Sustainable event management

Events offer an opportunity to make all three dimensions of practical sustainability – social responsibility, ecological balance and economic capability – a reality.

In addition, many measures from sustainable event management can be transferred directly to everyday office life and thus lead to more sustainability in the company overall.

GIZ introduced minimum standards for sustainable event management at the end of 2019 and updated and sharpened their focus at the beginning of 2024. These standards specify binding practical measures to be implemented at all events in Germany and Belgium. They include ensuring that only vegetarian catering is served at events. External event venues and hotels must be physically accessible in terms of their structure and construction as well as accessible by public transport and must use green electricity and/or be energy-optimized. In addition, for each event the event organizers check whether further criteria can be implemented. For example, whether the event can be held without paper, whether tap water can be served instead of bottled water and how the event can be designed to be gender-sensitive (e.g. avoiding stereotypes). Event-specific new purchases are to be avoided as far as possible. Finally, all events with 100 or more participants must record their greenhouse gas emissions. GIZ then offsets these centrally. For GIZ locations in our partner countries, the minimum standards are intended as a guideline that can be adapted in line with their specific context. A number of countries have already developed specific regional guidelines.