Episode 17: Sustainability and the Sports Events Industry with Giles Stanford, Director of Global Events at CSM Live

In this podcast we ask Giles to share his experience around how the events industry has shifted over the past 20- years. Giles shares his experience of planning the Olympic games, which had a strong sustainability agenda - and how at that time, planners, designers, from both the events industry and the construction industry, had to work together to put sustainability at the centre of decision making and innovation - causing both industries to raise their game. Jump forward to 2021 and planning for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022, and again sustainability is at the heart of planning and development. The sports industry is complex with so many aspects to consider when it comes to sustainability, supply chains and carbon footprints. In some areas, such as equipment and stage construction, rental and reuse has been business as usual, however, when it comes to signage, beverages and logistics and moving people to and from events, these are areas where more sustainable practice is necessary and are key to driving innovation within the industry. Giles shares examples of where these innovations are starting to have an impact - and how given the industry that there is plenty of scope for creativity, ideas and innovations - often giving a stage to smaller organisations, providing opportunities to scale and drive even more impact. We touch on the impact of Covid19, creating new habits, operations and opportunities around virtual events - and the impact of rethinking planning and evaluation of events - swapping out carbon heavy air travel for 3D virtual tours - as well as ESports. Whilst there’s plenty of great insights, ideas, innovations and activities already underway within the industry, like many industries, Giles is clear that there’s still more to do - yet paints an optimistic picture of the growing importance of sustainability in being a critical component for success. For more information about Giles and the work he is doing at CSM Live, visit https://csmlive.com/ and any comments, questions, ideas, suggestions related to the podcast, get in touch. Due to the COVID19 situation, our podcasts are currently being recorded purely via online conferencing platforms, we apologise for any minor sound quality issues.