This Earth Day, event professionals will get the opportunity to remind the world of the importance of events via social media.
Non-profit company Positive Impact Events said: “For 24 hours over Earth Day event professionals will be sharing best practice on how their events are used to further the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This conversation is accessible to all and we encourage everyone to share their best practice using #eventscreatechange and #earthday.”
This Earth Day takes during a time where pollution levels have decreased, water quality has improved and of signs of environmental restoration have been seen due to the collective pause in movement of humans across the planet. The question is: will this shape our future event behaviour post-Covid-19?
Miguel Naranjo, Programme Officer at the UNFCCC Secretariat, added: “One of the last times I had the opportunity to speak to the global event community was in February 2020 at Meeting Professionals International’s European Meetings and Events Conference. At that time, I communicated that if we did not act to address climate change urgently, the future of events was set to change, just like the rest of society, very soon and not for good. Some of the feedback was that this statement seemed extreme.
“A few months later, our world has changed in the blink of an eye, a preview of the type of situations we may face due to climate change impacts. We want to invite all event professionals to champion climate action in their lives, in their companies, and in the events they organise, including by highlighting the difference that events make and can make in this regard.”
According to research undertaken by Positive Impact Events in 2019, a review of 200 corporate sustainability reports showed that none of them had any reference to ‘events’. In 2020, a similar study was started (and stopped due to Covid-19) but there was a marked increase in reference to ‘events’ with every reference referring to how digital strategies had been employed to lower the carbon footprint caused by events.
CEO of Positive Impact Events Fiona Pelham, said: “There will always be actions we can take to improve our environmental impact, however the most important thing we can do right now as an industry is to shout very loudly about the positive impact of events. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are a framework being followed by business and governments around the world.
“Events bring people together so those goals can be met, and that story is vital for us to tell. During Earth Day we have created opportunities for people to tell the story of the impact which their events have. This approach is part of a wider campaign we are running to empower over 100,000 #eventprofs to be in action building the future of how human connection happens.”
To be part of Earth Day visit: https://www.positiveimpactevents.com/resources/earthday-2020
To understand more about the campaign to empower 100,000 #eventprofs to be in action, visit: https://www.positiveimpactevents.com/
