Medical Device Company

Reducing carbon impact by thousands of tons with a tech-supported green meetings programme

3,300 tons

Annual carbon footprint reduction

$3 Million+

Annual cost avoidance via green practices

6.4 Million

Pieces of paper saved

151,288

Bottles worth of plastic waste reduced

58 Million

Air miles reduced

9,500+

Annual meetings delivered

Background & Goals

The value of going green with meetings and events

A global leader in medical services and technology has revolutionised sustainability at their events with a Cvent-supported green meeting policy. With more than 90,000 employees in over 150 countries, they host over 9,500 meetings and events per year.

Like many companies, they sought to minimise the carbon impact of their events programme, and have partnered with Cvent for several years to set sustainability goals around meetings and events, and to track their progress.

“At the time we were still fairly new when it came to capturing and analysing event data,” explains the Lead SMMP Strategist. “But we were able to calculate some savings and carbon footprint reduction, and shared this with our sustainability team. They recommended we submit for an internal sustainability award, which we won! This created a lot of interest in what we were doing globally, and we’ve expanded a great deal from there.”

Approach

Partnering with Cvent across a global events programme

Cvent’s virtual capabilities were the factor that initially led the company to embark on a sustainability partnership. Part of the company’s approach was simply to convert in-person events to virtual where appropriate. In their most recent financial year, they switched over 1,300 in-person events to virtual – a reduction of over 58 million air miles.

Furthermore, the company uses Cvent’s online registration, event app and surveys to minimise the need for printed materials with onsite events. Their efforts lend an average cost avoidance of $9.40 per attendee. Surveys are distributed to attendees digitally post-event both to collect feedback and ask how they got to the event if they attended in-person, providing a more detailed image of an event’s overall environmental impact.

woman attends a virtual corporate event

With travel forming the bulk of event-related carbon emissions, the company also assembled a decision tree on travel to put opportunities for travel mitigation front of mind for their planners, implementing a consensus on situations where travel is absolutely necessary.

Use of online registration and event apps are included items in the company’s green meetings checklist, which event planners are encouraged and incentivised to complete after an event’s completion. It includes a variety of sustainable practices, such as:

  • Venue is “green certified” (i.e., LEED, Green Globe, Green Seal)
  • Use of ground transportation company who automatically downsizes based on need
  • Use of online registration and digital communications
  • Use of attendee-facing event mobile app
  • Held an offsite activity or dinner which required no additional transportation (walking distance)
  • Use of local, seasonal, organic and/or sustainable food options

Planners self-assess on which practices were followed, and their results are factored into the company’s overall sustainability calculations. More than 2,200 green practices were reported in the past financial year, lending over $690,000 in cost avoidance.

Furthermore, the company incentivises planners with ‘Recognise Points’ to encourage green practices at events. By completing the self-assessment form within three weeks of an event’s close, planners earn one point, and an additional point for every 10 green practices reported – all of which can be exchanged for various rewards.

Onsite, they make use of Cvent’s OnArrival Premium to collect electronic signatures and only print truly necessary badges. These badges are also printed on recyclable materials and are recycled after the event.

Prioritising green practices with venues

The team extends their green practices to their venue sourcing – with sustainable venues at the top of the list. They use the Cvent Supplier Network (CSN), a venue sourcing network comprising over 300,000 global venues which features filters to identify those with green-friendly certifications like LEED, Green Globe and Green Seal.

They also partner with the Hilton hotel chain, who provide a detailed carbon report after every event. Where possible, hotels also contribute to carbon offsetting for any emissions which could not be prevented.

Results

Improving progress year by year

In their most recent financial year, the company’s sustainable meetings programme saved over $3M in cost avoidance and reduced carbon footprint by 3,300 tons.

In future, the team plans to roll out their sustainability programme worldwide, with plans to expand Cvent into Asia Pacific, Latin America and Canada. 

“We’ve succeeded by making sustainability as simple as possible,” explains the company’s Sourcing Optimisation Specialist. “We’ve made it easy to complete the green meetings checklist, and planners are automatically notified to do so after their event. It’s part of the process: daily, common practice broken down into actionable steps.”

GOALS

  • To minimise the carbon impact of the company's events programme

APPROACH

  • Partnering with Cvent for registration, apps, surveys and check-in
  • Expanding their virtual events programme
  • Prioritising sustainable venues

RESULTS

  • $3M annual cost avoidance with green practices
  • 3,300 tons in annual carbon footprint reduction
  • 58M fewer air miles

PRODUCTS USED

Learn more about sustainability with Cvent