Sustainability specialist Trees4Travel is branching out to create a new tool called Trees4Events to measure and reduce the carbon impact of corporate events.
The UK-based company, which calculates and plants trees to absorb the CO2 emissions from travel, said it was expanding into events after receiving requests from travel management companies (TMCs) for more in-depth carbon calculation tools for clients.
The Trees4Events calculator will be offered for free to meetings and conference planners who can use it to see carbon estimates through each stage of the organisational process and take the required action to ensure the event becomes carbon “positive”.
For example, the tool will show the carbon impact of food and beverage choices such as opting for bottled or filtered tap water. It will also look at the effect on emissions of excluding beef from a conference menu or opting for entirely plant-based dishes.
Nico Nicholas, co-founder of Trees4Travel, said: “This tool produces tangible effects from the get-go. It guides organisers through a better planning process to avoid carbon creation and then not only compensates for what cannot be avoided, but educates all delegates on making better choices, as well as on what has been done in their name.
“We must not stop meeting, it is essential to economic, social and political progress, but we can make more responsible choices about how we gather.”
Trees4Events will allow planners to automatically create an app for delegates. This platform uses QR codes during the event so that delegates can give more information about their travel and stay, as well as receiving tips on how to make more environmentally friendly choices.
The platform also provides a range of PowerPoint slides that can be used in welcome speeches to highlight the efforts and measures taken to reduce and offset the carbon impact of the event, including the number of trees being planted and how many Certified Emission Reduction units will be invested in.