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An event carbon footprint measures the emissions caused by an event over a defined period, usually from build and bump-in through to pack-down and post-event waste. Events behave differently from organisations. The footprint is concentrated in a handful of categories, it is dominated by Scope 3, and the boundary is set by the event rather than a financial year. For most events, attendee travel alone outweighs everything else combined.

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Define your scope first

Before collecting anything, decide what counts as in. Four questions:
  • Which dates? Live days only, or build, bump-in, and bump-out as well?
  • Which locations? Main venue only, or side events, offsite functions, and satellite activations?
  • Which participants? Attendees only, or exhibitors, performers, crew, volunteers, and media?
  • Which activities? Travel, accommodation, freight, catering, materials, waste?
Write it down as a short statement:
This footprint covers the 2025 Expo at the Main Convention Centre from 10 to 14 March, including build and pack-down days. It includes venue energy, generators, attendee and exhibitor travel, staff travel, catering, freight, and waste.
Store that in the notes or methodology section of your assessment. It is what makes next year’s edition comparable.

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Create the assessment

From your workspace, create a new Event assessment and name it clearly, for example 2025 Expo Main Event. Set the event dates, the organisation running it, and any tags you will want to slice by later: venue, city, edition. Event assessments are organised around five groups of data: venue energy, travel and accommodation, suppliers and freight, catering, and materials and waste.

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The five data categories

Venue and energy

Electricity, gas, and onsite energy attributable to the event, plus temporary power such as generators.

Travel and accommodation

Attendee, exhibitor, and staff travel, plus hotel nights where they are in scope.

Suppliers and freight

Exhibitors, contractors, AV and production, staging, and logistics providers.

Catering and food

Meals by menu type, drink volumes, and packaging. Adds up quickly on multi-day events.

Materials, signage, and waste

Build materials, signage, fit-out, and waste by stream from build through pack-down.

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Venue energy and temporary power

Electricity used in the event spaces, additional heating or cooling, and fuel for generators. Sources include venue energy reports, sub-meter readings, and generator fuel logs.
If the venue cannot give exact figures, estimate from floor area, hours of use, or a comparable event, and record the assumption. An estimate you documented is far better than an empty category.

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Attendee, exhibitor, and staff travel

For most events this is the largest single contributor, so it deserves the most effort. You will usually estimate rather than measure, drawing on ticketing and postcode data, attendee surveys, and mode splits, meaning what proportion flew, drove, or took public transport. Enter flights by route or distance and class, car and taxi trips by distance, and public transport by distance where you have it. Getting the mode split roughly right matters more than precision on any single trip.

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Suppliers, freight, and logistics

Events run on third parties: exhibitors, AV and production companies, staging and rigging crews, freight providers. Use activity data such as distance and weight where you can get it, and supplier spend where you cannot.

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Catering and food

Food and drink can be a surprisingly large share, particularly with meat-heavy menus, high volumes of single-use packaging, or long supply chains. Useful inputs are meals served by menu type such as beef, chicken, vegetarian, and vegan, plus drink volumes and packaging assumptions.

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Materials, signage, and waste

Temporary structures, signage, décor, carpets, and build materials, plus waste and recycling across build, event days, and pack-down. Waste contractor reports giving tonnes per stream are the best source; supplier invoices and packing lists fill the rest.

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Enter your data

Work through each section, entering line by line or importing a CSV in bulk where you have an export from a venue, ticketing platform, or waste contractor.
You do not need every category complete to get a useful result. Enter what you have, estimate where you must, and note the assumptions. The gaps become next edition’s collection list.

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Review your results

Open the dashboard for your assessment and check the total, the split by scope, the breakdown by category, and emissions per attendee if that metric is useful to you. Three questions to ask:
  • Does the split between travel, energy, and catering look plausible for this event?
  • Are there obvious gaps, such as no waste data or a missing exhibitor group?
  • Is anything unexpectedly high or low against what you know happened?
Adjust the inputs or assumptions and re-check.

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Use the footprint

An event footprint is not just a number. It is a brief for what to change next time, and it is most valuable in the weeks right after the event while decisions for the next edition are still open.

Report to sponsors

Give an honest picture of impact and how it is moving between editions.

Design the next one

Target the big-ticket items first: travel patterns, catering choices, energy supply.

Communicate carefully

Share per-attendee stats with enough context that the claim holds up to scrutiny.
Export tables and charts for slide decks, board papers, sponsor reports, and sustainability summaries.

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Tips for better event footprints

  • Ask early. Request data from venues and suppliers before the event, not after. Contracts are the easiest place to secure it.
  • Standardise. Reuse the same structure each edition so comparisons are real.
  • Be transparent. State major assumptions and exclusions rather than hiding them.
  • Improve each year. Add detail over time instead of aiming for perfection on the first attempt.
Even a rough first footprint is worth having. It changes the conversation with venues, sponsors, and suppliers, and it tells you exactly which data to demand in next year’s contracts.

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Where to go next