Sustainable Event Management: Strategies for Reducing Environmental Impact in the Hospitality Industry

The hospitality industry plays a central role in hosting events ranging from small meetings to large-scale conferences and festivals. While events generate economic and social benefits, they also impose significant environmental burdens through energy use, waste generation, food consumption, transportation, and water use. This paper examines strategies for sustainable event management (SEM) tailored to the hospitality sector. We synthesize academic and practitioner perspectives to develop a comprehensive framework covering planning, procurement, operations, stakeholder engagement, monitoring, and legacy. Key strategies include green procurement, energy-efficient venue operation, waste minimization and diversion, sustainable food and beverage practices, sustainable mobility planning, and carbon accounting with offsetting. Implementation barriers—cost perceptions, knowledge gaps, supply chain limitations, and behavioral inertia—are discussed alongside enablers such as policy incentives, certification programs, digital tools, and stakeholder collaboration. Case-based examples illustrate best practices. The paper concludes with an implementation roadmap and recommendations for hospitality managers, event planners, policymakers, and researchers.