production of badges. All the badges were handmade, which ensured employment for local families. Delegates could simply "plant" their badge afterwards as the paper contained flower or vegetable seeds.
Offsetting one’s carbon footprint at events has also become more important for delegates, especially as conferences traditionally have a heavy environmental footprint, according to Gradidge.
She explains that several factors contribute to the heavy carbon footprint of conferences. For a start, most delegates need to travel to the venue, and even if air travel is not required, they still make use of shuttles, buses, and taxis to travel to and from meetings and post-conference social events. Added to this, the materials used by delegates amplify the impact.
Often, food is sourced from various locations to prepare delegate meals, and there is frequently a large amount of food waste. Name badges, pens, pamphlets, writing pads and paper all carry their own carbon footprint; plus, there’s the question of increased energy usage as well as waste disposal for the duration of the event. All of this adds up.
To help delegates offset their carbon emissions, WTM Africa partners with Greenpop – a nonprofit organisation focussed on forest restoration, urban greening, food gardening, and environmental awareness projects across sub-Saharan Africa.
The Tourism Grading Council of South Africa has recently awarded Sun City's Conference and Exhibition Centre. In 2022, the Sun City Convention Centre welcomed more than 400 conferences and 250 lifestyle and sports events, from intimate team-building sessions to large-scale corporate events, banquets, seminars and exhibitions.
According to Marnie Tait, Sun International's national sales manager, says international companies often request ways to offset their carbon footprint. For example, in 2021, a 500-strong Swedish conference requested that a tree be planted for every delegate. Therefore, Sun City staff planted 500 fruit trees at schools in local communities surrounding Sun City. The resort has since committed to planting 500 fruit trees every year.
She says other projects embraced by delegates who have come to Sun City include the painting of a school in the nearby community.
One of the big association congresses stipulated that delegates bring along certain educational story books to be donated to a local primary school.
"From a Sun International group perspective, we have a division that identifies projects in the communities where our hotels are situated and then we propose those projects to the companies coming to host events in line with what they are passionate about. Examples include projects relating to food, education and preventing rhino poaching," says Tait.
