Interviewing Helen Sheppard: Delivering RX Sustainability Initiatives

What are the most successful strategies RX events have delivered to reduce emissions in your opinion???

Our RX sustainability strategy is focused on both measuring carbon emissions and reducing them. Last year we launched the RX Sustainability Playbook to support event teams with guidance on how they can help measure carbon emissions and begin to make more sustainable choices in the delivery of our events.??

It has been really inspiring to see some events fully embracing sustainability strategies. Where we have had the most success – and arguably where we can have the most immediate impact – is waste reduction.???

Pollutec in France is a fantastic example of an event that did a really good job of not only reducing overall waste, but working with a strong waste partner the team were able to donate 69% of the waste for re-use by local charities and associations. Much of this waste was from exhibitors, typically from the stand builds that would otherwise have been sent to landfills. And waste reduction wasn’t the only focus for Pollutec – you can find out more about how they addressed sustainability here: RELX Pollutec story.?

Reducing waste requires behavioural change across the value chain. We can make decisions to purchase materials that can be re-used or recycled when it comes to carpets, signage, marketing materials. We can also influence the behaviour of our exhibitors to do the same. Ultimately, we want to run exhibitions where there is no waste going to landfill. We must show our exhibitors they can still have unique and beautiful stands that are sustainable and made from reusable materials, but we first must be taking the lead ourselves. It is important to share the successes – like Pollutec – to inspire other event teams to follow suit.??

Let's inspire each other to do better, one event at a time.?

What do you believe that visitors and exhibitors can do to lower their impact at the event???

The impacts of exhibitors at events go beyond the stand itself, which needs to be made of reusable materials and move away from single-use, disposable items. This needs to be incorporated into the design stage of any exhibition stand. Contractors building exhibition stands also need to encourage reusable materials. Beyond the stand, exhibitors can consider who builds the stand, who operates the stand – how far have they travelled, what food is served on the stand, how much food is served etc. Our role is to raise awareness among exhibitors of these changes they can begin to make to exhibit more sustainably.??

Logistics is a tricky one for everybody involved because everything still needs to be brought to and from the event and progress is limited when it comes to reducing the carbon associated with big haulage trucks. Although, All-Energy and Dcarbonise do a great job of showcasing some of these new innovations.?

The biggest visitor impact is travel. Visitors need to consider how they are travelling to an event and as organisers we can promote the most sustainable options, for example, train travel. There are great train services between London and Glasgow for anyone travelling to All-Energy and Dcarbonise from the capital.???

The SEC Glasgow is a fantastic venue with good public transport links from the city centre. They have made a lot of progress to make the venue more energy efficient and have their own ambitious net zero carbon goals – they have published their net zero roadmap and aim to get to net zero by 2030.??

Talk us through your collaboration with venue suppliers, partners and customers??

Collaboration and peer learning is important to make progress on sustainability. When it comes to measurement – this is all the work we are doing to understand our global carbon footprint - we are capturing energy and waste data for all our events, with a priority focus on the venues that represent the biggest share of our revenue. We need collaboration and engagement from these venues both in terms of the data they report to us but also in the efficiencies they are making which will in turn reduce the footprint of our own events. We try to understand their sustainability goals and make sure they know our own commitments as part of Net Zero Carbon Events.??

Typically, our Global Sustainability Council drives forward our engagement with suppliers and venues, making sure they understand our goals and identify areas for collaboration. Clearly net zero carbon events are complex and require the collaboration and cooperation of all stakeholders in the events industry, including working with competitors and peer organisers. This is why Net Zero Carbon Events as an industry-wide initiative is so effective: It can harness and leverage the engagement of a multitude of actors across the industry.???

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