World Architecture Festival 2023

WAF Sustainability

No more thought leading - Action Leading. WAF is a global event that realises the industry needs to do better and therefore we are making choices that will lead to a more sustainable event. We want to be taking action by setting an example of things we can do as an industry to reduce our carbon footprint at the event.

The Venue

Marina Bay Sands prides itself in creating high impact events with low environmental impacts. They are Singapore’s first carbon neutral event venue; 100% of their electricity is offset from their investment in Renewable Electricity Certificates generated from roof top solar arrays in Singapore. Furthermore, they are triple platinum certified by leading industry bodies including the Building and Construction Authority, U.S. Green Building Council and the Events Industry Council as well as being a ISO20121 Event Sustainability Management certified venue.

Please see the link to the venue website here to find out more information regarding their sustainability.

Suppliers

We endeavour to use as many local suppliers as possible to reduce the carbon footprint generated from shipping the products and teams to Singapore.

Trophies

Our trophies for the event are made from certified sustainable timber, 100% recycled acrylic and shipped in biodegradable packaging. Our trophy supplier, EFX, has invested in solar panels and water waste treatment for their manufacturing site to try and offset carbon produced during production.

Created by Air

The supplier for the inflatable crit rooms and staging use reusable structures and old and damaged stock is always recycled into packaging bags for internal use or to repair current structures. Created by Air uses low-energy fans that run 1 amp each, something that has been reduced and is constantly monitored to ensure the most efficient models are being used.

We have asked our exhibitors to…

1. Consider the materials used to ensure sustainable including FSC certified lumber and low VOC glue and paint.

2. Use recyclable alternatives to polystyrene and build reusable modular structures rather than single-use structures.

3. Reduce and eliminate where possible print outs and encouraging sustainable promotional items.

AV Supplier: Production Live Ltd

"Sustainability and lowering waste are a priority for Production Live. We were the first UK Production company to gain Sustainable Events Alliance membership. We use sustainable materials as much as possible and have a more local supply chain than many competitors. We are also working towards meeting IS20121 compliance."

Event Collateral

Programme and floor plan

We will have no printouts of the programme or floor plan and everything will be accessed using a QR code.

Carbon Footprint

Our event attendees travel both long and far to attend the event and the in-person networking element is a key factor of our event. We appreciate that travel is a high contributor to carbon emissions and therefore we have planted a tree per every attendee. This is new to WAF23 and we hope to one day have a WAF forest as a result of this initiative.

Our mission

We need to work harder. This section of the website isn’t just dedicated to shouting about how great we are for doing what we should have been doing all along. We need to do better. We would love to hear from you on how you think we could improve. Please email any suggestions to the events team for this event at waf.customercare@emap.com.

Founder Partner

Headline Partners