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CIWEM · Flood & Coast
Conference & exhibition · UK
How Flood & Coast turned event data into practical change.
CIWEM worked with One Tribe to measure its conference footprint, make lower-carbon travel easier and involve exhibitors and delegates in climate action.
See how we did itThe largest source of emissions.
A clear place to start.
A conference about climate resilience needed to understand and take responsibility for its own environmental impact.
Event footprinting, exhibitor participation and carbon project support
A climate-resilience conference had its own footprint to face.
Flood & Coast brings together around 2,000 policy makers, practitioners, researchers and community representatives working on flood and coastal risk. It is a place to share ideas about responding to climate change. Bringing that community together also creates emissions.
CIWEM wanted to understand those emissions in enough detail to make better decisions. Working with One Tribe meant collecting event data, calculating the full footprint and publishing an account of what had happened.
One finding gave the team a clear place to focus: delegate travel represented 36% of the event’s reported emissions, its largest contributor. The way people reached the conference mattered as much as what happened inside it.
“It’s made our sustainability work more evidence-led rather than assumption”
Measurement changed how the team planned the event.
Sustainability became part of event planning from the start. Travel data collected at check-in fed One Tribe’s calculations, while the venue choice and attendee offer made public transport more accessible.
The programme also extended to exhibitors. Individual stand measurement sat alongside a Most Sustainable Stand Award, making stand design, transport, reuse and waste part of the conversation.
Delegate travel = 36% of reported emissions
Programme illustration · Motion is off. Select any step to explore.
A recycled badge gave every delegate a say.
At the end of the conference, delegates put their used badge into one of three collection boxes. Each represented a verified carbon project. The project with the most votes was selected for the event’s collective offsetting activity.
It was a simple way to combine badge recycling with a decision people could participate in. The choice of ACC Liverpool added practical support: dish-level carbon information through Climato and an aqua system for unavoidable food waste.
These actions connected the report with the event experience. Delegates could change how they travelled, exhibitors could compete on sustainability and the whole community could help choose which project to support.
Recycle your badge in the box for your chosen carbon project. The project with the most votes receives the event’s offset support.
A team that knows where to focus next.
- of emissions from delegate travel
- 36%
- rail discount for delegates
- 15%
- carbon projects put to a delegate vote
- 3
Programme figures for the event described here. The partnership account covers three years of working together.
Over the three years described in this partnership, CIWEM made measurement and reporting an ongoing part of Flood & Coast. The team publishes the footprint each year, including results it had hoped would be better.
The value is a clearer basis for decisions: understanding the biggest contributors, trying practical changes and returning to the data. The venue move and rail offer are actions taken in response to the footprint; they are not presented as a measured percentage reduction.
How Confex made climate action part of the show.
Put One Tribe to work for your business.
Tell us what you need to measure, communicate or improve. We’ll help you build a programme around it.
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