Green Events Guide

Marketing

• Use digital media where possible, and printed media strategically. 
• Print on recycled content or FSC Certified paper. 

Consider Your Energy Use

• Hold your event outdoors, in LEED-certified buildings, or pull up the shades and use natural light if appropriate.
• Try to adjust to different seasons. For example, wearing a sweater in the winter rather than turning up the heat, and recognizing that turning the AC up in the summer is not always necessary.

Transportation

• Encourage your guests to carpool and use alternative transportation such as biking, walking or public transit. 
• Consider different group transportation options:
  • Student Assembly Vans 
  • Carpool
• If attendees and speakers are traveling great distances, encourage them to offset their greenhouse gas emissions, or explore how you may do this for the event (if your funding type allows).

Events with Activities

For events with activities, consider the following options:

• Yoga sessions
• Nature and tree/plant ID walks
• Greenhouse tours
• Hydroponic wall tours
• VIMS tours
• Trash clean-ups 
• Partnering with another organization or department to discover the intersections between the organizations and sustainability

Giveaways and Swags

• Avoid giveaways that will produce waste or become waste, particularly plastics.
• Consider the distance that items will be shipped, what they are made of and how those that are making them are compensated. Give preference to items that are sustainably produced by those receiving appropriate compensation.
• Think about what your audience will actually use or need and what type of lifestyle your item will promote.

Food Selection

• Consider the type and variety of food you will serve as well as the distance it must travel. These factors contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, resource use and nutritional value. Try to prioritize plant-based options (vegan/vegetarian); catering is helpful with offering alternatives.
  • Ask your caterer for local and seasonal options. 
  • Consider serving vegan and vegetarian options or reducing meat options. 
  • Explore whole grains and less-processed foods. 
  • W&M Catering provides local, sustainable and vegan/vegetarian options.

Food Recovery

• Avoid over-ordering and purchasing.
• For large events, express your interest in food recovery options with your catering provider as early as possible.
  • Catering providers must store unserved food properly before, during and after an event for it to be eligible for recovery.
  • Catering providers will often require recovery groups to sign waivers.
• Food that has been served is not safe or acceptable for most recovery programs.
• Consider connecting with the student organization, W&M Food Recovery Network to find local non-profits willing and able to collect safely stored, unserved food from your event. 
• Food already served? Set up with students in advance to share on social media that there is free food available for a short period after the event. Hungry students nearby will swing in to grab a bite on the go.

Catering and Communications

Express your interest in green options with your caterer from the beginning, at least two weeks in advance. Early notice provides them time to determine if they are able to make the event greener or if there will be any additional cost.

• W&M Catering offers the following:
  • An emphasis on local and sustainable food.
  • Chef crafted vegan and vegetarian options.
  • Compostable service ware, plates, bowls and cups.
  • Compost bins.
  • Signs labeling the compost bins and informational table signs.
  • A drink station with coolers/pitchers/thermos.
  • Consultation on reduced waste serving, such as buffet-style.
  • Elimination of single-use plastics.
  • Contact [[catering]] about your event!
• For off-campus catering providers:
  • Notify your caterer that you want to opt-out of single-use items.
  • Notify your caterer that you do not want any single-serve packets.
  • Specify the type of service ware you would like to use.
  • For a list of local green caterers, try using America to Go.
• For America to Go:
  • If purchasing through America to Go, please use the sustainability filters to help determine what options are available through local restaurants.

Eliminate Single-Use Items

• Evaluate your decorations, table coverings, trays, serviceware and giveaways for the event. Purchase materials that can be washed and reused or composted.
• Avoid foil-wrapped butter, individually wrapped utensils, plastic coffee stirrers and other individually packaged items.
•  Consider if there are any items better served in bulk (large containers): 
  • Ketchup, salt, pepper and salad dressings are common items. Plastic packets are not compostable or recyclable and could contaminate the compost or recycling.

Determine Your Serviceware Needs

• Consider the needed serviceware and decorations and determine whether you will use reusable, compostable or recyclable options.
  • Reusable serviceware produces the least waste.
  • If the event format permits, encourage your attendees to bring their own utensils, water bottles or other containers. 
  • Compostable serviceware is a good option, but make sure your event will support composting. Compostables that end up in a landfill become do not provide the same benefits as composting.
  • If you choose recyclable serviceware, it must be clean of food waste before it can be recycled. 
• Avoid using materials made up of styrofoam/polystyrene, as it is a landfill item.

Waste Station Plan

Know what you want to accept at your waste station. If you will be composting, consider having your station manned by trained volunteers or staff to ensure the station is never cross-contaminated with other waste. This also helps inform people who don’t have the same baseline knowledge when it comes to sorting waste.

• Campus bin liners should follow this standard:
  • Black bag = trash.
  • Clear bag = recycling.
  • Green biodegradable bag = compostables.
• Volunteers
  • Purchase compostable gloves in case they have to handle food waste.
  • Contact the Dining Sustainability Intern team at [[compost]] for guidance on compostable training for your volunteers and possible volunteers to monitor bins.

Recycling and Waste Bins

W&M is a mixed recycling campus, all recyclables go into one bin and are sorted at the recycling facility. 

• Recycling containers for outdoor events can be reserved through Facilities Operations. Place a work order or contact [[workor]] directly for containers.
• Most indoor locations already have recycling containers, although this should be confirmed during the site visit.
• Recycling containers for indoor events should be reserved through the building's event coordinator if not already in the rooms.

What can and cannot be composted?

Unlike at-home composting, industrial composting allows W&M to accept all food and many compostable items.

Composting Locations and Options

•  Currently, there are more than 15 composting bins across campus! You can find the one nearest you using this map! These bins accept any compostable item, loose or in a compostable bag.
• W&M Catering offers composting services for their events. Request a compost bin for your next event 
• All W&M dining halls compost pre- and post-consumer food waste behind the scenes.
• Pre-consumer is the food scraps that are created while you are cooking or preparing food (stems, seeds, corn husk, etc.), while post-consumer is what gets left behind on someone’s plate!

How to make your event compost-friendly!

• Sit-Down Meals & Reusable Serviceware
  • Composting for food can be added to W&M Catering events. 
  • If present, serving staff can scrape plates into compost bins.
• Self-Serve Meals & Compostable Serviceware: 
  • Make it easy. Ask people to sort as little as possible. Compost bins contaminated with non-compostables must be landfilled. 
  • Reduce waste and confusion by eliminating or reducing non-compostable items such as individual creamers, ketchup packets, chip bags and plastic/wax paper wrapping. Ideally, everything being discarded should be compostable. 
  • Provide compostable plates, cups, and service ware. Line bins with compostable bags.
  • Post signage and make announcements so attendees are aware of what goes where.
  • If through W&M catering, staff will properly deposit the compost collection. 
  • If you will not have catering staff at your event, designate someone in your organization to be in charge of bringing compostable waste to the nearest compost bin. 

Purchasing compostable items

• Compostable bags
  • Request compostable bags from W&M Catering when you order food from W&M Catering.
  • Compostable bags can also be purchased online.
• OfficeMax and Eco-Products have compostable materials that are BPI (Biodegradable Products Institute) certified. 
• As compostable items continue to improve and become more accessible, you can find compostable replacements of most single-use plastic items almost anyware!

Where to post signs?

• Post signs at the bins to clarify what is accepted.
•  Keep in mind that if using plant-based catering, you can include a sign explaining why the food chosen for an event is vegetarian/vegan.
• Post signs on the table to remind guests of the compostable products and/or sustainable food.

Downloadable Graphics