Creating Sustainable Events

How do you adapt to challenges that have the potential to restructure your entire organization? Do you resist, or do you go with the flow? As we discovered, change can sometimes be an opportunity for reassessment and accountability. 

No matter what industry you found yourself in throughout 2020, challenges surely arose. The standard way of operating was ground to a halt worldwide. For some, it meant adapting to working from home, for others it meant confronting larger issues. For us here at Wildgoose, it meant navigating a series of challenges.

Our events had slowed down, how could we possibly offer in-person team building events while navigating new public health ordinances? 

As we began to consider our options to adapt to more of a virtual audience, we noticed that shifting the team to working remotely had its benefits. Schedules became more flexible, meetings grew more purposeful, and social times were more appreciated. Seeing the lighter side to going remote, we began to understand the merit in offering the same for our event delivery. 

We discovered that not only would remote delivery of our events be an effective and viable option, but it would also help the planet and our client’s wallets.

This work did not happen overnight. We invested our time into researching what would be the most effective way to adapt our delivery and reduce carbon emissions. Given our considerable use of technology, we opened our minds up to harnessing virtual opportunities that could replace the costly actions of delivering our activities in person. 

The more we researched, the more sense it seemed to make. By going virtual we could effectively slash our carbon emissions and our prices. Our products would ultimately also be more flexible to our client's needs, with delivery options going virtual we could adapt to teams that were working fully remote.

Rather than imagining the possibilities, we put our ideas into action.

In our first year of utilising our Remove Event Management model, we were able to cut our prices by up to 60%. We were also able to operate as a full team and even begin expanding our departments and product range. 

We saw an enormous reduction in our carbon footprint and an increase in our activity delivery as teams needed connection more than ever.

As we enter our second year of working utilising this same model, we’ve continued to expand to the point where our team spans the UK, US and Europe. We have also become carbon neutral certified, partnering with ClimatePartner to continue our ongoing commitment to sustainability and support clean oceans. 

So far we have managed to offset over 300,000kg of CO².

Just as we have changed, so has our market. With a rise of in-person activities returning to popularity within the UK and a call for virtual activities still being preferred in the US, we’re continuing to provide sustainable activities to our clients all over the world. In addition to our work with ClimatePartner we are also on Greengage’s directory of ECOsmart products.

Now that we are in a position where we can deliver affordable and sustainable team building options, we refuse to compromise and return to previous standards.

As we move forward as an organization, we continue to hold sustainability as part of our core focus. We wholeheartedly believe that supporting our environment by making thoughtful, considered choices contributes to a larger positive impact. 

We cannot change what other businesses do, but we can set a standard within our own industry and show that it is possible to keep sustainability in mind without compromising your goals as a business.

In an effort to thrive through the early stages of the pandemic, Wildgoose made a conscious choice to adapt to the challenges that arose within the events industry. In doing so, we were able to prioritize sustainability in our everyday practices and commit to operating as a more effective and mindful organization. Something we now pride ourselves on is being flexible, open and driven in everything we do. Sustainability plays a huge role within our business as we believe it is an investment in the future.