At Event Goods Delivered, we design, produce, and deliver quality outfits and merchandise for the sponsors and teams of major sporting events.
Our mission is to provide items that delight the wearers and event attendees while minimizing environmental impact.
We’ve found on this journey that by acting sustainably you also increase the positive emotion amongst the users and audience of your work.
This guide hopes to demonstrate that sustainability fundamentally benefits the overall goal of an event sponsorship or participation.
1. Ambitions, Policies & Training
We start here because without the bedrock of sustainable internal operations, we wouldn’t be able to produce sustainable merchandise.
Engaging Experts
At EGD, we recognize that these issues are incredibly complex. It would be challenging just to quantify sustainable goals, let alone measure our progress without engaging expert third parties to help with our mission.
Fortunately, we’ve been able to work with two excellent partners who have been both highly knowledgeable and proactive. Greenly help us with our carbon footprint. While EcoVadis focuses on broader sustainability issues such as chemical & air pollution, water consumption and responsible labour practices.
By working closely with both partners, we now rate within the top 5% of companies that each accreditor assesses.
Identifying an Ambition
While sustainability is more than just greenhouse gas emissions (GHG’s), it has been important for us to commit to a long-term goal to frame our sustainability efforts. We’ve aligned with the “Race to Zero” coalition, aiming to hit net zero by 2040. This provides a focal point for our company's efforts, influencing both our long-term strategy and how we achieve it.
Developing Environmental Policies
One of the first steps we took to meet this ambition was to ensure that we had the right procedures and policies in place. This would allow us to create internal consensus about the behaviour changes needed and ensure our own house was in order before we started working on our “scope 3” emissions along our supply chain.
The importance of this became clear when we began quantifying our environmental impact — with the help of our partners.
For example, at EGD we manufacture large volumes of merchandise. This production effort is naturally the primary source of our GHGs. However, perhaps surprisingly, employee travel has a near-equal impact on our GHGs.
Accordingly, one of the first actions we took in 2022 was to ensure we had an effective travel policy. Our Sustainable Travel Policy encourages eco-friendly transportation modes and resulted in a 7% decrease in emissions per employee from 2022 to 2023.
One of the most meaningful changes was in employee commuting and client visits. Long-haul travel was more difficult to impact given the global nature of our operations.
However, when taking a train instead of a car for a medium-length journey, emissions are reduced by ca. 80%. Accordingly, we now fund monthly train passes for all employees. We also have increased the number of team meetings and sample reviews that are done virtually.
Employee Engagement and Training
To make sure our sustainability policies are effective, we start by getting our employees engaged through an interactive training program during onboarding.
New team members learn all about sustainability and why it matters, which helps them understand and appreciate our efforts. We also have specific guidelines for things like travel, accommodation, food choices, and waste management. This way, everyone knows how they can contribute to our green goals in their everyday work.
Employee Travel
As mentioned, employee travel has been one of the most important areas for us to affect. Along with train passes, we promote the use of electric vehicles and carpooling, with options such as UberGreen for business-related transfers. We aim both to reduce our carbon footprint but also to educate our employees about the environmental benefits of choosing sustainable travel modes.
Accommodation
EGD encourages team members to choose low-carbon accommodations during business travels whenever possible. We provide a list of recommended eco-friendly service providers, such as Ethik&Trips and Green Spirit Hotels, which prioritise energy efficiency, waste reduction, and other environmental measures.
Food
Our commitment to sustainability extends to the food we provide to our team. EGD sources local ingredients and suppliers for team lunches and snacks, minimizing greenhouse gas emissions related to food transportation. We encourage employees to consider plant-based diets during our monthly “EGD Go Green Day,” promoting awareness of how food choices impact the environment.
Waste Management
EGD implements comprehensive waste management procedures at our warehouse to minimize environmental impact. We have introduced waste segregation with clearly labeled bins for plastic, paper, cardboard, glass, and general waste. Our team receives training on proper waste disposal, and we partner with local recycling facilities to ensure efficient waste handling. We also track daily waste volumes, which helps us to make improvements over time.
2. Sustainable Procurement and Supply Chain Management
Sustainable procurement has been a cornerstone of reducing the environmental impact of our production. At EGD, over half of our emissions lie within our supply chain. For that reason, we needed to engage our supply chain effectively to ensure we met our sustainability goals.
Along with the support of our partners, we have taken steer from the 1.5C Supply Chain Leaders Initiative. This coalition of corporations have done a lot of work building a framework to decarbonise supply chains, and we recommend engaging with their guide on the matter.
Supplier GHG Assessments
We operate a vetted network of suppliers that meet our sustainability conditions. Additionally, when we onboard new suppliers into the network we require that they complete a questionnaire which evaluates them on their climate strategy.
The questionnaire focuses on five main areas: carbon accounting, commitments, action plans, carbon contribution, and employee awareness. It asks suppliers about how they measure their greenhouse gas emissions, their reduction targets, and specific actions that align with the Paris Agreement to ensure they are transparent and committed to sustainability.
Additionally, it looks at the suppliers' carbon offset projects and efforts to raise climate awareness among their employees. This ensures that suppliers are fully engaged in responsible and comprehensive environmental practices.
Once the results are compiled, we either accept them into our network, work with the supplier to improve specific areas or reject them as a supplier until they can meet our standards.
A version of this questionnaire (provided by Greenly) can be found here.
Product Life Cycle Assessments
Beyond understanding the sustainability of the supplier, it’s also vital to understand the full sustainability profile of each item being produced. For example, if an apparel manufacturer has strong sustainability practices, but then uses materials with poor sustainability profiles like acrylic then the production would of course be unsuitable.
We send a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) questionnaire to suppliers to help us identify the GHG profile of each product. The LCA looks across a product's total life and we work with Greenly to then quantify the GHG for each item. An effective LCA will look at resource extraction, manufacturing, transportation, product use, and disposal.
Knowing which materials have the best sustainability profiles allows our design team to make informed choices and communicate those choices to our clients. We suggest Earth-friendly materials such as cotton or bamboo wherever possible. If tech apparel is needed, we opt for recycled poly and elastane.
In most cases the raw materials and freight are the biggest emittors
3. Additional Carbon Reduction Strategies
While decarbonizing our supply chain and improving our internal operations have been fundamental in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, we are also implementing additional measures to move towards net-zero. Here are some of those initiatives:
Optimizing Logistics
Efficient logistics planning has significantly reduced the carbon footprint associated with the transportation of our merchandise.
We optimize logistics operations by consolidating shipments and prioritizing eco-friendly transportation modes, such as using local transport within Europe and sea-freight rather than air-freight where possible.
Additionally, we've worked a lot on the emissions profiles of our warehousing choices. We strike a balance between finding warrhouses with the most energy efficienct pratices, and those that we can rent on a short lease. We've discussed this more in our Guide to Sustainable Operations.
Eco-Friendly Packaging
Using sustainable packaging materials and minimizing packaging waste are also essential for sustainable fulfillment. We focus on ensuring all packaging is lightweight to reduce freight-related emissions. We also ensure that our packaging is biodegradable, recyclable and recycled where possible. This ensures that the emissions from packaging production and disposal are reduced, as well as reducing plastic pollution.
All our plastic wrapping is from 100% recycled material
Carbon Offsetting Initiatives
Unfortunately, as the world gradually decarbonises, some emissions are unavoidable for some business activities: for example, when transporting goods or travelling long-haul. Consequently, EGD offsets 12% of our emissions through verified carbon offset projects.
Our project selection varies with the location of our business operations, particularly as we set up hubs during major sporting events worldwide. We prioritize supporting local economies in each region where these events take place. This approach ensures our initiatives are attuned to the local environment and contribute positively to regional development.
While working for our partners at the Paris 2024 Olympics, we have partnered with Bio Agri Energies France. The team there harnesses biogas from organic waste to produce low-carbon energy. Additionally, the by-product, digestate, serves as a high-quality fertilizer, supporting circular agriculture without depleting soil nutrients.
4. Designing for Appeal and Durability
While the immediate environmental considerations of an item are at the forefront in the design process, they shouldn’t interfere significantly with the product’s longevity or appeal. Ultimately, a sustainable item is one that has a long and high-value relationship with its wearer or user. At EGD, we focus on both the immediate environmental impact of production, as well as the item’s longevity & appeal.
Sustainable Product Design
EGD emphasizes designing products with sustainable materials, such as organic cotton, recycled nylon, and Tencel™, which reduce environmental impact while maintaining quality and appeal. Every material used is subject to our LCA and Greenly analysis. This intelligence allows us to be flexible with the materials required for the garment or product, while understanding the full impact of each material on the environment.
We used premium recycled nylon for this rainjacket
Additionally, we aim to create beautiful items while minimizing the complexity of the designs. Reducing the dye count or the amount of fixings limits the impact of each item.
We’ve learned that, at a fundamental level, minimalism is the way forward for sustainable product design.
Durability and Longevity
Creating durable products reduces the need for frequent replacements and is one of the most important aspects of creating sustainable items.
However, achieving this for branded merchandise is a challenge because of its design within a specific context and for a specific use.
One of our primary design aims therefore is that the merchandise we make is designed for use long after the event where it premieres. We do this in three primary ways:
Firstly, we design for appeal. We look at merchandise and ask ourselves, "would we wear it?” Ultimately that test guides our approach.
Additionally, we aim to create a clear brand identity in a piece without logos or iconography being too invasive into the design. So we focus on branded colours and elegant silhouettes.
We also ensure that the materials are high quality and built to last. For example, we suggest premium logo applications such as raised silicone that will withstand laundry and wear.
Designed for comfort and re-use
5. Communicating Sustainability
At Event Goods Delivered (EGD), we know that sharing our sustainability efforts is key to building trust and strong partnerships with suppliers, clients, partners and end users. We aim to clearly show our commitment to sustainability through different channels, making sure our actions are transparent and impactful.
Communicating with Partners and Clients
EGD believes in open and transparent communication about our sustainability journey. We regularly share updates on our environmental policies, progress, and challenges. Our clients additionally are given a breakdown of the environmental impact of their orders during our reviews with them. This helps them meet their own sustainability targets, as many of our clients have reciprocal processes in place.
Communicating Through Packaging
Packaging is a direct touchpoint with our consumers, and we use it as an opportunity to convey our sustainability commitments. EGD utilizes compostable and recyclable materials in our packaging, and we clearly label them with information on the materials used, as well as the recycling profile for the item. This often generates significant goodwill from the end users of our items, and we are happy to say we receive positive feedback from the employees and partners of our clients.
All employees received this communication
Communicating Through Design
Ultimately the most important way to communicate our core belief that sustainability improves design and sponsorship outcomes is to ensure our designs are bold while being thoughtfully sustainable. Ultimately our designs are the greatest ambassadors of our sustainability goals.
In conclusion, sustainability is an ongoing journey for us at Event Goods Delivered. While we've made progress in incorporating sustainable practices into our business—from product design and supply chain management to packaging and employee travel—we know there is always more to improve.
This guide aims to share our experiences and help others integrate sustainability into their own business or merchandise programme.
The encouraging sign is however, that the more we focus on our susuatianbility pratices the more our business benefits.
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