ESL Session - The Importance of Data in Businesses' Sustainability Programmes

2024 proved a year in which we very publicly declared our ambitions relating to our ESG programme – and, as such, it has been a privilege to share both the progress we’ve made and our learnings.

As the year came to a close, our Head of ESG, Kate Holliday, took to the stage at Event Sustainability Live, discussing the importance of data in businesses’ sustainability programmes and helping answer the burning questions of attendees.

Kate recognised how daunting it can be for companies who are just embarking on their sustainability journey and was able to offer tips about how to get started. She said: “Looking at energy bills is the best place to start as it’s fairly accessible data. We accepted that we needed to make some assumptions on data for those areas where monitoring is more difficult. Reporting on assumptions, particularly in those early stages, is better than not reporting at all,” said Kate. “Don’t try and do too much too soon. There are so many rabbit holes that you can go down but don’t worry if it’s not perfect data straight away.”

During the 45-minute discussion, Kate was joined on stage by session chair, Chrissie Beck, Events and Experiential Sustainability Consultant at Worlds Better, and Jennifer Ennis, Environment and Waste Manager at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC).

Both Jennifer and Kate agreed that simple data collection is a good starting point, providing you don’t underestimate its scale - and dedicate the appropriate time and resources to it.

Jennifer shared her experience of joining the SEC in the newly created role of Environment and Waste Manager in 2020. “It was a lot of work looking at meter readings, bills, travel data, and waste figures and then essentially piecing it all together. The next step was to create templates so that it is much more easily tracked going forward,” said Jennifer. “If you make it part of someone else’s job, it can get lost in people’s schedules. We introduced monthly and quarterly reporting to help get better visibility of progress. Otherwise, continuous improvement doesn’t happen,” said Jennifer. A large focus for Jennifer and her team in 2024 was its Roadmap to Net Zero, which laid bare both their achievements and ambitions in the field of sustainability.

Addressing emissions is a common focus for businesses and, with a clear and joined-up approach, reductions are achievable. But growth can often skew results, and one question raised by the ESL audience was how do you prove your business is becoming more energy efficient and reducing its impact when the number of events you service continues to rise?

Here at GES, this is addressed by employing revenue-based intensity metrics to help separate our expansion from our environmental outputs. Lifecycle analysis has also afforded us the chance to assess specific materials and processes in their own right. The significance of such analyses is evident during our recent review of emissions data for event flooring. By focusing on specific products we found that manufacturing emissions were up to 44% less than previously calculated using standard DEFRA material emissions factors. This means we no longer need to rely on the DEFRA emission factors. Instead, we’re able to report more accurately and in turn better inform our clients and inform their decisions. The analysis has led to the development of an emissions calculator, which we offer clients to help them make evidence-based choices for their events.

And so to 2025, where we expect the role of social sustainability to increasingly influence sustainable programmes and help to make positive change. Collectively the panel agreed that ESG will bring even greater focus on, not just the wider environment, but our local communities too, and the impact we can have. “It can become the heart of your business. We have followed the B Corp framework but it’s still driven by our people and their appetite for it,” said Kate.