Sustainability | Bray Leino Events

Live events have long been about disposability. We create show-stopping experiences then we dismantle them.

Turning that into a sustainable model is a significant challenge. In an industry where bigger and better is often the brief, and where supply chains constitute up to 80% of carbon debt, we need to find ways to use and waste less.

And these considerations extend way beyond carbon emissions. Our ongoing journey towards B Corp status incorporates a range of issues across what corporate responsibility guru John Elkington terms the ‘triple bottom line’.

How do we ensure employees are treated fairly across our supply chains, for instance? What steps can we take to minimise the impact of our events on local resources and municipal infrastructure? How will we demonstrate a positive impact in local communities?

Collaboration

We need to shine a light on what’s working - to collaborate and celebrate activities that genuinely make a difference. That’s why we commit to complete openness on sustainability process, initiatives, and best practice.

As an industry, we need agencies, venues, and suppliers openly innovating solutions without compromising on effectiveness.

The sustainable solutions we propose must make sense for our clients, because as agencies and service providers, we can only influence. The ultimate decision is theirs.

Our Group Event Director Cressida Prout was named in Micebook and Isla’s 2023 Power 50 Green Champions list.

The list recognises “individuals within the UK events industry who are devoting their time, passion and energy to making a positive impact on the planet”.

When Crez became our official Sustainability Champion in 2019, she saw the role as an opportunity to drive the fundamental changes she knew were needed across the industry she loves.

“You gave me a soapbox,” she says. “You’ll never get me off it!”

Cressida Prout power green sustainability champion

Download: Our journey to sustainable events

Read now

Sustainability in Live events Bray Leino Events

It boils down to this:
How can our industry become a force for good?

"Our Isla membership helps remind us of our responsibility as individuals to collaborate with clients, partners, and communities on sustainability best practice."

Luke Brown, MD, Bray Leino Events

As a business, we’ve been benchmarking our operational emissions since 2019 as part of our Carbon Reduction Plan.

And by making changes like switching our main office to 100% renewable energy and rethinking our travel choices, we’re on track to deliver a 25% reduction by 2026. But this doesn’t include the projects we deliver for clients.

With TRACE we can now incorporate data on emissions and waste across all client projects - including supply chains. We know there are greater gains to be made through rethinking and redesigning the way we deliver, instead of simply layering recycling and reuse schemes on top of our existing processes. And TRACE allows us to carefully target and measure our efforts in this regard.

In our Carbon Reduction Plan, we’ve pledged to reduce our carbon footprint by at least 90% across all business and client operations, with the remainder offset, to help us meet net zero by 2050.

Agreed standards are vital, and in ISO we have just such a framework.

Our ISO accreditations continue to guide our day-to-day activities, and ensure compliance with the laws and regulations of the markets we operate in. Furthermore, these standards remind us of our responsibility as individuals to collaborate with clients, partners, and communities on sustainability practice.

ISO 20121: Event Sustainability: Sets out how we control the social, environmental, and economic impacts of our events, and allows our commitment to sustainability to be demonstrated in a globally recognised manner.

ISO 14001: Environmental Management: Specifies the framework by which we manage the immediate and long-term impacts of our enterprise and our client-supporting activities on the environment.

ISO 9001: Quality: Establishes the criteria for monitoring and measuring our efforts to consistently provide high quality services to our clients and deliver year-on-year continuous improvement.

These accreditations - and the processes that underpin them - help us to better manage our clients’ activities, drive continuous improvement and, by consistently meeting our sustainability objectives, demonstrate industry leading practice.

We're always open to conversations about sustainability.

Let's collaborate

sustainability collaboration Bray Leino Events