Sustainability update: how Sledge is tracking against its goals

Following on from the development of our formalised sustainability vision, goals and roadmap in September 2022, we’ve implemented 20 initiatives that are designed to minimise our impact on the environment.

These span the way we operate, how we plan and deliver projects, and the ways in which we provide ongoing strategic counsel to our clients.

Just some of these initiatives include:

• We continued to engage in training with isla, which saw our team members complete three internal training sessions with the organisation, to gain further insight and education, and to ensure all employees are on the same page.
  
  
• We transformed our internal office environment to reduce waste, changed all food, drink and utility items to eliminate plastic, opted for more environmentally friendly alternatives, and reduced energy usage across all office spaces.
  
  
• We implemented measurement tools and checklists across all projects, and now track sustainable practices for each and every one of them. This involves identifying areas for improvement, and leaning on our creative thinking to reduce a project’s impact.
  
  
• Our budgets now include a sustainability line item as standard, and we talk clients through the deliverables and actions we recommend are taken in this respect.
  
  
• All of our RFPs and pitches now include tailored sustainability recommendations and best practices even if this was not requested by the client, as we recognise as the event experts, we must step up and educate our clients.
  
  
• We see sustainability as not only about the environment, but accessibility and equality too, and we strive to work with clients that want to do good in the world. This is evident in our relationships with The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) around COP26 and COP27, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and We Are Family Foundation (WAFF), which continue to this day.

Our team, led by dedicated Sustainability Champions, have clear sustainability goals in place for Q1 of 2023 and beyond, and will continue to keep our clients, suppliers and the wider industry informed of our progress.

This is because our team believes that we’re stronger together, and as such we strive to share our views, learnings and experiences with the wider industry, so that we can all move forward and reduce our impact as a collective.