Managing Event: Environmental Friendly Perspective

Abstract

In Malaysia, the increasing numbers of major events organized by public and private organizations have given impacts to the environmental sustainability. Most of the employers put on high cost to organize corporate event as part of their social responsibility toward their employees and their surroundings which involve very important guests, public, and media that enhance the image of the organization. Even though most of the event organizers were aware of the environmental issues, most of the time they neglect it. Therefore this study was conducted to identify the event organizer’s concerns toward environmental friendly issues during the two phases of event which were “planning the event” and “after the event” in Pahang. The events selected provided diversity in geographic scale, distribution, and timing. In addition, the events will include a range of activities, embracing sports and recreation, music, fund raising, community education, and family entertainment. A set of questionnaire was distributed to 100 organizations in Pahang. However, only 51 organizations participated in this study. The data were analyzed by using the SPSS 2.0. The finding found that respondents do have awareness pertaining to environmental aspect, but in certain situation, they are still not fully “greening” the events. The findings identified some factors that can contribute to the change of practice in organizing events with high concern on the environmental aspects.