How often does a sustainability question show up in an event RFP, and what's your answer today?

It's happening more. The Events Industry Council's Futures Landscape Study 2025 points to RFPs shifting away from simply asking whether a supplier can host an event, toward asking what that event delivers for people, planet and community, and how that gets proven. Corporates face growing regulatory pressure worldwide to report their emissions in detail, some rules already in force, others phasing in over the next couple of years, and that pressure is starting to show up in how they buy event services.

Most EMCs still don't have a confident answer. Research from Prevue Meetings & Incentives suggests sustainability criteria are still only lightly built into most RFPs today, with cost remaining the dominant factor by a wide margin. That gap, between what's starting to be expected and what most of the industry can currently deliver, is exactly why getting ahead of it now is worth more than waiting to be asked.

Why the gap exists

For most EMCs, the reason there's no confident answer comes down to one of two things:

• Emissions were never calculated in the first place. A Boston Consulting Group survey found only 7% of large companies comprehensively measure their emissions across Scope 1, 2 and 3, and event-specific emissions (venue energy, catering, freight, waste, delegate travel) usually aren't part of the standard planning process at all.
• A number exists, but nothing happens next. Research from IntegrityNext on corporate carbon reporting found that figures kept separate from day-to-day decisions rarely lead to real reductions. For those who do get as far as calculating, deciding what to do with it, reduce next time, offset what can't be reduced, or both, is a separate step many don't take.

Either way, this matters more than it might seem. Under the GHG Protocol, an event's venue hire, catering and freight typically sit under Scope 3, Category 1: purchased goods and services, usually the largest single category in a company's Scope 3 footprint. A properly calculated event footprint is doing real work on a meaningful part of a client's overall emissions picture, not just producing a number for its own sake.

EMCs make the decisions that shape an event's footprint: which venue, how much freight, how many guests, what catering. But the actual measurable data behind those decisions, like venue electricity use or freight weight and distance, often sits with the venue or vendors rather than the EMC, and chasing all of it down isn't always realistic. That's the actual gap. Not unwillingness, but the lack of a straightforward way to turn whatever information is available into a credible number, without needing every input tracked down first.

How CarbonClick can help

CarbonClick works with event management companies to close this gap:

• Turning whatever event activity data you already have into a credible emissions footprint, without needing every input tracked down first
• Showing where the biggest emissions come from, so you know what's worth changing next time
• Offsetting what can't be reduced, backed by rigorous project due diligence (our 7-Point Impact Check) and full track and trace transparency on exactly where the contribution goes

If any of this sounds familiar, get in touch. We'd like to help.