Eco-Friendly Event Planning: Tons of Fun, Little Waste

With summer almost here, party planning season is about to kick into full gear! From weddings to boat parties to backyard BBQs, many look forward to closing the winter door and enjoying warm summer soirees. Unfortunately, along with the party fun often comes a whole lot of unnecessary waste. With a little eco-friendly event planning, however, it is easy to celebrate in a green way.

Easy Eco-Friendly Event Planning

Throwing an eco-friendly party does not mean breaking the bank. Shannon Downey, owner of leading Chicago green event planning company, Pivotal Chicago, has some quick and simple solutions to make your next celebration both great and green.

1. There’s Value in the Venue: When selecting your party’s venue, choose a location where the rental fees offer a service or investment back into the community. Park districts and natural reserves are great options for family BBQ reunions, or try a gallery and museum for your larger affairs! Also, seek venues that offer recycling baskets on site.

2. Keep it local: Serve your guests locally-produced fruits, vegetables, cheeses and meats from your local farmers’ market in order to reduce your party’s carbon footprint. Open six days a week, Chicago’s Farmers Markets bring over 70 vendors to more than 20 neighborhoods throughout the city. To find a Farmers Market location in your area, click here. Visit one and let the vibrant sights, smells and sounds inspire creativity for all your eco-friendly event planning.

3. Think Inside the Box: Serve your guests their favorites wines, juices and water beverages in more sustainable packaging, like Tetra Pak cartons made primarily from paper. These cartons use up to 90% less packaging to deliver the same amount of beverages from traditional glass and plastic bottles - and use up to 65% less energy throughout their life cycle.

ECO FACT: If 2.4 billion liters of table wine in the U.S. were packed in Tetra Pak cartons rather than bottles, the greenhouse gas savings would be the equivalent of removing 377,000 cars from the road.

4. Re-use it all: Set your tables with the old-fashioned glassware and table cloths. The amount of energy it takes to wash them at the end of a party is much less than the amount of energy spent to produce and dispose of single-use table settings.

5. Recycle your décor: Decorate your party space with bright, beautiful, locally-grown plants and flowers. And then…send them home with your guests! Plants make wonderful centerpiece decorations, as well as take-away party favors. After admiring them at the party, your guests will be thrilled to take the beautiful arrangements home with them.

6. Virtual Invitations: Save trees and money by sending virtual invitations online instead of paper versions for which you will have to pay for the paper and postage and will add to the carbon footprint with the travel and delivery of these. Services such as Evite.com offer free invitations for every occasion.

Eco-friendly party planning is not about extra effort, as you can see, but about a little awareness. If all of us make these little, easy changes around the planning of our favorite occasions, the planetary health and sustainability we’ll generate will be the real reason to celebrate!

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