What is a sustainability-conscious event? Future event production centered around guidelines (Part 1)

In recent years, corporate initiatives to advance the SDGs have accelerated, and a sustainability perspective is increasingly demanded across various fields. Against this backdrop, Dentsu Japan's "Sustainability Promotion Office," Dentsu Inc.'s "Dentsu Team SDGs," and Dentsu Live Inc. have created and published the " Sustainability-Conscious Event Guidelines (Environmental Edition) " to serve as a guiding principle for promoting sustainability within the event sector. These guidelines organize fundamental knowledge for sustainable events and include checklists outlining actions to be taken during each phase of event planning, production, and execution.

In this article, we interviewed Dentsu Live Inc.'s Hiroki Nagakawa, Kohei Ishibashi, and Serina Suzuki, who were involved in creating the guidelines, about their purpose and how to utilize them. In Part 1, they discuss the background leading to the guidelines' creation and the response since their release.

Events are also about creating things. The perspective of sustainability that is required

Q. First, could you tell us the background and circumstances that led to the creation of the "Guidelines for Sustainability-Conscious Events"?

Nagakawa: Within the Dentsu Group, there is a project team called "Dentsu Team SDGs" that supports clients in advancing their SDGs. They have previously published materials like the "Sustainability Communication Guide." Dentsu Live Inc., which handles event and space businesses, also participated in this initiative. Discussions arose that "going forward, events too require an indispensable sustainability perspective. We need to create guidelines appropriate for the events of the future." After a preparatory period, we began a thorough examination of sustainability in events, organizing challenges and ideas to determine where to focus our efforts.

Q. You mentioned that "events also require a sustainability perspective." Was this a request from clients or partner companies? Or did the initiative originate within the Dentsu Group or Dentsu Live Inc. itself?

Nagakawa: Both voices were present, of course. However, in the early stages of consideration, the sentiment that "this is something the Dentsu Group should undertake" was stronger. As we began concretely drafting the guidelines, voices from clients also started reaching us. With an increasing number of companies, particularly foreign-affiliated clients, showing strong awareness of sustainability, we felt creating these guidelines was urgent.

Q. This release focuses on the "Environmental Guidelines," but I understand "Diversity Guidelines" and others are also planned. Is work already underway on those?

Nagakawa: For the "Diversity Edition," we are aiming for release within 2023. Regarding the Environmental Edition guidelines, we also don't consider the version released this time to be the final form; we plan to continue reviewing and updating them going forward.

Rather than creating a manual, we aim for these to serve as guidelines for each company to consider better approaches.

Q. When creating the "Event Guidelines for Sustainability (Environmental Edition)," were there key principles you prioritized or points that incorporated unique Dentsu Group expertise?

Nagakawa: We wrestled with whether to create a detailed manual specifying every action or simply outline the principles. We ultimately chose the latter, which I believe is crucial. There is no single correct answer for advancing the SDGs, and the solution changes depending on the perspective. Rather than presenting a definitive answer, we designed the guidelines to be a tool that event organizers, exhibitors, sponsors, planners, and producers can use to discuss and consider better approaches together—sometimes exploring ideas not explicitly written in the guidelines.

Ishibashi: Since event production involves various companies, we consciously designed the guidelines not as a tool for any single company, but as a tool for everyone to engage in purposeful discussions. We envisioned them being used to understand the policy, then planning and producing based on the checklist while discussing.

Suzuki: I was primarily responsible for creating the checklist. Sustainability covers a broad spectrum, ranging from food-related initiatives like reducing food waste and promoting locally sourced ingredients to cutting CO2 emissions and going paperless. Recognizing that many companies might not know where to start, we presented measures across various fields that could potentially reduce environmental impact. Of course, the items listed aren't the only correct answers. We hope that those who see the guidelines and checklist will use them as a starting point to think more deeply about sustainability.

Updating improvement points while utilizing the guidelines

Q. What kind of reactions have you seen since the guidelines were released in December 2022?

Nagakawa: We've received feedback from event-related industry groups expressing interest in using it as a reference. Additionally, within our company and group, there was significant interest even before the release, confirming the demand for such guidelines. Following the announcement, we believe we are now entering the phase where we will build a track record of its practical application.

Q. Has Dentsu Live Inc. already started using the guidelines internally? Has creating them changed how events are produced?

Nagakawa: Internally, we're advancing full implementation while utilizing role-playing exercises. Once we introduce the guidelines to actual sites, I expect many points for improvement will emerge, such as "this could be made more user-friendly." There will also be aspects we can only understand by applying them to various cases. That said, we released these guidelines as the first step toward sustainable event production. Our primary hope is that they spark the realization: "We really need to adopt this perspective too."

The "Sustainability-Conscious Event Guidelines (Environmental Edition)" serve as a support tool, providing direction for companies involved in events to discuss sustainability and create sustainable events where everyone can enjoy participating. We've come to understand that it's not just about filling out a checklist; what's crucial is that all stakeholders think and discuss based on the guidelines. In the second part, we'll delve deeper into how to utilize the guidelines and the nature of sustainable events.