A Guide to Sustainable Events: Eco-Friendly Celebrations That Make an Impact
Sustainability is no longer a “nice have” within the events industry – it’s a must. Creating memorable experiences that are kind to the planet is the new way for event planners in 2025. Whether planning a corporate event, wedding, party, or festival, being eco-conscious must be at the forefront of every decision, including where to source products and how to minimise waste.
To help you ensure your event supports these sustainability efforts, we have created this guide to sustainable events, which covers everything from venue selection to catering and one of the commonly overlooked aspects – furniture hire. These tips will help you design an event that still wows your guests while aligning with modern, eco-friendly values.
Why sustainability matters in events
The average UK wedding generates approximately 180kg of waste, including food, single-use items, and plastics. This number rises to 23,500 tonnes of waste for a multi-day music festival. A focus on sustainability doesn’t just benefit the environment – it also improves brand reputation, attracts guests, and can save costs.
By incorporating sustainable practices into your planning, you ensure that your event leaves a positive legacy rather than a negative footprint.
Venue Selection & Energy Efficiency
Choosing the right venue is one of the most important steps when planning a sustainable event. Consider venues that:
- Offer recycling of any waste that is produced at the event.
- Garden or outdoor venues that require less decor due to their natural surroundings.
For marquee events, ensure you choose a supplier that prioritizes reusable decor and efficient transport logistics. This will help to reduce the environmental impact.
Sustainable Catering Choices
Food waste is generally one of the biggest challenges in sustainable event planning. To make catering your event greener, consider working with caterers that prioritise eco-friendly practices:
- Partner with companies that source local ingredients. This reduces the carbon footprint of food transport, plus guests appreciate menus that highlight fresh dishes.
- Reduce meat-heavy menus and include plant-based or vegetarian options. These can help lower environmental impact while still offering variety and taste.
- Plan portions carefully to try to avoid waste, and donate to local charities or projects where possible. Organisations like FareShare help to redistribute surplus food to those in need.
By making these changes, you’re not only reducing your event’s carbon footprint but also creating a more thoughtful and memorable experience for your guests. Sustainable catering is good for your budget, environment, and reputation!
Furniture Hire: A Step Towards Sustainability
When planning an event, furniture is often overlooked during important sustainability discussions, despite it playing a crucial role. Rather than buying tables and chairs for single-use, furniture hire is a sustainable alternative. This way, you minimise waste and support the circular economy.
At Tables and More, we make it easy for event planners to hire high-quality, reusable furniture. This way, by hiring your furniture, you:
- Reduce waste – No need for disposable or low-quality items such as tablecloths or napkins.
- Lower emissions – Fewer resources are needed for production.
- Ensure longevity – Furniture used for hire is maintained, repaired, and reused across multiple events.
Hiring your furniture isn’t just eco-friendly, it’s budget-friendly, allowing you access to stylish options without expensive storage costs.
These points also apply to other decor items such as lighting or table centrepieces. Try to hire where possible, and if you need to purchase, try to buy recyclable or reusable items that can be used post-event.
Transport & Logistics
Transport is a large contribution to an event’s overall carbon footprint. The accumulation of guest transport, supplier deliveries, and logistics on the day, emissions can quickly add up. In order to try to minimise these emissions, consider these tips:
- Encourage shared lifts or transport for your guests. Shuttle buses are a great way to get people from train stations or popular areas to the event while minimising emissions and also helping with parking challenges.
- Choose suppliers who offer efficient or eco-friendly transportation services. This could be achieved by consolidating deliveries into fewer trips or by using vehicles with low emissions.
- Where possible, electing local suppliers helps to reduce the carbon footprint of your event. This is because there is a shorter distance required to travel in order to get supplies out to you.
These small but powerful changes can make a huge difference when multiplied across hundreds of attendees or multiple events per year.
A Greener Future for Events
By choosing sustainable options for your event, you don’t have to compromise on style, guest experience, or increased costs. In fact, you can do the opposite as well as show guests and stakeholders that you are forward-thinking and socially responsible.
It all starts in the planning, from furniture hire to catering options and even transport and logistics; every decision matters. Sustainability is no longer a “trend” in the events industry; it is becoming the standard. By following this guide to sustainable events, you can help lead the way toward greener celebrations.
If you’re planning your next event and want to explore sustainable furniture hire options, take a look at our tables and chairs or get in touch with our team to see how we can help bring your eco-friendly event vision to life.
