Sustainable event, Erronka Garbia event According to the United Nations Environment Programme, a sustainable event is one designed, organised and implemented in a way that minimises potential negative impacts and leaves a beneficial legacy for the host community and all involved. Ihobe has developed the Erronka Garbia methodology in order to ensure that those events integrate environmental measures in their design and organisation. Erronka Garbia is a procedure that allows the negative impacts on the environment associated to the holding of the events to be minimised. The application of this methodology and its subsequent recognition with the Erronka Garbia-Sustainable Event certificate seeks to raise awareness among the attendees at the event and the organisers about the need to mitigate the negative impacts associated to hosting multitudinous events.
Environmental aspectsThe Erronka Garbia methodology is applied in 6 core areas to minimise the environmental impacts that occur in each of the phases of the event.
How to certify your eventThe requirements and guidelines to assess and control the adverse potential environmental impacts related to the events are set out in the Erronka Garbia Standard. The guidelines and requirements of the Erronka Garbia certificate of environmental sustainability for events organised in the Basque Country address the aspects that must be covered in the different stages of the cycle of an event so that it is environmentally sustainable. Those requirements are perfectly compatible with those that may be laid down when defining a management system, either merely based on environmental aspects as described by the ISO 14001 international standard or based on all the aspects of sustainable development as described in the international standard ISO 20121. The requirements for an Erronka Garbia event are embodied in the different phases of the process to define and turn an event into reality, which are: Design and planning Organisation Running and follow-up Dismantling and closure
Application The entities interested in acquiring Erronka Garbia certification for an event that they are organising or managing must complete a registration application setting out its basic characteristics.This application, to be completed in the design and planning phase of the event, along with defining its cope, must establish the environmental goals and targets that the organisation wishes to achieve. This document will be validated by Ihobe and will entitle the organisers to use the Erronka Garbia as a provisional brand for the event in question. NOTE Entities must fill in the event registration form and once validated by Ihobe, they will be able to access the calculator to establish the environmental footprint of each product.
Environmental Sustainability Plan This document will be completed during the organisation phase of the event and defines the commitments and measures that are going to be implemented to integrate environmental criteria. Therefore, the environmental sustainability plan: Sets the courses of action to be implemented to meet the environmental goals and targets.Establishes the method to measure and assess the environmental aspects that are going to take place while the event is being held, and identify the resources needed for their compilation. Defines the communication methods and channels that are going to be carried out with each of the identified stakeholders to achieve the environmental awareness raising goals of the event. Once sent to Ihobe and it has been approved, the environmental sustainability plan entitles the organiser to use the Erronka Garbia brand during the holding of the event. During that time, Ihobe will check that the organisers implement the measures and actions defined in the plan.
Environmental declaration The event environmental declaration is an environmental reporting document that the organisers prepare at the end of the event and which is made available to the different stakeholders and to society as a whole, as a transparency exercise in environmental information. The event environmental declaration must contain, at least, information relating to: The environmental goals and targets of the event, along with the results obtained The main environmental aspects generated during the event The awareness-raising and communication actions The event environmental declaration will be a public document that will be available in the Erronka Garbia section of the Ihobe website.