Grassroots: sustainable events

  

MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: GRASSROOTS PRODUCTIONS

Grassroots Productions is a full service event management company and is among Victoria’s most sustainable after winning the Victorian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (VECCI) sustainability program award, Grow Me The Money.

One of ten winners, Grassroots Productions was recognized for implementing simple, clever and achievable initiatives to reduce their carbon footprint, and save money.

Grassroots Productions is a unique local business with a large environmental agenda.

Founded by Gillian Milne in December 2008, Grassroots Productions is a full service event management company with an inspiring difference - it specialises in providing sustainable event solutions for business and green lifestyles.

“Our biggest challenge is engaging the supply chain and finding eco-friendly suppliers to enable us to hold 100 per cent green events,” said Grassroots Productions founding Director, Gillian Milne.

“We pride ourselves on our ability to source quality and unique suppliers you won’t find on every street corner. We have worked hard to develop a database of sustainable suppliers and developed strategies to enable conventional suppliers to meet our needs and standards – fact sheets, supplier listings, which certifications and labels to look for.”

Grassroots Productions work on many different types of events including eco-weddings, festival programs, event design, product launches and awards nights.

“Putting together the perfect event requires a lot of detail,” explained Gillian. “For example, we can create an eco-wedding using rickshaws as the bridal transport, mud brick venues, organic fabric wedding dresses, native flowers and organic chocolate statues!”

Grassroots Productions is constantly creating ways to be even greener.

“We minimise by creating greenest office practices, setting standards for suppliers and working with them to reduce the impact of all aspects of the event,” explained Gillian.

They joined VECCI’S Grow Me The Money Program in December 2008 with the primary objective of becoming even greener.

“Our mission is to provide best practice in event management and sustainable events. Grow Me The Money has helped us implement consistent and rigorous measuring and monitoring processes and formalise some of the initiatives that had been implemented intuitively, ” Gillian said.

“There is a lot of skepticism about eco-friendly claims. If you do have a green business, you really need to be able to back up your claims.”

According to Gillian, although there has been a large shift in ‘green awareness’ over the last few years, there are still many grey areas, particularily surrounding accreditation and standards.

Formalising a Green Policy and supplier criteria and implementing a Sustainable Event Management System (SEMS) across all events, as standard practice, were the first and most impactful steps on Gillian’s Grow Me The Money action plan.

Other key activities Grassroots has implemented include reducing energy consumption through simple initiatives like foot operated powerboard switches and installing measuring devices to track progress.

Currently there is no formal Australian or International standard for sustainable event management, but work is underway. Grassroots Productions has been recognised as a key stakeholder by Standards Australia, with a formal invitation to join the forthcoming Australian review meeting of the International Standard (ISO 20121) Sustainability in Event Management.

How Grassroots Productions is making a difference:

• Implement a Sustainable Event Management System (SEMS) across all events as standard practice
• Monitor and measure event waste, carbon and other environmental impacts and provide reporting to educate stakeholders
• Purchase remote controlled power boards for hard to get to places and foot switch powerboards for workstations
• Create a travelwise plan for office and events (e.g. car pooling, public transport, bike access)