For anyone in the corporate sphere, there’s no ignoring the enormous groundswell of change surrounding businesses’ responsibilities to both people and the planet. We’re all wise to greenwashing so it’s more important than ever that firms take their ESG commitment seriously and work hard at not just ticking boxes but building legacies too.
In 2023 we appointed our first Head of ESG, Kate Holliday, making a clear statement of intent for our business and supporting our ambitious plans to make a difference.
Kate brings with her several years of experience in the ESG sector, and she has spoken to some former colleagues at investment management firm, Invesco, to see what more we can learn from the field of finance.
Undoubtedly, a big change for ESG professionals in recent years has been a move to better address businesses’ social responsibility. Sustainable practices are no longer just about recycling or emissions, instead, there is a definitive drive to contribute to social causes, often within the surrounding community.
Claire Myers, who is Invesco’s Director of Corporate Responsibility sees the enormous value in developing policies that support local causes and appreciates the significance it has for staff.
“We want Invesco to be a great place to work, and it makes a real difference if the company you work for does both social and environmental good. It helps with engagement, morale and loyalty to the company and the brand.”
How to choose causes
Choosing who to support from the many hundreds, if not thousands, of worthy causes is a challenge in itself. For Invesco they look to their staff to nominate and then vote for the causes they wish to support, encouraging buy-in and involvement. For Claire, having clearly regulated working practices helps her to maintain transparency, particularly when dealing with requests from charities and those within the community.
"Sustainability is all about transparency and collaboration. Having clear processes makes it so much easier to justify and explain your choices when you’re having those difficult conversations with local communities, or charities or partners. They don’t want to be greenwashed either.”
At GES we are looking at causes that could not only benefit from our financial support but also use our unique combination of skills and services. We are therefore exploring a new partnership with a charity that supports young people who will be exiting the care system into independent accommodation. Our ambition is that we will be able to put to good use the many skills and services we provide such as carpet fitters and electricians for example.
Unquestionably, there is an increased focus on social responsibilities now, but this by no means equates to a reduced emphasis on environmental initiatives.
Louise Gow works alongside Claire as Global H&S and Environmental Manager at Invesco, a role that includes monitoring company emissions and assessing their impact. Having dedicated a large proportion of her time to collating and assessing data, she appreciates the difficulties companies face, particularly when starting their ESG journey.
“Data is always changing, and there is always an opportunity to improve the depth and quality of the data. But you’re not always going to have the data in the exact degree of quality that you would like, and that’s okay. As long as you have set a clear and consistent methodology for how you collect and calculate your data, it’s okay to estimate sometimes.”
Calculating footprints
At the heart of successful data collection and analysis is not only a team of experienced and knowledgeable sustainability specialists but also a cooperative and engaged bank of suppliers. “We work across more than 100 properties and we recognise the importance of helping those landlords and building management companies to understand that we want the data for a good purpose.” Increasingly time is therefore being spent helping partners to understand that they’re trying to calculate their footprint, as well as affect change, and work in a more sustainable way.
For GES, data is a clear focus too and Kate has identified huge opportunities for the industry to improve its emissions reporting and understanding. Using event flooring as a case study, we discovered that by collecting product specific emissions data for event flooring, manufacturing emissions were up to 44% less than previously calculated using standard DEFRA material emissions factors. The calculations are possible because we are not only investing in more sustainable materials, but also dedicating time and resources to sourcing accurate data to back them up. And many of our calculations can be done before an event takes place, allowing us to be proactive rather than reactive in advising clients and enabling them to make informed decisions pre-event.
Regulation highlights or hinderance?
On reflection, one of the most defining differences between the events industry and financial services is that the financial sector is subject to stringent regulations. Many of their choices are dictated by legislative requirements, which may at first sight seem restrictive but in fact help create much clearer guidelines and a universal starting point. “Because we’re regulated, it’s almost in our DNA. We have the policies, procedures and governance in place before we even get started, which helps make decision-making easier,” says Claire.
Claire’s colleague, Louise, agrees that it can be a positive. “Regulation is great for visibility as it raises the profile of what’s necessary – it helps to put it on the agenda. But the hinderance is the resulting drain on resources because it requires a lot of data and can be very time consuming,” she says.
As an - as yet - unregulated industry there is a lot for us to learn from industries such as the financial services sector. And, while we are not answerable to strict guidelines we need to ensure momentum and progress.
Whether everyone throws their weight behind the initiative or not, one thing’s for sure, none of this is attainable in isolation. Businesses need to no longer be afraid of sharing their ESG results as well as their successes (or even failures) if it will help the industry forge ahead with its mission. As an industry we are at risk of ‘green hushing’ and hoarding all our learnings instead of sharing them for the greater good. And as Louise says: “No one can do this alone, we need to work together.”
Top tips for the events industry
- Engage staff and suppliers alike. You need the buy-in of both as well as their understanding of what your objectives are.
- Surround yourself with professionals. You cannot be expected to be experts in ESG from day one. Use partners who understand what to do and how to do it.
- Don’t keep your findings to yourself. Share with the industry and work together for the greater good.
- Recognise the limitations of your data in the early days. Accept that you may need to make educated estimations providing you have a consistent methodology.