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Cavendish Venues, London’s leading sustainable venues, with a 30-year record of incremental reductions in our environmental footprint.
Isla have just released perhaps the most comprehensive report out there, detailing how much and how conferences and events affect the environment. Drawn from 954 events across 22 countries, encompassing a total carbon footprint of 56,000 tCO2e.
Why it's Important
2024 was officially the warmest year in 100,000 years (WHO 2025). Cases of extreme weather are accelerating, i.e. flash floods in Spain resulted in over 200 casualties.
Greenwashing and Accreditation
People are taking notice; we see this in our industry with enquiries for sustainable conference venues increasing exponentially. With this comes increased scrutiny, for example, profile brands such as Lululemon, McDonald's and Walmart all being in the spotlight for greenwashing.
How Climate Change is Affecting Events
In 2023 & 24, the total number of reported event disruptions caused by extreme weather increased by 86.5% (McKinley), which will inevitably push up costs, most obviously but not exclusively insurance costs.
Regulation
The UK is developing its sustainability reporting standards legislation, with a draft expected this year. This is likely to align with EU standards, i.e. :
- Mandatory energy performance certification, etc.
- Green claims code UK, threatening fines of up to 10% of turnover for greenwashing, making unsubstantiated claims.
- Digital Product Passport aims to reduce the use of virgin materials in packaging, except for increased costs.
- Nature Restoration Fund requires 20% of EU land and sea to be restored by 2030, expecting increased costs, especially catering costs.
Total emissions by event activity
60% of emissions result from travel to and from the event.
Event types and emission profiles
- Exhibitions generate the highest overall emissions across all event types
- Meetings and roadshows rank second lowest in emissions
- Emissions from outdoor events are higher than indoor events.
- Parties have the highest proportion of emissions from catering, at 78.5%
- Meetings typically require no build or graphics, so they have low emissions from these
- 1.3% and 2.2% respectively. Consequently, waste emissions are also very low (0.1%)
Food dwarfs all other emissions relative to catering
Organisers should aim for at least 56% of their event programme to be meat-free, in line with current industry benchmarks in TRACE.
Although ingredients have the highest impact on food-related emissions, there are still impacts from ancillary elements such as serving ware. 37% of events are using at least one type of single use serve ware totalling nearly half a million units and over 7 tonnes of waste.
Energy Inc. by event type
- Combined indoor/outdoor events have the highest energy emissions - an average of 3.6 tCO₂e per event.
- Just 11% of activations used renewable tariffs compared to almost half of all meetings (47%).
Event types and emission profiles
- Exhibitions generate the highest overall emissions across all event types
- Meetings and roadshows rank second lowest in emissions
- Emissions from outdoor events are higher than indoor events.
- Outdoor events consume twice the energy of indoor ones (0.94 vs. 1,9 tCO₂e)
- Combined indoor/outdoor events have the highest energy emissions - an average of 3.6 tCO₂e per event.
- Parties have the highest proportion of emissions from catering, at 78.5%
- Meetings typically require no build or graphics, so they have low emissions from these
- 1.3% and 2.2% respectively. Consequently, waste emissions are also very low (0.1%)
Materials
- 75% of materials recorded in TRACE were from virgin sources, meaning they were sourced brand new.
- Meetings used only 27% virgin materials, while activations relied on 84% virgin materials
- Circularity, Correlation in the data shows that using lighter or fewer materials (by weight) generally means an equivalent carbon reduction. For every 1kg decrease in material use, emissions also decrease by 1 kgCO₂e.
Waste & Resource Management
On average, 13.7% of event waste is still going to landfill, this is a significant improvement on the 2022 baseline year.
Travel
Travel is still the biggest challenge and remains the largest contributor to event emissions. While some level of travel is unavoidable, the data shows clear opportunities to make it more sustainable.
Travel Behaviours
Flying is the biggest problem, Air travel accounts for 77% of total travel emissions generated by events.
Production transportation
Production transportation is the third highest contributor to event emissions, its contribution is often overlooked. Events with large builds have the highest freight emissions, ie the average freight emissions from a conference was 5.9tCO2e compated to 0.09tC02e for meetings and events.
Conclusions
The world is changing. Climate breakdown and environmental change are reshaping the systems we work in. Although political shifts in 2025 have tested momentum, some changes are now irreversible. Green investment is accelerating across global markets, and landmark legislation in the EU is in motion, with the UK expected to follow suit.
Cavendish Venues, London’s leading sustainable venues. Every year, we incrementally reduce our impacts.
- Growing our herbs in-house.
- Offsetting all carbon generation via tree planting.
- Reducing food waste via an innovative community giving scheme.
If you would like to book a conference in any of our Four Central London Venues, get in touch now on 0207 706 7700 or enquiries@cavendishvenues.com.
Thank you to the https://weareisla.co.uk/ for much of this inspiration and graphics for this post.
