Fundraisers under the age of 35 have issued a warning to organisers of mass participation events to ensure they are adopting green measures.

Providing refillable water bottles, improving recycling and encouraging participants to use public transport to travel to events are among measures organisers are being told to adopt.

The call has come in analysis of mass participation fundraising events last year.

This found that just over a quarter of participants it surveyed do not believe organisers are doing enough to make their events more sustainable.

However, this proportion almost doubles to just under half of respondents among under 35s.

Events firm Massive, which has carried out the research, says the importance of sustainability among younger fundraisers shows “this is an issue that is and will become increasingly important to a growing segment of event participants”.

Organisers are also being told to ensure they, meet the bulk of costs incurred to adopt sustainability measures, as less than half of fundraisers are willing to pay more than £5 to support this.

Among the most popular measures are to stop offering bottled water and have better recycling facilities in place. These are supported by more than half of those surveyed.

Almost two in five want organisers to encourage participants to take public transport to events, while a third want only locally sourced, organic and fair-trade refreshments served.

Three in ten want all suppliers used to be carbon neutral and a quarter want to see less giveaways or goody bags. A similar proportion want organisers to stop giving away t-shirts, while a fifth want metal medals to be replaced by wooden ones. Less than one in ten want a digital alternative to a medal to be considered.

The analysis found that the median number of events participants took part in during 2023 is now back to pre-pandemic levels.

It also found that women increased their participation levels buy more than men in 2023 and almost one in ten respondents have started taking part in events since the end of the pandemic.

Two in five people are looking to increase the number of events they will take part in during 2024 compared to last year.

“After some dark days for the mass participation events industry since 2020, the data in
this report suggests that while there are challenges ahead there is also cause for optimism
with increasing levels of participation and new audiences being attracted to events,” said Massive.

“These new and younger audiences may have different expectations of events and motivations for signing up, but if as our data suggests, the longer people take part in events, the more events they tend to take part in.

“If we can keep these audiences, engaged and excited about the experience events offer then their impact should continue to grow.”

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