In October 2019, after already serving six years in the company, Manja Jessat became RENT4EVENT executive director. Although already perfectly familiar with the staff, rooms and processes, she was happy about the new insights gained during the Sustainable Meetings Berlin auditing process. As she said, “I hadn’t been fully aware of many of the aspects and issues in sustainability”. And a look behind the scenes of the daily business makes only too clear just how varied the tasks are for Sustainable Partners in the meetings and convention sector.
RENT4EVENT supplies around 11,000 events a year with furniture, tableware and catering equipment – and demand is still rising. Yet as Manja Jessat explained, despite orders steadily growing diesel consumption has been kept stable in simple and effective ways. “We have invested in tour planning software to ensure our delivery vehicles are utilized as effectively as possible,” she noted. “To reduce city driving time we have vehicles with a larger load volume and we also offer customers a self-collect option on their way to the event. Many find this appealing, especially since our central location is easy to reach logistically and more often than not ‘on their route’.” Such a self-collect option not only cuts the number of deliveries, but also contributes to cleaner air and helps reduce traffic. What’s more, the company has opened a new goods entrance to keep noise levels in the area down as far as possible and prevent noise pollution for local residents. After all, noise is a significant environmental pollutant and also needs to be considered in the supply chain.