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Special Events Guidelines |
Environmentally Friendly EventsYOUR EVENT – and the people attending your event – all play important roles in making the City of Vancouver more sustainable. Reduction of waste, water and energy, use of fair trade or organic food, using local suppliers and locally sourced products, providing education about environmental impacts are all ways you can make your event more sustainable. Here are some key things to think about to shrink your event’s environmental impact. WASTE No one wants to go to a fun event and see mountains of garbage! Proper waste management is to everyone’s benefit. Waste Reduction: try to reduce waste generated to begin with. Use reuseable food containers, dishware, cutlery where possible. Source equipment & supplies with reduced packaging. Eliminate unnecessary printing. Ask your vendors to identify ways they can reduce waste. Consider the particular kind of waste your event will generate – food wrappers, entertainment programs, soda cans – are there ways to avoid the waste entirely or can you change materials so the waste is compostable/recyclable? For example, if your event involves a beer garden or other beverage service, consider implementing a re-useable mug system – patrons pay a deposit for the mug and can keep it as a souvenir or return it for a refund when they’re done so it can be washed and reused. Please ban polystyrene (Styrofoam) from your event – there are alternative materials that are less harmful. If your event is annual – consider printing signs without any dates so they can be re-used every year. Waste Diversion: manage your waste responsibly. Develop a waste management plan in advance that includes recycling and composting. Have waste stations with separate containers for recycling, compost, and garbage. To ensure proper separation of materials, it is necessary to recruit volunteers or staff to stand by the waste stations and help people figure out what goes where. Alternatively, plan to have a back-of-house sorting area where volunteers/staff go through the garbage to properly sort it. Volunteers are critical to making sure your garbage gets sorted properly into recyclable and compostable categories. Remember, if your recyclables contain garbage or food waste, the recycling facility will not accept it, and if your compost contains garbage or recyclables, the compost facility will not take it. You must properly separate your materials. You should aim to have no stand-alone garbage containers, there should always be an option to recycle/compost when discarding materials! Note that ‘biodegradable’ or ‘compostable’ plastics are not currently compatible with City of Vancouver composting facilities. Private composting collection services may be able to accept biogradable plastics – please ask your compost collector. Note that paper plates are compostable by everyone! WATER Vancouver tap water is glacial mountain water purified in a new state of the art filtration plant, so why not serve it at your event? Although plastic water bottles are recyclable, the bottling, packaging and shipping of billions of litres of bottled water leaves a large environmental burden world-wide. Instead, provide water in jugs or try using a water cooler. Highlight existing water fountains with signage. Encourage attendees to bring a refillable bottle to further cut down on waste. For large events, contact Metro Vancouver early in the year to enquire about booking their Water Wagon for your event. Note that Metro Vancouver books their summer event schedule early in the year. tapwaterteam@metrovancouver.org (604-432-6200) TRANSPORTATION Make it easy and convenient for people to get to your event on foot, by bike, or via transit. Considering having a bike valet service (secure bike parking area monitored by staff at all times) at your event – this can be a service sponsors pay for (e.g. “bike valet service provided by….”). On event promotional materials, highlight transit and cycling options and discourage driving. If you will have extra bike racks or bike valet parking, be sure to mention it in your promotional materials. GREENHOUSE GASES Making your event carbon neutral is a great way to publicly demonstrate your commitment to sustainability and to inspire participants. Follow the David Suzuki Foundation guidelines on how to host a carbon neutral event. [top]
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Comments or questions? Send us e-mail at film.office@vancouver.ca. © 2007,
City of Vancouver, Engineering Services |
