Greener Gatherings: How Sustainability Enhances Campus Events

Learn how to plan a sustainable event.

As ASU champions sustainability and zero waste practices across its campuses, event planners are crucial in driving meaningful change. By reducing waste and making mindful purchasing decisions, they support ASU’s sustainability goals and enhance the overall event experience. However, adopting these practices comes with challenges that planners must navigate to create more sustainable gatherings.

The ASU Sustainable Procurement and Zero Waste teams interviewed campus employees to understand how they implement sustainability into events and overcome barriers. Their insights revealed that while sustainability requires intentional and upfront effort, the long-term, environmental and operational benefits make it a worthwhile investment.

ASU employees shared their strategies for sustainable event planning. Here are some of the innovative approaches they implemented:

Haile Cousineau, associate director, International Students and Scholars Center and co-chair of the Sustainability Staff Council, successfully advocated for sustainability to become one of her team’s nine overarching goals. Cousineau incorporates sustainability into event planning by ordering mostly plant-forward meals from the Sun Devil Catering Decidedly Green menu. She also focuses more on buying quality items or renting event décor through the Engineering Events Inventory.

Cousineau is working to formalize ordering processes across event coordinators. She aims to start bulk purchasing items like compostable plates and giveaways annually and provide oversight into everyday purchases to recommend more sustainable alternatives.

“Sustainability isn’t separated as a singular experience or nice to have; rather, I try to incorporate it into my life and work and how I present myself as a professional,” said Cousineau.

Carolyn Starr, senior director, strategic initiatives, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, minimizes waste at West Valley campus events through continuous reflection. 

“Sustainability and reducing waste are important because we want to use public funds responsibly," said Starr. "Instead of purchasing new, we can borrow or reuse, which sets a positive example for our students. Our aim is to leave lasting impressions at our events, not lasting waste."

After each event, her team evaluates leftover or discarded items to determine which are popular and which go unused. These insights guide future purchasing decisions to reduce unnecessary waste.

Event planners identified several challenges and creative solutions to implement sustainable practices.

Vendor selection

Purchasing from familiar vendors can hinder sustainability and creativity. While trust is essential, exploring new suppliers can uncover more eco-friendly options as companies continuously innovate to meet sustainable trends.

Questions to ask new and current vendors include:

• Are the product materials recyclable or compostable?
• Do you have similar products with eco-friendly certifications or sustainable features?
• Have efforts been made to reduce packaging waste or make packaging recyclable or compostable?
• How can I locate sustainable products in your catalog?

Asking vendors for this information has the added benefit of showing ASU’s commitment to sustainability. Your interest encourages vendors to offer more sustainable options, helping us fulfill the ASU Charter by inspiring our community to invest in sustainable purchasing practices. 

Product selection

While trendy promotional items such as plastic pop sockets, thumb drives and mini electric fans are tempting, sustainable products offer lasting value, like reusable canvas bags, water bottles, etc. ASU purchased 987,709 branded products in fiscal year 2024 — potentially representing significant future waste.  

T-shirts are popular giveaways but could be one example of an unnecessary purchase. One department discussed purchasing over 200 branded shirts annually for a first-year student event, primarily for a commemorative group photo. A sustainable alternative would be purchasing a reusable banner with the event name, accomplishing the same purpose while reducing costs and waste over time.

Refer to the Sustainable Promotional Materials Toolkit for sustainable swag suggestions.

Waste management

Many event planners face challenges with waste bin contamination, as attendees often dispose of items incorrectly, mixing recyclables, compostables and landfill waste. A simple solution is to add a PowerPoint slide at the start of presentations that outlines the proper disposal of food and tableware. This helps reduce confusion and improves the recovery of recyclable and compostable materials.

Moving and Event Services now offers compost bins that employees can order for events outside the Memorial Union and Student Pavilion. Moving and Event Services handles the delivery and pickup, making it easy and seamless to have compost at events.

ASU provides several resources, in addition to those mentioned above, to support the ASU community in making their events more sustainable:

• Event-specific and one-on-one consulting with ASU’s Sustainable Purchasing and Zero Waste teams.
• Sustainable Purchasing Guidelines.
• Sustainability Recognition Program: A self-paced assessment to review the sustainable attributes of your event.
• Team training sessions.

Email University Sustainability Practices for questions or to request a consultation. 

Editor’s note: This article is the second in a new series about sustainable purchasing at ASU. Topics will cover sustainable purchasing best practices, feature our suppliers’ sustainable products and showcase resources available to support staff and students in purchasing sustainably.