DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION SUSTAINABILITY GUIDE

The 2024 Democratic National Convention’s Sustainability Guide, made in partnership with Bright Beat and Purpose, aims to inform, educate, and support the Democratic Party and the Biden administration’s ongoing commitment to sustainable practices and standards. The sustainability strategy is focused on the following areas.

TRAVEL & LOCAL TRANSPORTATION: 

Measure convention attendees’ travel footprints. Travel accounts for 70-90% of event-related emissions. 

  • Create the “DNCC Travel Carbon Inset Program” that supports local sustainability.
  • Mitigate travel emissions by widely disseminating local low-emission, active travel, and transit options.
  • Find more information on low emissions travel guidance here.

ENERGY USE: 

Measure and mitigate the impact of the energy used to heat, cool, and power venues and hotels.

  • Track energy usage at primary DNCC venues.
  • Purchase Renewable Energy Certificates accordingly.
  • Minimize onsite generator usage and target the elimination of diesel-powered generators. 
  • Utilize power-down technologies to mitigate unnecessary usage.

SOURCING: 

Prioritize using a transparent supply chain and event design for maximum sustainability and circularity.

  • Clearly communicate material selection recommendations to vendors and supplier stakeholders. 
  • Emphasize the importance of digitization and reuse.
  • Prioritize local materials.
  • Minimize the use of materials destined for landfills.
  • Encourage vendors to use sustainable procurement policies, education, and circularity. 
  • Prioritize the use of local suppliers to reduce transportation-related emissions.

FOOD: 

Design menus for minimal emissions and waste through menu planning, sourcing, packaging, and donation.

  • Understand emissions-saving food choices.
  • Plan for plant-based options and leverage vegan or vegetarian meal selections.
  • Encourage sourcing from local farms and suppliers within 250 miles.
  • Request ethically sourced/fair-trade certified seafood, coffee, tea, and chocolate. 
  • Source high-emission items like coffee through local, small business partnerships.
  • Design menus to optimize food for donation and to redirect surplus food to local communities.
  • Use reusable serveware or require certified (e.g. BPI) compostable food and beverage ware.
  • See Sustainable Catering/Food Service Guidelines here.

WASTE DIVERSION: 

Prevent wasted resources through strategic procurement, landfill diversion planning, and education to ensure the highest and best use.

  • Empower stakeholders through education to prevent waste, eliminate plastics, minimize single-use items, implement food rescue, and compost food scraps. 
  • Implement material management strategy to maximize reuse and diversion of waste streams, using clearly labeled and color-coded zero waste stations.
  • See full recommendations on Sustainable Waste Reduction + Diversion here.

WATER CONSERVATION: 

Monitor & minimize usage to positively account for impacts

  • Incorporate water-saving and reuse strategies wherever possible.
  • Promote transition to low-flow fixtureBs across venues.
  • Address unavoidable usage by purchasing water restoration certificates (WRC).

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: 

Think local and be responsive.

  • Engage with local community leaders and stakeholders on volunteerism, philanthropy, and other desired impact-focused work.
  • Work with local organizations to understand the types of foods that local organizations prefer to be donated. 

COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: 

Prioritize reporting about the environmental impact.

  • Track data and stories to convey the impacts of the convention, including ancillary events.
  • Track ancillary events’ sustainable actions such as: 
    • Purchasing renewable energy certificates
    • Offering plant-based menus
    • Donating surplus food 
    • Composting
    • Purchasing water restoration certificates. 
  • Bright Beat and Purpose have asked all DNCC-adjacent ancillary event hosts to complete the DNC Sustainable Event Tracking Survey, to improve the sustainability outcomes of our collective efforts.

Questions? Please contact Stephanie Katsaros at steph@brightbeat.com and Marley Finnegan at marley@eventsofpurpose.com.