The MENA region has quickly become a hotspot for major events and tourism, from global conferences, to sporting events, and cultural exhibitions. As the pressure on venues to reduce the environmental impact of major events increases, hosts are looking for impactful and meaningful ways to bring sustainability into the industry.
The Bulb, a sustainability consultancy providing strategies for events and venues to increase their sustainable practices, was founded by Selina Donald in 2016. In November 2024, the company joined Trivandi, a leader in event delivery with a portfolio that includes the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup.
ESG Mena interviewed Selina Donald to find out more about how The Bulb provides critical sustainability expertise to event venues across the MENA region, how to educate and engage people to get involved in recycling and other environmentally-beneficial practices, and how the Trivandi Academy provides training and courses to equip event professionals with the knowledge to support the improvement of the industry.
What is the background of The Bulb? What inspired you to start a sustainability consultancy company?
I founded the bulb in 2016 we’re a sustainability consultancy that advises the event, creative venue and sporting industries, and we were set up off the back of the London 2012 Olympic games. We worked on the opening, closing ceremonies, and were part of the sustainability working group, and realised that there was a real gap in the market for people doing things the way that we did in the games.
We’ve been working across the UK, the US, the Middle East and APAC the last nine years. Last year, we worked on COP28 with the Trivandi team. And Trivandi also comes out of London, 2012 and just the way that we worked, the synergies, the values that we held, everything just seemed to really fit and work really well together.
So we started talking about, how would it be if The Bulb was part of Trivandi? And for me, that was really exciting, because it meant that we would have a bigger infrastructure around us in order to grow, and it also meant that we could start working with Trivandi across these huge events that they excel at delivering, and be able to get sustainability up on that global stage. So in November this year, so we’re only about eight weeks in, we fully. We completed and joined the Trivandi group. We still remain The Bulb, but we are now part of the bigger organisation, and we provide sustainability consultancy still across the event industry, venues, and sporting organisations.
How do you advise people to make events in the MENA region more sustainable using technology, recycling, etcetera?
For National Day, when the United Arab Emirates became one, we’ve been the sustainability leads on that project for the last two years.
Last year, it was the first time that they’d ever had sustainability as a factor, and that was influenced heavily by COP28 and the year of sustainability in the UAE. It was a really great project to work on, because there was the real appetite to look at that. And I think it’s a great example to sort of demonstrate, like, how we build in technology waste management. So technology wise, we use the carbon calculator that’s used specifically for events – you can’t manage what you don’t measure.
We track all of the waste, energy, travel, transportation materials. So the impact of materials, from wood, plastic, different types of timber, metals, everything. It’s all in this carbon calculator, and it allows us to always see what the impact is and where we can make improvements. So that piece of technology, for me, is invaluable.
It also allows us to measure the carbon footprint, and then at the end of the project, be able to produce a report, show the client and make recommendations on next year, how we can do better, which is exactly what we’ve done this year, being able to do the project again, building on what we learn, we can then use that as data to drive that change.
In terms of waste management, that’s kind of tricky. Waste Management in the Middle East is still in development. So there isn’t a lot there are. There are some key players that we’ve worked with several times. But in terms of specialist recycling, composting, being able to recycle woods, metals, all of that, it’s still work in progress.
I think it’s really important to just from the outset, have really clear communication with the waste contractor and be able to build that in with them, understand the boundaries, understand the infrastructure they’ve got, and then be able to adapt your event to fit that.
How are you helping to educate and inform people on the importance of recycling and waste management within the events industry?
It’s people working under pressure and just wanting to get the job done. So it’s already really hard to install, like a new behavior or a system that they’re not used to. First of all, education is key. You don’t know what you don’t know. And I think there, everyone’s on a different learning journey in path.
So we’re adapting that to make sure that we’re really super clear of what can be done in the in the region, and then looking at how we translate that into an event setting, making it really easy, making it really visual, because we’ve got a lot of different languages.
So I’ll use the example again, of the of the Union Day celebration, but we back of house had seven different waste streams with different skips for different waste streams, and we made sure all of the signage was all different colours for each waste stream, even the bin bags, which makes it much easier for the cleaners. And then we made all the signage visual, rather than any language at all, so just pictures of what goes in each which makes it super easy.
I think it’s really important to educate just broader and making people really aware of what kind of what their role is in achieving what might be a bigger goal. So our goal was to create a zero waste to landfill event, as well as health and safety, we also added in sustainability, so no one even got on site before going through sustainability training, which then started to cement it in everyone’s head.
This is important. This is important, and we made it super clear. We showed the visuals of the waste. We made it really clear about what your role is, what you need to do, and if you’ve got any questions, who you go to.
And one of the other big wins that we had is that we removed any single use plastic water bottles from site, which is huge in the Middle East, and we put in these massive tankers, water coolers everywhere. So it was almost more annoying if you didn’t have your refillable bottle, because we made it easy. And then by the end, everyone, crews, suppliers, event producers, everyone had a refillable bottle and was just using the coolers.
And this year, when we did it again, everyone instantly just brought their bottles with them. They knew this is the way it works. And I hope that that translated and trickled down onto other projects that those people are working on as well. You work on one project, you learn a new way of working. You take it to the next one, and it starts to trickle into the industry.
We saved over half a ton of plastic. We avoided wasting half a ton of plastic, which is amazing.
In your experience, have the attitudes of event professionals towards sustainability guidelines been predominantly positive or negative?
I have been working in the Middle East for 10 years, and I’ve seen such a huge change in the last three.
I think what’s really brilliant in the Middle East, I think it’s got to come from leadership across the board, and that’s whether that’s leadership of the country, leadership of the company, leadership of the team.
You know, people react when they see people doing what they’re asking them to do. When the UAE put in the year of sustainability, it’s signalled to the region, this is important. This is what we need you to do.
There are really clear sustainability related national priorities around carbon foot-printing, biodiversity, water scarcity, materials, and it just makes it really clear to people, this is what’s important to us at the region, and we need you and your business to get on board.
And so I’ve seen a real shift. We work with a number of different venues across the Middle East, and they have invested heavily in sustainability, and I think if the venue’s got it right, the event’s got it right. It’s your your foundation.
So that, for me, is really rewarding when we’re working with those venues, because I know it’s going to have an impact on everything that’s happening within that within that venue. So and one of the things that we do as a company is we create guidelines like we call it a sustainability playbook, and it’s like a really easy, practical checklist of how to deliver a sustainable event.
And it might have reference to best practice in the UAE and globally, it might have recommendations via the material, and it’s a really great way for teams to get on board and think really clearly, because it’s sometimes a bit of overwhelming when it comes to sustainability.
How can we make sure the quality of sustainable events is high, rather than just the quantity?
Events are the best way that we can get across who an organisation is, and what they value, what they find important. You know, it’s that connection. It’s just, I never want to not do events. I want to just make the way we do events better, and so I think it’s about making sure that the content is really relevant, almost asking a question of, what’s the purpose of this event, what do we want to achieve?
What is the final outcome of it? And how do we connect with an audience? And is there a way of using this event to inspire and engage an audience into maybe something that we want them to take away? And so I’m starting to think in terms of legacy and takeaways. What do we want people to go away feeling and thinking and doing?
And I think it’s really great when an organisation delivers events, and they’re nothing to do with sustainability, but the way that they deliver it is just sustainable, and conscious and responsible. So they would start to look at where their energy is coming from. They would avoid any nasty diesel generators. They’d be looking at the materials. They’d be getting away from any single use plastic. They’d be thinking about their food and beverage and where it’s come from, and what they’re serving it in, reusable being the best.
But then they’d also maybe be thinking about the social impact, and is there going to be anything left over? Could we donate? Could we engage local community? Do we, if it’s a show, do we get volunteers? Do we give people opportunities, you know, like thinking about the bigger impact and that bigger picture.
For me, it always comes down to, how does this event make an impact on people and a good impact on the planet? I should say, how does it make a good impact on people and no impact on the planet – that is a perfect event.
Are there any specific industries you’d like to drive towards being more sustainable? Why?
I think every sustainability person would love to see the oil industry turn 100 per cent renewable. It would solve a lot of problems. For me, seeing a genuine, authentic shift and transition towards renewable energy and swapping out oil is the most important thing that we can do globally, and so the focus should be on that and doing it in a responsible way.
We all understand how important oil is and how much It’s contributed to moving the world forward to the point that we are at today. And I think we should embrace the opportunity to then transition that into something that protects the world for future generations, and see it in that sense.
Can you tell us a bit about Trivandi Academy and training in sustainability?
What’s been missing is a really professional education around sustainability within the major events industry, and so we identified that that missing gap, and we set up the Triavandi Academy to start looking at how we professionalise the major event industry. Sustainability is going to be one of the exciting modules that we release.
This is going to be a really market leading sustainability course that event professionals, venues, and sporting organisations can send their teams to do, and learn about how you bring sustainability life in these important sectors. We’re going to be using best practice from across the globe, bringing in real key experts.
Nicola Milan, Director of Marketing and Communications with Trivandi added:
Trivandi Academy was established because of the lack of formal qualifications in the major events industry. Other professions, such as lawyers, doctors, etcetera, have formal qualification paths – with major events, people tend to fall into it, and they make it up as they go along.
When major events are brought to the Middle East, which has historically hosted less than other regions, there is a lack of training in the workforce. Trivandi recognised this gap in the workforce and introduced the Academy to up-skill major event professionals.
We’ve launched the first course, which is Major Events 101 – and as Selina mentioned, theres definitely a need for sustainability training and up-skilling, and that’s why we’ve brought that in to help.