The live events industry is notoriously environmentally unfriendly. But leaders at The Opus Group and Trees4Events are changing the narrative.
At InfoComm 2024, Robert Bartolucci, Director of Environmental, Social, and Governance at The Opus Group, moderated a popular session, Environmental Considerations for Live Events.
The session featured a wide-ranging discussion between Kellene Morris, Director of Technical Operations at Opus Agency—one of four agencies within The Opus Group’s global network—and Nico Nicholas, CEO of Trees4Events, which provides free tools to calculate and offset CO2 for live events and travel.
Live Design, a leading online A/V publication, recaps the key takeaways:
- Sustainability is everyone’s responsibility, and businesses are beginning to take it very seriously
- There is a new social movement, flight shame or flygskam, which shames frequent travelers for carbon emissions associated with flying
- Businesses and events should empower people—not shame them—to make a difference
Morris is quoted as saying, “We are at a turning point in the industry. As A/V professionals, we have a huge opportunity to use our voices to ask vendors or in-house suppliers to use best practices. For example, tell them to stop using plastic wrap on palettes and replace that with blankets, ask for sustainable choices for scenic elements, and ask if materials like carpeting are donated after an event.”
Nico agrees, explaining that Trees4Events has a free tool for individual travelers to track the impact of a particular trip or event and purchase “trees” and carbon offset credits. He shared that his travel to InfoComm in Vegas required ten trees at three dollars each to offset the emissions. Not a bad investment for those experiencing a bit of flygskam.
He adds that if the events industry didn’t exist, “people would have to travel ten times as much to see the same number of clients or networking and education contacts.”
