Sunday 29 June 2014

Climate Miles tool for Greening Weddings & other Events

Last week, Climate Miles invited event planners from around India to join us on a discussion about Green Weddings & Events. Members in Bangalore were requested to come into the Climate Miles office while interested parties in other cities were asked to log into a GoogleHangout call.


Climate Miles has its strengths in resource footprinting and building tools to help make the former easier. Climate Miles had conducted a detailed GHG inventory of many events significantly the popular sporting event IPL in 2010 which equipped us to build such a tool and many others.
Tools such as :
Individual carbon footprint calculator - www.no2co2.in
Carbon Faqtors - India specific GHG factor database
Educational Portal - EcoSlate (presently under construction)
and now the U-Sustain Platform - a technology platform for Sustainability practices for SMEs , Corporates and policy-makers.

The past knowledge and experience gained is being translated into this platform. Clients can log on and enter their data to understand their personal/business impact on the environment and this information can be exported into a format ready for reporting. The U-Sustain Platform has a built in Green Vendors database for clients to choose their own vendors who offer sustainable products and services.
To know more about the U-Sustain platform, Get in touch with us at climatemiles@gmail.com or log on to the climate miles website.

Now, Climate Miles is exploring footprinting weddings and other such events. Interestingly enough,  Karnataka Govt plans to put a tax on big, lavish weddings. Although the reasons for this action may not be in sync with that of Climate Miles, it is still very encouraging.

Why build such a tool ? What does it do ? Who can use such as tool ?
This tool will allow informed and responsible individuals to track and measure the impact of their big day on the environment. It will also provide an option for offsetting the overall impact thereby ensuring the event leaves a minimal impact on the environment. 
Event and wedding planners can use this tool as a value-add to their existing services while also making additional revenue. They also get to feature on the U-Sustain Green Vendor database for promoting the concept.

Who all were invited to this event ?
All wedding and event planners in and around Bangalore and other cities in India.



Who all attended ?
a member of the marketing team from a top-end international wedding planner  
a young local ( based in Mysore and Bangalore) wedding planner (launched 2 yrs ago).
a transport provider for large-scale events - provided bus services for IPL this year. Also provides a basic report on carbon footprint to the client.
and other members from the sustainability consulting space.

What was discussed ?
1. Definition of a Green Wedding
2. Has a client ever approached you for a green wedding?
3.Need for such a service, are you equipped to provide such as service?  & how it benefits the planner. 
4. What all is tracked?
5. 2 case studies - wedding footprint & cost to offset.
6. How cm & event/wedding planner can collaborate
( main points discussed during the meeting is available on cm slideshare, the case studies are also available)

Chief outcomes:
Event planners seemed keen on taking it to the next step.
  • Big international event planning team representative mentioned they could blog about the concept to promote the subject.
  • A young upcoming wedding planner agrees that this could provide a unique USP edge over the competition.
Climate Miles partners across the country will be actively spreading the message and encouraging more individuals to use such a tool to measure and offset the impact of their weddings and other such events.