When I was asked to write this article, my first reaction wasn’t excitement. It was anxiety. I started sweating. My instinct was to redirect the request to someone else who specializes in this topic — someone who could speak to carbon offsets and waste audits with real authority. Sustainability is, without question, the subject I know the least about.
But shying away from what we don’t know isn’t going to help any of us grow. So I decided to tackle this head-on instead.
Sustainability is a big, scary word for a lot of planners, myself included. It can feel like chasing Snuffleupagus — this enormous thing everyone talks about that seems just out of reach, maybe not even fully real for those of us running events on tight budgets and tighter timelines. At our own industry conferences, a sustainability session is not one I’d normally choose. I sat in on one recently only because a member of our team was presenting. And here’s what I walked away with: it’s not nearly as hard as I thought.
It Comes in Small Pieces
Nobody expects us to measure our full impact on the universe or sort through the venue’s garbage by hand. Sustainability, in practice, comes down to small, repeatable decisions:
● Choosing a venue that doesn’t serve water in plastic bottles.
● Moving to electronic agendas instead of printed ones.
● Swapping large foam core sponsor signage — the kind that gets tossed the minute the event ends — for digital signage.
● Sending sponsors a digital prospectus instead of a printed leave-behind.
● Building name badges that can be reused or recycled, rather than laminated ones destined for the trash.
Small. Manageable. The kind of thing you can actually check off a list.
Then You Try to Put It Into Practice
Here’s the part nobody warns you about: it sounds easy right up until you try to hold onto it while you’re deep in the planning weeds.
I run sponsorship activations for our team, and I can tell you exactly how discouraging it is to have a brilliant idea shot down because it doesn’t align with sustainable practice. I once pitched branded paper cups for a hot chocolate station — a small, cheerful, on-brand detail — and it got vetoed. We used mugs instead.
Or take signage. I wanted a sponsor’s QR code visible throughout the venue, and there was no version of that plan where renting fifteen monitors made financial or environmental sense. We printed it on $1.10 tent cards instead.
Or the bus ride to an off-site event, where serving water in glasses simply isn’t an option. Suddenly, replacing plastic bottles isn’t the simple swap it sounded like on a slide in that conference session.
I am far from perfect at this. It’s hard enough to get me to recycle at my own desk. But stepping outside my comfort zone on this topic has changed what I notice. Sustainability is now top of mind for our entire team, not because we mastered it, but because we stopped ignoring it.
Progress, Not Perfection
I think that’s exactly what the experts actually expect of us. Nobody serious about this work believes our industry is going to overhaul itself overnight. What they’re looking for is evidence that it’s on our minds — that we’re asking “what can we do better” before, during, and after we plan. That shift in thinking is the track record that matters.
So if sustainability feels like your own personal Snuffleupagus, take it from someone who avoids the topic at every conference: you don’t need to solve it all at once. Pick one thing. Then pick another. That’s the whole plan.
Julia O’Grady is the founder and president of ITM Events, an award-winning agency known for redefining how conferences are designed and experienced. Recognized globally as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Events, and recently named one of InEvent’s 50 Influential Female Voices and Ignite Magazine’s 16 Change Makers, Julia is a leading advocate for more human-centered event design. Through her work and speaking, she challenges the traditional pace of the industry, champions mental health, and helps organizations create events that prioritize presence, connection, and long-term impact.
