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Event hydration is the newest sustainable opportunity

Event hydration is the newest sustainable opportunity

Four days. ~17,000 plastic water bottles saved from landfills.

As you might already know, one of the biggest trends is event management is to create more sustainable events. One of the best ways to do that is to cut out single-use plastic bottles and 5-gallon jugs. By doing so, event organizers are reducing the onsite trash from tens of thousands of single-use bottles and jugs and savings thousands of gallons in natural resources (Refill Stations instead of plastic bottles = fewer carbon emissions, complete elimination of fuels used in manufacturing, transportation, and refrigeration of single-use bottles). The best way of doing this is by providing refill stations so that guests do not wonder where is the water machine near me. Just a small change that equates to major benefits for events who want to be kind to the environment.

This month, we hydrated Oracle OpenWorld.

With 35,000 attendees, 2,700 sessions, and multi-building activations across Moscone Center in San Francisco, OOW quickly became one of our favorite events to date. Why did we love OOW so much? In large part, it was due to the impressive sustainability goals set by Oracle and the event organizers, Hartmann Studios.

Here’s a look at the impact a single event with Refill Stations can have on the environment:

  • ~35,000 attendees
  • 16,906 plastic bottles saved from landfills
  • 1,585 gallons of water used from the local source (vs. filling up plastic bottles in manufacturing)
  • 12.6 barrels of oil saved (from manufacture, refrigeration, transportation, etc. of 16,906 plastic water bottles)
  • 4,755 gallons of water saved from the manufacture of 16,906 plastic bottles (it takes 3x the volume of water to manufacture a plastic bottle than it does to fill it)

The FloWater event team hydrates between 50-60 events each year – from private tech conferences to multi-day concerts to food and wine festivals. Combined, those events save more than one million single-use bottles from being used. As the nation’s best event organizers look for new ways to delight attendees in unexpected places (water!) AND make their events more sustainable (good-bye plastic water bottles!), they’re turning to FloWater.