Easy Product Swaps For More Sustainable Events

How To Find Sustainable Products For Your Event

Not only do we make it easy to make yours an eco-friendly event, we also make it exciting! Particularly if you’re a bit of a green geek in real life…

Read on to find out more about Seven Super Sustainable Swaps you can make today and our Nice Nine: the boxes all our products tick.

Let us let you into a secret: when it comes to sourcing sustainable products for event planning, it’s easier to go green than you might think.

You’ve already done it in many areas of your everyday life: you think about your fashion purchases, you’ve considered your coffee habits – both where it’s from and the packaging it comes in, you buy your energy ethically whenever possible, you’re thoughtful about food miles and you’re relentless about recycling. 

But how do you put all of that to work, at work? And when you’re already stressed in a role that’s known for being high pressure?   

Trust us - it’s easy when you know how!

When we built Legacy Marketplace, we thought long and hard about what exactly makes an event sustainable and how to find sustainable products for an event. The devil really is in the detail. There are many boxes to tick. And they all vary from industry to industry and organisation to organisation.

So, we considered EVERYTHING. From categorising key environmental credentials into nine core themes, securing sustainable suppliers and making it as easy as possible for you to see how and why your choices are better for your business, your delegates and the environment.

Everything you find on our site ticks up to three of our nine credentials – we limit these to focus on the most important for each product.

The one thing you can rely on with all of our products? That you never have to compromise on quality.

Meet our Nice Nine…

When we’re sourcing products, there are a few criteria we apply that are in addition to quality and value for money. Check each product or service description to see how it measures up against our Nice Nine: 

1- Energy & Carbon - when your priority is a low carbon event

2- Materials – with a focus on minimising waste and championing innovative new materials

3- Food & Drink – encouraging healthy and high welfare

4- Wellbeing – considering the wellbeing of attendees, suppliers and communities

5- Water – respecting water as a precious resource

6- Transport – encouraging low carbon and no carbon alternatives

7- Community – championing inclusivity, promoting access and celebrating diversity

8- Innovation – being responsive and proactive, memorable and thought provoking

9- Ecology – protecting what’s good and promoting biodiversity

Our fast-paced industry continues to evolve and adapt, so we’ll continue to evolve too, always asking how we can be better and sourcing the best for you.

In the meantime, we’ve identified seven event essentials that you can swap out with eco-friendly alternatives TODAY. And they definitely won’t cost the earth…

Seven Super Sustainable Product Swaps for Your Event

1- Style and Substance

Popup banners made from wood, bamboo are sustainable, look stylish and are much lighter so easier to transport and assemble, saving you time and stamina! Reusable banners without specific locations and dates will save you time and money in the long run, plus you will be reducing your environmental impact for every event by reducing your waste and consumption.  

Here are some signage ideas for your event!

2- Plastic not your bag?

“Plastic carrier bag sales slashed by more than 95% since 5p charge introduced.”

This is great news for everyone but let’s not stop there! Our hearts sink when we go to an event and we see plastic carrier bags – especially since we know it’s so easy to find long life and great looking alternatives!

3- Banish the Balloons

Banish single use decorations from your event, such as balloons. Balloons that are released by accident or on purpose become litter and end up in waterways or being ingested by wildlife. Even if disposed of properly, single-use decorations will increase the waste of an event. Consider reusable decorations instead, such as bunting, paper lanterns, pom poms or even potted plants, which attendees can bring home and keep long-term.

What do you think of these eternal roses?

4- Be Green AND Clean

Cleaning products have long been notoriously full of nasties! Not anymore! Whether you need to keep a cleaning kit for behind the scenes or are ordering supplies for the office, look for products that are all-in-one – saving you money, time and space. Also look for sprays that are plant-based, vegan-friendly and free from VOCs, chlorine bleaches, solvents and fragrance.  

5- Swap Sellotape for paper tape

We know it’s super useful, and we’re sure it’s got you out of some sticky situations, but Sellotape is not an eco-friendly choice. It contains polypropylene (plastic) and cannot be recycled.

Swap it for something altogether more sustainable. Ideally, you’re looking for a paper-based tape that uses a natural, rubber-based adhesive, like this one.    

6- Battle the bottle

In total, some 7.7 billion plastic bottles are bought across the UK each year, resulting in substantial amounts of single-use plastic waste.

Convenient? Yes. Good for the environment? Absolutely not. it takes at least up to 1,000 years for every single bottle to decompose, leaking pollutants into our soil and water along the way. Even “ecobottles” are effectively single-use, wasting valuable resources. Serve filtered water in a stylish jug instead and be creative by adding citrus or berries to create a unique flavour.

Like these!

7- Blooming Marvellous

Importing flowers from abroad comes with a host of environmental problems

Cultivated flowers are often grown in vast monocultures, heated greenhouses, held in stasis for months in cold stores, drenched in chemicals and transported across the globe. Consider flowers grown locally with no airmiles or chemical nasties - season-led, sustainable flowers that have been locally grown in a way that nurtures the soil, biodiversity and local environment and using sustainable, foam free mechanics.

This one’s easy – give your delegates something to talk about!

What environmental and eco-friendly event products can you not live without at work? We’re growing our range every day so watch this space for more must haves that are great for the planet – and can help to create events that people remember for all the right reasons!