Real plates, real forks, real tables: green by design.

technique — attributed to Sandy Safi

Safi points out an aspect of Diner en Blanc that is easy to miss. Attendees bring their own real plates, real forks, real knives. They bring tables and chairs and take them home. They are not supposed to leave any garbage behind. The format is green by design, not by sustainability program. The discipline is operational. The bring-your-own requirement shifts the burden from the event organizer to the attendee, and the attendee's investment in their own setup is part of the experience. The technique generalizes. Sustainability is often easier to achieve through format design than through retrofitted programs. The format itself can be the sustainability strategy.

For experiential producers and brand sustainability leaders thinking about how to design lower-impact events. The technique is most useful when the format permits attendee BYO without compromising the experience.

sustainability, byo-tableware, no-trash, green-events