Greening Your Events
Green Event Guidebook
Hong Kong is a bustling and vibrant city. Numerous events of large, medium or small scales are held each year. We have the obligation and we are well positioned to reduce waste and carbon footprints as far as practicable.
The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) has been liaising with many event organisers in the community to encourage them to enhance the environmental performance of their events. In order to further encourage and assist the event organisers to organise activities in an environmentally friendly manner, we launched “A Waste Reduction Guidebook for Large Scale Event Organisers” (Guidebook) in December 2017. The Guidebook aims to remind the community to follow the code of practice on environmental protection when organising activities and provides clear and practical information and examples for reference.
The Guidebook recommends that early planning should be done before organising the events to reduce the consumption of unnecessary resources. During the event, the organiser should ensure proper source separation of waste, set up appropriate recycling facilities to collect recyclables, and make sure that the stakeholders have a clear understanding of the recycling guidelines and related information. After the event, the event organiser should properly handle the resources collected and arrange for reuse, donation or recycling according to their different categories. The Guidebook also recommends that the event organisers should make use of educational booths, on-site activities or the media to promote green messages during the event, to conduct waste audits and to publicise waste reduction results to the public.
The promotion of “Green Mega Events” is in line with the waste reduction campaign which we have launched with the theme of “Dump Less, Save More and Recycle Right”. We hope that the event organisers of various sectors will make reference to, adopt and promote the culture of “Use Less, Waste Less” so that it can take root in the community. Also, it can help prepare for the implementation of the municipal solid waste charging scheme.
Please click here to download the Guidebook.
You might be interested
Green Events
After the launch of “A Waste Reduction Guidebook for Large Scale Event Organisers” (Guidebook), the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) has been collaborating with event organisers of mega events of different nature with a view to implementing green measures as recommended in the Guidebook with the joint effort of the commissioned consultants and green groups. Some past green events include the Hong Kong Sevens, the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, the Hong Kong Flower Show and the Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival etc.
(Please click here to watch the video)
Experience Sharing
With numerous events of different nature and scales held in Hong Kong every year, event organisers should pay more attention to the promotion and practice of waste reduction and recycling when preparing various exhibitions and publicity activities. They are encouraged to take the lead and set an example for other event organisers to raise the environmental performance of the events and publicise the results to the public directly. Please click here for more details on successful green mega events.
Green Event Pledge
To encourage more organisations to join the waste reduction force, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) has invited organisations from different sectors to participate in our “Green Event Pledge”. The participating organisations shall commit to making reference to the EPD’s “A Waste Reduction Guidebook for Large Scale Event Organisers” (Guidebook) when organising, co-organising, sponsoring or providing services to events, so as to enhance the environmental performance of the events, and to encourage other relevant organsiations to follow suit. In essence, the organisations shall pledge to make their best endeavours to take the following actions as far as practicable:
- Plan ahead to adopt measures to reduce waste generated from the events, e.g. use recycled materials for stage setup, reuse event resources, channel the materials into proper recycling or donation outlets, etc.
- Step up efforts to drive behavioral change in event participants to avoid or reduce consumption of one-off disposable items, e.g. setting up water refilling stations to encourage and facilitate event participants to bring their own water bottles.
- Reduce food waste by ordering or preparing food in an appropriate quantity to prevent unnecessary wastage, and when appropriate, encourage participants to take away excess food after the event.
- Reduce paper consumption and promote wider use of electronic means of communication.
Participating Organisations
Names of the participating organisations
How to participate
We look forward to having the participation of more organisations to make a joint effort in waste reduction. If any organisation wishes to make a pledge on waste reduction when planning for events, please contact EPD (email：greenevent@epd.gov.hk).
For details of Green Event Pledge Kick-off ceremony, please refer to the links below:
Waste Reduction & Recycling Tips
With numerous events of different nature and scales held in Hong Kong every year, event organisers should pay more attention to the promotion and practice of waste reduction and recycling when preparing various exhibitions and publicity activities. They are encouraged to take the lead and set an example for other event organisers to raise the environmental performance of the events and publicise the results to the public directly. Some successful green events can be found from the event photos shown above.
Waste Reduction & Recycling Tips for Events
In order to achieve the objective of waste reduction and recycling, and to alleviate the burden on the landfills, event organisers should, wherever possible, adhere to the principles of waste reduction, reuse and recycling in the planning of various exhibitions and publicity campaigns, so as to reduce the impact on the environment. Event organisers can make use of the waste reduction checklist to assist them in the planning of waste reduction measures, so as to enhance the efficiency of waste management.
To learn more, please refer to Waste Reduction & Recycling Tips for Events.
Green Service
The medium-term target set out in the “Waste Blueprint for Hong Kong 2035” is to gradually reduce the per capita Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal rate by 40-45% and raise the recovery rate to about 55% by implementing MSW Charging. To achieve this target, we have to make greater efforts in mobilising the entire community to practise waste reduction and implement measures for achieving waste reduction and recycling on a considerably larger scale. Event organisers should donate or recycle the surplus materials as far as practicable to reduce waste generation.
Planning large scale events requires a comprehensive and detailed waste management plan to reduce waste generation and collect useful materials for reuse, recycling or upcycling. Event planners can contact and arrange for the suppliers/social enterprises/charities to implement relevant waste reduction measures before, during and after the event.
Before the Event
Event planners can contact suppliers/social enterprises/charities to arrange for the provision of exhibition production & management related services, tableware rental / cleaning services, water refilling stations, green catering services, green gifts/souvenirs, and draw the support from organisations provide green event consultancy services before the event in order to achieve the target of waste reduction.
Click here to view the full list of green services before the event.
During the Event
Event planners can contact suppliers to arrange for the provision of waste separation facilities for recycling recyclable materials during the event so as to increase the recycling quantity.
After the Event
Event planners can contact recyclers/recycling institutions and social enterprises to arrange for donation, reusing and upcycling/recycling of materials after the event.
Click here to view the full list of green services after the event.
For other organisations that are interested in providing relevant green services or receiving donations of materials from event organisers and agree to publish their information on this website, please contact EPD (email: greenevent@epd.gov.hk).
Disclaimer
The above lists of waste recyclers, organisations that offer environmental services and upcycling as well as green workshops in Hong Kong are not exhaustive. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government does not warrant or guarantee that the lists are accurate or complete and disclaims any responsibility for the users of the lists or the organisations mentioned in the lists in respect of any errors therein. The inclusion of any organisations in the lists does not in any way imply endorsement by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the non-inclusion of any organisations should not be construed as indicating any negative concern by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government towards those organisations.