About Us

The Event Greening Forum (EGF) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing sustainability across South Africa’s business events industry, where sustainability refers to the triple bottom line of people, planet and prosperity (or social, environmental and economic considerations).

What We Do:

We support event professionals, organisers, venues and destinations to plan, deliver and measure more responsible events. We do this through membership, education, collaboration, advocacy and practical tools such as our Minimum Standards for Green Events, EGF Certification and the Green Database — designed to turn sustainability from intention into action.

Working alongside leading industry associations and partners, the EGF helps strengthen credibility, resilience and long-term value for the events sector.

Join us. Together, we can shape a more sustainable events industry — one event at a time.

Objectives:

  • To raise awareness and promote training opportunities for event greening principles and practices,
  • To promote event greening principles and practices through appropriate marketing and branding,
  • To provide a platform for sharing information and best practice around event greening principles and practices,
  • To be industry driven and have mandated representatives from main industry role players,
  • To set minimum standards around event greening within the events industry,
  • To integrate current initiatives and role players and to draw existing frameworks into one system as far as possible,
  • To initially work as a voluntary system, but encourage regulation over time,
  • To ensure communication with Government which will promote event greening processes, standards and regulations,
  • To raise funds to ensure the long-term sustainability of the forum, and
  • To “walk the talk” through our actions based on the triple bottom line principle of people, planet and prosperity.

Industry Sectors:

  • Professional Conference Organisers (PCOs) and Destination Management Companies (DMCs),
  • Exhibition and Events Organisers,
  • Suppliers, Service providers and Sub-contractors (infrastructure, AV, transport, products, etc.), and
  • Venues, including conference and exhibition facilities, as well as accommodation.

History:

South Africa hosted the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002; this event was pivotal in drawing attention to the urgent need for events to be managed in a more sustainable manner, and led directly to the launch of the EGF.

The EGF was formed by Justin Hawes and Grace Stead in 2009 with the support and guidance of eight South African event industry associations: EXSA, FEDHASA, SATSA, IFEA Africa, SA Roadies, SA MICE Academy, TPSA powered by SACIA, and SAACI. Their contribution to the EGF in terms of knowledge, experience, networking and access to players in the events industry has been invaluable in establishing the EGF. These associations – and others who have joined us over the years – are recognised as our associate partners. Find out more about them here.