Exclusively sponsored by Honeycomb Strategies

If you’re considering a sustainable certification for your event venue, selecting the right standard is important to ensuring that you’re spending your time, money, and effort wisely. Honeycomb Strategies has compiled this guide to help you evaluate the many choices available. In the process of deciding what standard to pursue, here are some elements you’ll want to consider in your process.

Find your Why

Even before we broach the subject of certifications, we can’t skip over the step of asking: what are your organization’s internal sustainability goals? Identifying your objectives in the first place can be a powerful driver for progress and can help motivate action when things seem to stall out. Some whys include:

• Altruistic commitment to bettering the planet and human welfare
• A cost-benefit analysis that shows sustainable efficiencies can yield savings
• Seeking to grow your value, relevancy, or position in your market
• Responding to stakeholder pressure and audience desires

Next, you can look at how certification can advance your sustainability goals. While certification can be seen as an endorsement of a job well done, it is even more beneficial to consider it as a tool to achieve desired outcomes. Selecting the right certification can therefore kill two birds with one stone: advancing sustainable programming at your organization and lending legitimacy to your achievements.

Staying Accountable

A major reason that many organizations pursue sustainability certifications is to comply with outside requirements, either from governments, building owners/managers, clients, or associations. Some major events that have sustainability riders include the FIFA World Cup, The Olympics, and NCAA Final Four tournaments, which are sure to influence others moving forward. In order to be eligible to host games as part of these tournaments, venues and/or destinations have to demonstrate adherence to certain standards such as LEED for Existing Buildings, ISO 20121: Sustainable Event Management, or others.

If your organization is looking to attract these types of major international events, it is crucial to plan ahead for certification. Some requirements involve prolonged periods of data collection, air quality testing or monitoring, and others may mandate building or site improvements. While they may be major undertakings, major certifications such as LEED and ISO 20121 are comprehensive processes that will reap benefits through their awarded accolades.

Measure your Resources

Sustainability certifications vary widely in terms of cost and time, often depending on the size of your site or organization. Comprehensive sustainability certifications can act in concert with steps you may already be taking to implement protocols or programs, enhancing these efforts, which may take time and effort to bring to fruition. More focused certifications can take less time, money, and effort while still contributing progress to your overall goals. Focusing on one area of sustainability – for example, landscaping or health and safety – can be excellent entryways for smaller organizations or those with limited budgets.

Pro tip: Start tracking your data now! If you’re considering sustainability certifications at any point in the future, start tracking your data. All certifications will ask you to demonstrate the effectiveness of your programming, and the more data you have at the outset, the less time and effort it will take to compile your information for submittal. We recommend checking out Honeycomb Strategies’ custom data dashboard, HIVE: Honeycomb Insights for Venues and Events, to collect and aggregate your metrics, though there are other tools available, as well.

Follow through is everything

When setting out to certify, it’s not easy to see the challenges and pitfalls that might await you. They’re unique to each organization, but you’ll probably face at least one hiccup in your process, whether it’s stakeholder buy-in or a team miscommunication. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our years of certification work, it’s that gradual improvement over time through systemic tracking, evaluation, and programming is the best way to make gains.

Choose a certification whose requirements you can implement in a sustaining way at your organization and construct a meaningful plan for ongoing improvement. If you aren’t ready for Platinum status, aim for Bronze this year, but make an action plan to reach for Silver when it’s time to renew. We promise this approach will make all the difference.

One more pro tip: Hire an expert. Certification processes are cumbersome, technical, and can be complicated. Having a dedicated advocate and project manager for the process will alleviate a lot of stress and will yield your best result. Honeycomb Strategies would be honored to talk with you about guiding you through sustainability certifications. With staff credentialed in LEED, TRUE, EIC, WELL, and unparalleled experience in ISO 20121 and many others, our team can be the advocates you need to make it to the certification finish line.

The Cherry on Top

We believe that certifications can be a powerful motivator for change. They can provide the structure, timeline and legitimacy to pursue programming or improvements. However, becoming certified by any standard is most effective when it is an outcome of thoughtful commitments to change.

To download a comparison of sustainability certifications available for venues, click here, or copy this URL into your browser: https://www.hcsustainability.com/venue-certification-matrix

Honeycomb Strategies specializes in impactful solutions for sustainable events, sports, and venues. hcsustainability.com / hello@hcsustainability.com