The marvel of sustainability lies in its potential to impact not only the environment but also social justice. In Europe, social sustainability means pursuing gender equality and promoting women to leading roles in the public and private sectors. In practice, this means that suppliers in the event industry supply chain, who have sustainability accreditation, proactively pursue practices to promote gender equality in positions of power & ownership.
Using these accredited suppliers, event planners are proactive in promoting gender equality, plus other prescribed or associated social policies.
Separate from concerns about the planet's well-being, social sustainability is similarly represented in the 17 United Nations sustainable development goals. The environment gets most of the sustainability headlines, but social goals are codified in areas such as tackling poverty, hunger, and poor education & employment opportunities.
Hunger in Scandinavia is less apparent than in parts of the developing world, so the Nordic countries focus on issues such as gender equality as a sustainability requirement.
Environmental sustainability is vital at present. Tragically, whilst there is movement in the right direction on the environment, the results aren’t visible yet – it is a big ship to turn! The same isn’t true of social sustainability, where enacted policies have visible impacts on the social fabric of destinations.
Gender empowerment is very much an issue for corporate social responsibility compliance, in addition to the empowerment message it sends to the teams visiting the destinations.
As failing as the world can sometimes seem, there are rays of hope, occasions when consumption can be a force for good rather than a drain on global resources. Companies spending on events hosted by sustainable suppliers can have a positive material impact on the social fabric of a destination.
Frequently this positive impact bleeds through into related social sustainability areas such as education & employment opportunities, plus positive economic results on the local supply chain.
Robust sustainability accreditation mandates economic, environmental, and social targets are met before eco-awards are issued. Destinations, hotels, activity suppliers, conference venues, transfer companies and restaurants represent most of the event supply chain. Criteria vary between the accreditation bodies, but robust sustainability award processes include social sustainability targets.
In Europe, this social sustainability notably focuses on gender equality issues. Targets are quantifiable and transparent and working with accredited suppliers ensures that a company's spending on an event has a lasting impact on the local society, in addition to the economy and environment.
It could be argued that social and economic sustainability enhancements are currently more visible than environmental sustainability. Environmental sustainability is still very much about mitigating impacts, whereas social sustainability is concerned with delivering real improvements. Gender equality promotion has produced tangible results in many developed nations that engage in sustainable practices.
Prominent women's roles in the public and private sectors are palpable results of female empowerment through sustainability.
It is rare for sustainable event effects to be confined to a single area, rather the positive impacts of sustainable event spending can be felt in the environmental and economic spheres, in addition to the destination social fabric. More information on economic and environmental sustainability can be found below.
How we travel, where we stay and what we do during an event is also highly relevant for an event planner – information on this is available below.
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