What You Need to Know to Become a Sustainability Champion Within Your Agency

These days, there is no shortage of headlines when it comes to the climate crisis. More and more people in experiential marketing feel compelled—and empowered—to become sustainability champions, due to their proximity to the big brands and insights into the younger, eco-conscious consumer base. Start small You’re not going to solve climate change in a day (or a year, or a decade or even a lifetime for that matter). But that doesn’t mean sustainability isn’t an important and worthy cause. Don’t try to do everything; take wins where you can find them. Look for small incremental changes that ladder up to long-term improvements. Hire local One example of starting small is hiring locally. In a non-pandemic environment, traveling to production destinations is common. You can help your agency reduce its carbon footprint by advocating for greater reliance on local contractors whenever possible. This will help curb unnecessary business travel, which accounts for 2% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Focus on reuse Experiential can be wasteful, particularly when it comes to things like decor, event-specific branding and custom installations. Look for opportunities to repurpose materials. Explore creating decor pieces that have a high reusability lifespan. If items are essential to the project, but have low reusability, explore companies like EcoSet or Big Reuse, which ensure your products find a second home. One change for MKG was to shift to upcycled wood materials that are FSC certified. Another simple hack is working with your local caterer to prioritize low-waste, like using reusable glasses on-site versus single use plastic. Create a committee Chances are you’re not the only one within your agency who feels passionate about the environment. Get everyone working and thinking together by creating an internal committee that can identify priorities, like your office running on green energy. Create a long-term plan together and execute changes for the agency. Talk to your clients Like agencies, brands are all over the map when it comes to sustainability. Some brands have made it a huge priority, incorporating it into the pitch process and making it a prerequisite for getting in the door. Others have little interest. As your agency’s sustainability representative, it’s up to you to tee up client conversations. Have a plan to explain the value of sustainable practices and how your agency would implement them. These actions can be a focal point of the activation or a whisper that’s purely BOH actions you’ve taken to ensure a more sustainable event. Look to standards Make use of the resources and best practices already available for agencies. From the 4A’s Expert Q&As to ICC’s Framework for Responsible Environmental Marketing Communications and ISO’s Event Sustainability Management Systems Standard, there’s no shortage of information to help you get familiar with the do’s and don’ts of sustainability in experiential. Green The Bid is another great resource; members commit to work together to share sustainability best practices. And the TRACE calculator by Isla can help you understand a project’s overall eco-footprint and how to offset as much as possible. Design out the waste Agencies are in the driver’s seat of the creative execution for client projects, so it truly gives one the power to "design out the waste," whether it’s creating digital swag to minimize giveaways or sourcing scenic or decor elements from second-hand stores or circular companies like Ikea. Keep learning Professional certifications are another great way to expand your sustainability knowledge. Explore the Advertising Association’s Essential Certificate, Harvard’s Sustainability Marketing and Branding Course, Cambridge’s Circular Economy and Sustainability Strategies Program and others until you find a program that’s interesting to you. The bottom line Embarking on a mission to reorient aspects of your agency’s internal and external operations around sustainability can be a daunting task if you try to tackle it all at once. It’s more about starting the process than finishing it. Often, all it takes is the desire and enthusiasm of one person to get the ball rolling. So, get out there, experiment, create change and keep the planet top of mind. To Survive in Today’s Climate, Agencies Must Zero In On Sustainability