Environmental Impact of Events - Coursework Example

? Environmental Impact of Events Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts Inserts Here (Day, Month, Year) Holding an event is likely to have a far reaching impact on the community and its ecosystem long after the event has concluded. This impact can be either positive or negative and in many cases both. Any major event will leave an indelible mark on the environment either directly or indirectly, and it is for this reason that methods to assess the environmental impact of events have been taken and new policies introduced to attempt to negate the harmful consequences. It is for this reason that the new mantra of sustainable event management has begun to become almost inseparable with the planning of most large scale events that intend to leave a positive legacy. INTRODUCTION The holding of special events whether they are sports events, film festivals, music festivals or conferences have become an activity that is integral to modern western culture. As a result events management has become a recognizable discipline of its own. This discipline attempts to address the various planning processes and activities that revolve around the staging of a successful event. As stated earlier any event that is held is likely to have a substantial impact on the community in which it occurs and its ecosystem. This can include: physical infrastructure, environmental impacts, economic impacts, tourism destination impacts, image enhancement, social impacts, cultural impacts, political impacts and urban renewal (The Higher Education Academy, 2007). The impact can be both positive and negative and it is entirely possible that one aspect such as physical infrastructure may be positively impacted while another such as the environmental impact may be negative. While assessing the impact it is also important that the event manager ensures a positive legacy for the event and leverages as many benefits as it can from the event (The Higher Education Academy, 2007). Leveraging is the act of using activities that are related to but not an actual part of the event in order to increase the benefits associated with the event. Whereas, legacy is described as the long term regional or national impact from the event itself or the leveraging activities associated with it (Sport & Recreation New Zealand, 2011). For the purposes of this paper the primary focus will remain on the various environmental impacts of staging an event. The environmental impact is an aspect of events that has traditionally been ignored by organizers along with other potentially negative impacts (The Higher Education Academy, 2007). ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS The environmental impact of an event is not something that becomes immediately obvious to the event manager. In fact, the nature and extent of environmental impact may not even be measurable. Generally the environmental impacts of an event can be grouped into positive and negative impacts. Positive impacts may include the raising of environmental awareness, development of waste land and the long-term conservation of an area. Negative impacts can include short-term and long-term damage to the location, pollution created by noise or by littering, congestion caused by traffic and the increase in energy usage caused by the event. It can be said that the majority of the environmental impact is not because of the event itself but rather indirect yet natural occurrences that can be associated with the event. However, any event will undeniably have an environmental impact by virtue of the fact that attendance of the event will have an impact on the environment. For example, reaching the event itself causes the burning of fuel which in turn leads to the production of greenhouse gases that are said to cause climate change (Sawford, 2010). The most obvious of environmental impacts are those which can be measured or can be considered somewhat tangible. As mentioned above the burning of fuel and emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide can be considered as such. Although exact quantities may never be known, event organizers can calculate an approximate figure by asking several questions, these include but are not limited to: What was the total proportion of attendees using a car either to or from the event? What was the number or proportion of attendees who used public transport? What was the total amount of miles travelled by the attendees? According to a study on the environmental impacts of events in Australia by Jones et al, aside from the usage of transport other environmental impacts considered to be important include waste management, which involves the collection of litter, recycling and the provision of toilet amenities (2008). Impacts that were given slightly less importance include the provision of power, air pollution and the management of environmental risk and harm (Jones et al, 2008). As mentioned earlier a great deal of impact may not be tangible, this is particularly true for the environmental legacy of the event. This is more related to creating perceptions and altering attitudes that will ultimately lead to a more environmentally sustainable society. This form of impact may only be ascertained by collecting the views of attendees and examining the. Questions that can be asked include: whether the attendees felt the event was managed in an environmentally sustainable way? Did participants believe that event organizers did their utmost to ensure adequate waste management and greenhouse gases reduction systems? (Sawford, 2010) Furthermore, the environmental legacy is also aligned with the effect the event had on changing the attitudes of the attendees in relation to their individual behavior in creating a more sustainable environment. This effect or impact can only be considered in relation to future events and whether the behavior of these individuals in terms of what transport they use, the waste they create and their participation in recycling activities (Sawford, 2010). MEASURING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS Since the most blatantly obvious environmental impact of events relates to the greenhouse gases that are emitted during the course of the event, its organization and in the hours or days proceeding its conclusion a method known as carbon foot printing has been designed to measure the emissions that are resultant from the event. Carbon emissions occur in various direct as well as indirect ways. The direct emissions result from the usage of transport to arrive to and from the event as well as during the construction of event infrastructure. The excess in the use of energy resources and the strain that it places on the national grid also causes an increase in the emission of greenhouse gases. Other indirect emissions include those that were the consequence of goods produced for the event. Direct carbon emissions can be ascertained by organizers via the method discussed earlier which was the surveying of attendees and secondly by calculating the amount of fuel purchased by attendees as well as infrastructure building contractors. Assessing indirect emissions is an exercise which is destined to be less accurate. It is usually done by incorporating a method known as environmental inputs & outputs or ENVIO. The ENVIO method applies a multiplier effect in order to assess the increase in production and electricity usage due to the event and estimates the excess in carbon emissions based on industry standards and norms (Sawford, 2010). Due to the extent of the various actors involved in the organization and creation of an event i.e. the organizers, contractors, local authorities and attendees, it is difficult to measure the exact amount of waste created by an event. Questions must be asked again, and these include: what are the biggest sources of waste? What are the most problematic types of waste? What is the destination of the waste and at what point in the event are waste levels effected the most? Secondly the monitoring of all of the actors and processes involved in the event organizing process is important. The organizers must ask themselves if sufficient recycling facilities are available? Whether attendees have been made aware of their responsibility to recycle? Whether contractors have been asked to comply with certain standards? This should be followed by a complete appraisal of the waste management strategy. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT The realization for better environmental management of events is perhaps tied to the idea of sustainable development. The idea of sustainable development revolves around creating a balance through which, consumption of resources and pollution of the environment does not drastically affect the lifestyles of future generations (Raj, Musgrave 2009). SUSTAINABLE EVENT MANAGEMENT For events to occur the interaction of three different societal elements are necessary, these include: the audience both local and non-local, the host community and the organizers of the event as well as the allocation of funds and human resources and creation of infrastructure (Raj, Musgrave 2009). All of these different factors are likely to have an imprint on the environmental scenario. Therefore, any event manager in order to introduce the concept of sustainability to the event must be aware of the principles of sustainability and what they require. According to Raj and Musgrave, managing the increasing pressure on the environment and ecosystem caused by the increasing participation in events as well as events that tend to consume a great deal of resources and produces a great deal of waste requires a framework that ensures sustainable event management 2009). Sustainability must be ingratiated into all processes of the event organizing process this includes the measurement of life cycles of all products used as well sufficient systems for recycling. Most of all sustainable event management occurs through awareness and innovation. Awareness of the stress that events and all of the processes involved places on the environment and ecosystem and the innovation of new techniques to reduce this stress. Raj and Musgrave conceived a structure for sustainable management which involves ten elements, these include: organization structure, design for duality i.e. multipurpose systems, avoidance of damage to the environment, engagement with the community, no trace of waste, building a legacy of sustainability, providing incentives for sustainable practices, strategic management at all levels and choosing the correct location (2009). In an industry with limited resources where increasing efficiency is paramount, what incentives do organizers have to manage the environmental impact? Firstly, due to the increasing awareness of the necessity of sustainable environmentally friendly development permission to host the event itself may be tied in to the environmental attitude of organizers, support from policymakers may also depend on this (Sawford, 2010). Secondly in order to create legitimacy for the event, the event will have to reflect a positive environmental attitude. Thirdly, an environmentally unfriendly policy has the potential to create many long term costs for the organizers that cannot be measured immediately, sustainable environmental management will therefore be beneficial to the efficiency and long term financial competitiveness of organizers and associated contractors (Sawford, 2010). According to Sawford studies from EventImpact conclusively prove that environmental management frameworks should be combined with the event organizing process as early as possible (2010). In the UK, event organization will have to display environmental awareness in all strategic management processes in order to receive recognition (Sawford, 2010). Approaches to environmental event management can vary, according to Sawford there are essentially two types of methods which are used. These are quantitative and outcome oriented or qualitative and process orientated. The quantitative method relies on the numerical measurement of environmental impacts through methods such as the ecological footprint and the carbon footprint. These measurements can assist in identifying actions that will have the least cost environmentally, furthermore, actual numerical targets can be set. The qualitative approach seeks to examine all of the processes associated with the organization of the event and to introduce sustainable environmental management standards such as the BS 8901. CONCLUSION As the realization of the necessity of sustainable development dawns on the event management industry more and more steps are being taken to ensure that events are being organized in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. In 1994 the Olympics held in the Norwegian city of Lillehammer were the first attempt at organizing an environmentally friendly sports event. Furthermore increasing amounts of guidelines are being introduced to ensure sustainable event management, these include the Sustainable Events Guide, The Sustainable Exhibition Industry Project and the Hannover Principles (Raj, Musgrave, 2009) Several events have also been analyzed for their environmental standards by organizations such as EventImpact these events include The Edinburgh International Film Festival, BUPA Great Yorkshire Run, London Freewheel and the IRB Rugby Union Junior World Championships. However, there is still a great amount of work required internationally. As Jones et al mention in their study of Australlian events, most organizers are resisting attempts to formulate independent guidelines and checklists and instead seek the most economic and basic solutions to environmental management (2008). REFERENCES Jones, R, et al., 2008. ASSESSING THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF SPECIAL EVENTS: Examination of nine special events in Western Australia. Queensland, Australlia: Cooperative Research Center For Sustainable Tourism. Raj, R. and Musgrave, J., 2009. Event Management and Sustainability. Oxfordshire: CABI. Sawford, H. 2010.Environmental. [online] Available at: [Accessed 16 December 2011]. The Higher Education Academy, 2007. Resource Guide The Impact of Events. [pdf] London: The Higher Education Academy. Available at: [ Accessed 16 December 2011]. Read More