The Triple Win of Sustainability Sponsorships
Smart Funding for Sustainability Programming
The benefits of sustainability-focused sponsorships
Your team wants to build sustainability into your events or event spaces, but you have a major concern:
“I want to… but where is the budget for it?”
First, sustainability doesn’t have to cost a lot! We’ve shared guidance on how to achieve sustainability without big spends and how to keep going when budgets are tight. But we understand that sometimes savings come over time, and programming can benefit from financial backing to launch.
So, another way to allocate budget is to offer targeted sponsorship packages to cover sustainable activations.
Constructing sponsorship packages is a triple win solution for any team trying to be more environmentally and socially responsible.
Sustainability sponsorships:
1) Cover costs of bold new leadership
2) Create coalitions of value-aligned partners
3) Boost visibility of both programming and stakeholders
We’ll focus on each of these benefits, and give some tips on how to make them a reality.
Develop a new Revenue Stream
Use sustainability as an opportunity for a new – or augmented - revenue stream. For sustainability programming that requires cost, such as bringing in a compost hauler, establishing a sustainability education theater, building an eco-hub on the show floor, or upcycling vinyl show banners, there are many ways to fulfill sponsorships in attractive, new ways. You may be able to tack some programs on to existing packages as a “plus up” option, or check out our resource for packaging activations under sustainability categories:
Sustainability programming can be sold to corporate sponsors as an exciting way that your event is responding to stakeholder desires. You can share evidence that environmentalism, locality, circularity and social impact are popular considerations among the next generation of professionals. You can also highlight that as founding sponsors of new programming, they are shaping the new legacy of the event, and enhancing the experience of everyone who attends.
Their financial support will provide the funds you need to make progress on your goals, and give your event a new source or avenue for profitability.
Case Study:
The NAVC VMX Sustainability Hub in 2024 featuring attendee pledges, upcycled art, sponsor information and educational info
The North American Veterinary Community’s VMX: Veterinary Meeting & Expo introduced a show-floor sustainability hub and dining-area waste sorting stations to educate their attendees about resource use through waste management. The programs were sponsored by Mars Veterinary Health, who received show-floor branded recognition and digital fulfillments, and reaped the benefits of the programs’ success and subsequent publicity: in its first year, the sustainable activations resulted in a 30% decrease of waste per person and the following year, their compost yield increased by 30% from dialed-in efforts. The achievements increased the event’s efficiency and showcased environmental leadership as a genuine PR opportunity for both VMX and their sponsor.
Strengthen Partnerships through Sponsorship
When you’re launching new programs, lean on the brand strength of your partners to confer legitimacy to your new pursuits, whether they be composting stations or education sessions. The name and logo of an organization within your industry can influence attendee and fan behavior and normalize new actions at your event.
As your programs become stronger, more popular, and more visible, your sponsors reap the benefit of brand strength in reverse; by backing your sustainable event programming, they receive the accolades and association of supporting programming that is popular, helpful, community-minded and altruistic.
Click the image to learn more about some recent greenwashing cases, like HSBC Pictured here.
With that said, it’s important to make sure that your sponsors are value-aligned with your goals so that your efforts aren’t sidelined as greenwashing. Sometimes large corporations or problematic industries throw money to do damage control (think Big Oil slapping a green leaf icon on their logo during Earth Month). But the danger with this money –hard as it is to refuse – is that these partners won’t back the intentions or outcomes of your actions, and will either ultimately give you pushback or withdraw their funding. Start from the beginning to build value for both of your brands by partnering wisely.
Sponsorships as a Marketing Multiplier
If you’re not already using sustainability as a marketing tool, here’s your invitation to start! Sustainability is content:
it’s a talking point
it provides plenty of interesting facts and tidbits to share, and
it touches all aspects of your event from venue and location to food, decorations, and merchandise.
Add a sponsor to the mix, and both of your marketing teams now can build entire engagement strategies around the sustainability program. The content doesn’t even have to be all environmental! Touching on local partnerships, community giveback, education, inclusivity, circularity and coalition-building are all parts of sustainability and the larger story of your event.
The marketing fulfillment of sponsorships gives credit to both organizers and sponsors for leading the way, and boosts the profile of the event, venue and partners.
The final hurdle
Some sales teams may be reticent to add new sponsorships to their portfolio if they haven’t completed sales on their legacy packages. But think instead that you will have an exciting, new offering to present that demonstrates how forward-thinking, reliable, and responsive you are. Chances are that introducing these new opportunities for sponsor recognition will be popular with the exact corporations you want to partner with.
With a strong package in hand (again, check out our resource for bundling activations and fulfillments here), it’s time to approach potential partners old and new to push forward your sustainability goals together.