Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon Portland Community College

Sustainable Events

Thank you for your interest in making your PCC event a sustainable one! The PCC Sustainable Events Planning Checklist is designed to help you achieve your goals in promoting sustainability at your event:

Eleven of the forty actions on the checklist are required as part of certification. While there’s certainly more that can go into a sustainable event, these eleven actions are proven as some of the best ways to reduce waste and promote sustainable practices among attendees and volunteers alike.

The rest of the checklist’s forty actions have point values assigned to them. You must accumulate 20 points for your event to qualify as a PCC Certified Sustainable Event. So while every sustainable event at PCC must include the required actions, the number of points your event earns and how you reach that number is up to you. High scoring events will be highlighted on our webpage and those organizers will be eligible for prizes!

Why do we offer this certification program? Put simply, most of us simply cannot anticipate all of the little things that go into planning a sustainable event. We hope that this checklist gives you tangible, achievable ideas for what you can do at yours.

While most of us have adopted sustainable practices at home, work, and school, sometimes those practices become hard to do at public events. Much of this problem has to do with the event-planning itself: If an event lacks a sufficient number of recycling bins, for example, then lots of people will wind up throwing away items they otherwise would have recycled. The actions on this checklist will help ensure that your event is set up to succeed from the moment you begin planning it.

Remember: Your event is an opportunity to educate other people about sustainable practices. Those who attend your event may be inspired to implement some of your actions at events of their own, and they may even bring those practices home once they see how easy they can be. This is an opportunity to make a difference beyond the day of your event!

Please download and submit your completed checklist to sustainability@pcc.edu at least two weeks prior to your event to qualify for certification. Thank you again for making your event a sustainable one!

Got questions or suggestions about this checklist? We’re here to be a resource for your success, so don’t hesitate to be in touch: sustainability@pcc.edu or 971-722-8322.