Impact measurement for the North American events industry
Summary
The Sustainable Events: Big Initiative Group (SEBIG) a collaboration of organisations from across the exhibitions industry value chain, required support to undertake a materiality assessment to address the environmental impacts associated with the Business to Business (B2B) trade show industry in the USA and Canada.
How we helped
Little Blue Research designed a research project using an iterative methodology to understand and measure the industry’s collective environmental impact and quantify the most important environmental impacts overall and by event/show life-cycle stage. Outputs included strategic short and longer-term actions for collective industry engagement at scale.
Client description
SEBIG
20+ organisations represented
Case study details
Business resilience: risk & impact analysis
Exhibitions and events
USA & Canada
Capital(s)
Challenges
• Obtaining data across the value chain for the trade show sector.
• Developing models to quantify environmental impact for:
o Visitor transport GHG emissions
o Venue energy use GHG emissions
o Logistics GHG emissions
o Venue waste (including methods for food and plastic)
o Depot waste
o Booth construction materials.
Outcomes
• Identification of material environmental issues across the life-cycle of B2B trade shows.
• Prioritised list of short and longer term actions for the industry to take forward.
Little Blue Research did what many consultants could not - work for 18 months to quantify something that has never been measured before, during a time of significant disruption. Their flexibility and rigour helped ensure that we had confidence in the findings.
Ben Wielgus, Head of Sustainability, Informa (SEBIG Co-Founder)
Related case studies
Socio-economic impact valuation of events
