Carbon Calculation Step by Step: How to Measure Event Footprint!

You can’t improve what you can’t measure—this was clear to us when we embarked on sustainable event planning four years ago. However, we didn’t know how difficult it would be to measure everything. To accurately calculate your event’s footprint, you must measure everything – even things you may not have data on.

Measuring and reducing your event’s footprint is a complex process. We’ve tried many calculators over the years and learned that it’s not just about the program you use but about gathering the necessary data. The primary goal is footprint reduction, and it’s not enough to plan how you’ll measure the emissions of each event area. You also need to minimise them in advance. This process seems labyrinthine, but we’re here to guide you.

But first, some key concepts

Direct and Indirect Emissions

• Scope 1: Direct Emissions – the Actual Burning of Fossil Fuels

Including emissions from a company’s activities or “owned or controlled assets”, by definition, Scope 1 contains emissions that our company directly generates by burning fuel, for example, when using company vehicles.

• Scope 2: Indirect Emissions  

This category includes emissions that depend on energy produced by other companies, such as purchased electricity. These emissions are indirect because someone else directly burns fossil fuel to generate electricity, but the company contributes by using it.

• Scope 3: Other Indirect Emissions

This includes everything else, such as travel by event participants and staff, guests’ accommodation, waste management emissions, catering, etc.

Cradle-to-Cradle

The cradle-to-cradle principle is the foundation of circularity – a concept aiming to treat product life cycles as closed, infinite loops, as opposed to the traditional linear “cradle-to-grave” approach. The essence is to design and produce products so that as little waste as possible is generated and all materials are either reusable or biodegradable. Under the cradle-to-cradle principle, we distinguish two different cycles:

1. Biological Cycle: Biologically degradable materials that can return to nature and be reused without harming the environment.

The biological cycle of a seed paper badge: At the end of the event, guests can plant the badges, or we can compost them. The paper decomposes, the seeds grow into flowers, the flowers multiply, and they can eventually become seed paper again, while recycled paper enters the cycle from another (technical) loop.

1. Technical Cycle: When we use materials that can be reused to produce new products, we can talk about a technical cycle. These materials don’t degrade but can be recycled and reintegrated into the industrial cycle.

An example of the technical cycle: Printed communication materials are given a new life during a craft workshop, for instance, by being turned into badges we reuse at our next event. When they can no longer be used, they are collected separately and recycled into paper, then used to create new printed materials.

The cradle-to-cradle principle focuses on the entire life cycle of products, from design through production to use and reuse. The goal is for the product’s life path to be a closed system, with no waste and all materials serving as the basis for new products or returning to nature.

The carbon footprint calculation process

1. Pre-calculation

Decisions made during the planning stage are pivotal in shaping your event’s footprint. We often say that a sustainable event is determined at the planning table. Many emissions can be avoided by paying attention to a few key factors. For example, choosing a venue accessible by public transportation can significantly reduce your event’s footprint.

Here are a few things we can assess during the planning phase:

• Logistics: This is typically an area where we have only indirect influence, but we do what we can. First, we work with suppliers who prioritise sustainability and are happy to collaborate on data management and other sustainable practices. At this stage of event planning, we need to know what type of vehicle they use for deliveries and how many kilometres they will cover.
• On-Site Data: Besides the suppliers, we coordinate with the venue to determine the needed data. We request in advance how the heating and cooling systems are powered and, if they are mixed, what proportion comes from nuclear, fossil, or renewable sources. Additionally, it’s crucial to record meter readings to track consumption before the event.
• Catering: We carefully plan the menu based on guest composition and dietary preferences to minimise the ingredients’ footprint and reduce food waste as much as possible. If the contractor specifies what ingredients they will use and how much of each dish they prepare, it dramatically facilitates measurability. Different calculators weigh food categories in various ways – often grouping similar types. For instance, beef and lamb fall into the same category because their production generates more emissions than other meats like fish or chicken. However, these calculators often overlook a crucial aspect: the transportation of ingredients.

“It’s pointless for fish to rank lower if we order beef from a local eco-farm instead of Norwegian salmon, resulting in a lower footprint in reality than the calculator would show.”

This is why we always work with a local organisation that helps us determine the actual footprint of our food, considering the entire supply chain.

• Food Waste: No matter how precisely we plan, there will be food waste, and it’s worth planning what to do with it in advance. If we haven’t arranged for collection (e.g., prepared containers) or if the amount is too small, it will end up in general waste, increasing the weight of waste. Perhaps the best solution is for guests to take it home in sustainable packaging, though this isn’t always possible.

“Sometimes, we donate untouched leftovers to those in need, but in this case, we must also consider the transportation footprint.”

We anticipated a more significant amount of waste for one of our events with 3,000 attendees due to the high number of guests. So, we arranged with the Food Bank in advance, and they managed the entire collection process with a single vehicle, making this the best decision for that particular event. However, this changes from event to event.

• Production: This is easy to measure, as all plans must be submitted to the manufacturer in advance, and we know the materials and quantities involved precisely. We also calculate what happens to the produced elements after the event (ideally, they return to the cycle). A good example is the lanyards made for the MaReSz event: if we hold the same event two years in a row and produce lanyards in the first year that we reuse in the second year – as we did this time – the production footprint appears in the base year but not in the following year.
• Guest and Staff Travel: Involving guests in the process is vital. During pre-event communication, we usually highlight environmentally friendly travel options and, along with registration, request the data necessary for measurement: what vehicle they will use, how far they will travel, and their car’s fuel consumption. We estimate staff travel based on the requested data, and we can track it on our own!

2. Post-Event Calculation

Despite thorough planning, there are some things we can only measure after the event, and we refine our estimates after the event.

• Venue: At the end of the event, we take final meter readings and record electricity, heating/cooling energy, and water consumption.
• Waste Management: Plate, packaging, and single-use items comprise the final waste. If waste can be separated by type (selective waste collection), it helps significantly with accurate calculation. If selective waste isn’t effectively sorted, everything goes into general waste, which has a larger footprint since it has no afterlife. Guest education is crucial, along with resorting, which is ensured at our events by Green Zone, which provides selective bins.
• Guest and Staff Travel: We gather travel data from guests again at the event or via a post-event survey to refine our initial information. We categorise and record all distances travelled according to vehicle type. For public transport, we group data by transport type.
• Accommodation: For multi-day events, we calculate consumption based on the number of guest nights and rooms, considering the use of renewable energy, too.

3. Control Calculation

To understand which solutions effectively reduced our event footprint and identify areas requiring improvement, we always create a control calculation, replacing sustainable solutions with traditional ones. This also allows us to communicate the results of our joint efforts to clients and guests.

4. Carbon Offsetting

Based on the carbon footprint calculation data, we work with experts to calculate the amount we need to contribute to a habitat restoration project corresponding to the emissions produced. However, we’d like to emphasise again that carbon offsetting isn’t a solution, just part of one. Our primary goal is to achieve as low a number as possible in the carbon calculation, which we can achieve by following the 6R model of sustainable event planning and adopting circular thinking. But more on that in a future article.