Creating a fully sustainable event in partnership with COP26
Client: SSE Airtricity
Year: 2021
Services: Sponsorship Activation / Event Management & Planning / Event Marketing
With a goal to achieve net-zero by 2050, our client SSE Airtricity is a principal partner of COP 26 – the United Nations Climate Change Conference. This historic event took place in Glasgow in November 2021 and sought to bring countries together to discuss climate change and crucially – how to tackle it. Throughout this week-long conference SEE Airtricity ran a series of events based on the theme Let’s Power Change Together. Ripple was challenged with producing sustainable events and branding that would help promote SSE Airtricity’s core message of a greener future. There were a series of events that ran from October to November and Ripple were tasked with making these events carbon neutral with the lowest possible environmental impact.
In our approach to this challenging event, the Ripple team knew from the onset that the medium is the message. Ripple first took stock of what we currently had in storage from previous events – wooden backdrops, signage and other materials were all used to reduce any new materials from being bought. Rather than handing out booklets or pamphlets, we focused all attention on the people presenting, investing in one large high-quality screen to keep the audience’s gaze throughout the conference. Recycled cardboard displays were optimised throughout the conference to reduce waste and plastic was entirely avoided throughout the venue. Large scale conferences often create a lot of waste through various merch so instead of this Ripple opted to only hand out sustainable face
masks to help protect from covid and deliver a message of sustainability. SSE Airtricity was also hosting a ‘Recharge Lounge’ in the blue zone of COP26. This space was for delegates to recharge both themselves and their phones and laptops during the conference. Ripple designed and installed mobile phone recharge tables and then wrapped in the client’s branding to ensure the Recharge Lounge included maximum exposure of the client’s green message. To close out the conference Ripple helped to host a party for all of SSE Airtricity staff and board members in 200 St Vincent Street with a speech by Professor Brian Cox followed by a panel discussion.
With COP26 Ripple was challenged with thinking sustainability first. In order to fulfil the client brief, we had to think of how we would reduce before we even got started in planning. By strategically thinking about how we could reduce we helped to create a series of events that were both carbon offset and helped to spread the green message.
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