WedProsLive: London waitlist, Ireland tickets, WedProsLive 2027
Show notes:
This week I’m chatting to Michelle Miles. We looked at journeys to sustainability and explored the tangible actions that wedding professionals can undertake to foster sustainability within their businesses. To enhance a competitive edge whilst contributing positively to the environment.
SME Climate Hub inc. simple carbon calculator
Navigating the Path to Net Zero: A Guide for Wedding Professionals
Time stamps:
00:15 – Introduction to Sustainable Wedding Business Strategies
02:42 – Shifts in Sustainability in the Wedding Industry
09:48 – The Importance of Community in Sustainable Business Practices
18:53 – Understanding Carbon Literacy Training
20:58 – Understanding Carbon Literacy and Its Impact
33:32 – Practical Steps to Carbon Reduction
37:29 – Preparing for a Successful Conference
45:09 – Embracing Messy Action in Sustainability
Transcript:
Michelle
00:00:00.320 – 00:00:14.640
Perfection is the enemy of progress. I spent way too much time early on worrying about being 100% sustainable before talking about it, before actually sharing what I was doing.
Becca
00:00:15.120 – 00:01:03.810
I’m Becca Poutney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger, and you’re listening to the Wedding Pros who Are Ready to Grow podcast. I’m here to share with you actionable tips, strategies and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you love, then you’re in the right place. Let’s get going with today’s episode. Today I’m chatting with Michelle Miles, the founder of the Sustainable wedding alliance.
With 20 years experience in international event management and wedding planning, she’s now dedicated her career to transforming our industry into one that respects both people and the planet. This March, Michelle’s going to be joining me as a breakout speaker at wedpros Live to help more of you on your sustainable journey.
Michelle, welcome back to the podcast.
Michelle
00:01:04.920 – 00:01:07.400
Hi. Thanks, Becca. It’s very exciting to be back.
Becca
00:01:07.640 – 00:01:43.700
It’s lovely to have you back. I love a repeat guest and I had a look. I always do this with my repeat guests to see when you were last on the podcast.
You were last here in episode 148 in January 2025. So a whole year ago, More than a year ago. So if people want to listen to that, we were talking all things sustainability in depth in that episode.
So if you want to hear more, Michelle from that, we’ll touch on it today. But go and listen Back to episode 148.
But if people haven’t ever hear you haven’t heard that episode, give us a really brief summary and recap of how you ended up here as the founder of the Sustainable Wedding Alliance.
Michelle
00:01:44.020 – 00:02:15.960
I love that you’re like really brief because you know me so well. So the Sustainable Wedding Alliance.
So we’re in our sixth year, so we founded in 2020 and essentially what we do is we bring together industry professionals that want to have a more sustainable business. We help them, we support them. We built an accreditation, so we have a business stand regarding sustainability.
And we’ve built this most amazing community that support each other as well as supporting as well as us supporting them.
Becca
00:02:15.960 – 00:02:24.720
Yes. I love it. It’s such a great initiative. What scared me the most in what you said though was that you founded in 2020 and that was six years ago.
That made me think, oh my goodness,
Michelle
00:02:24.720 – 00:02:27.600
was it really six years ago, Time flies.
Becca
00:02:28.240 – 00:03:00.300
It’s absolutely insane. And what you do as the alliance is amazing. I’m a big advocate for it.
I send clients your way quite frequently when that’s part of what they want to do, because you are the go to person in the UK to help people with that.
Now, as I said, you’ve been on the podcast before, we’ve taught sustainability big picture, but I’m interested to know from you here in 2026, what’s going on in our industry? Are you seeing any shifts? Are we seeing any data that’s saying people are more or less interested in this topic in 2026? What is going on?
Michelle
00:03:00.300 – 00:04:17.450
Yeah, it’s really interesting and I think we’ve really seen a shift and I think everyone in the industry has really felt that from 2025, moving into 26, with the inquiries that are coming through, the new generation that are coming through, and the way they act and the way they need to be marketed to and how you have to adapt your sales process. And I think what we’re seeing in that generation is the shift towards less of the pretty and more of, to the values led.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that things, they don’t still want things to look pretty, but actually we, we see that these couples really do have core values and they want to work with businesses and professionals that reflect those values. So we are see more people asking the question and it doesn’t necessarily look like couples saying, are you sustainable?
But it’s connecting with the, with the particular business that they’re asking.
So it might be that they’re asking about where the food is coming from, it’s asking about local, about seasonal, or maybe they’re talking to their florist about British blooms or sustainable techniques or no foam. So we’re starting to see the details around sustainability coming to the forefront.
And we’re certainly starting to see are the businesses we’re working with have an increase and growth in their business because they’re operating in this way and because they’re talking about it a lot.
Becca
00:04:17.610 – 00:04:58.590
That’s really interesting. And also I’m seeing from my end, I said, I send clients your way.
So increasingly when I work with people one to one, they’re bringing it up, they’re saying things like, oh, we want to say that we’re sustainable. And so then I’m pushing back and saying, well, do you have a sustainability policy? Do you have something on your website? No.
And then my answer is, great, go and speak to Michelle, she can help you get that sorted out. Because also, I think in this 2026 world of Mistru and AI and technology and people don’t know what to trust.
They don’t just want to see the word, oh, I’m, I’m sustainable. They want to know actually what that means. So I think there’s a deeper level. We can’t just throw that. That word around anymore.
Michelle
00:04:58.590 – 00:06:09.390
Yeah, absolutely. And we can’t throw that word around from, you know, competitions and markets, authority reasons, from the Green Claims Code.
You know, it is illegal, it’s greenwashing to be using terms that, one, you can’t evidence, two, you don’t understand. And so actually, in the past, we’ve seen people sort of not using those terms because they’re scared about that.
But actually now we’re seeing people understanding and breaking that down a little bit more and understanding that actually what their couples are looking for is something that they can connect with them.
So as I said, like with a florist, you know, if it’s talking about, we don’t use floral foam or, you know, we use sustainable mechanics, actually it’s just talking about the fundamentals of their business rather than the complicated language or, you know, trying to pretend that they’re an expert in something that they aren’t actually, actually just adapting the way that they’re doing, running their business and talking about what they’re doing. And being transparent is the most important way. Like, I know you always talk about being transparent.
You know, it is so important to build that no, like, trust factor. And it’s no different with sustainability. It has to be.
The core part of your sustainable policy is that, you know, you have to have those transparency in your values.
Becca
00:06:09.470 – 00:06:50.170
And just like actually everything in business, it, it rewards you for being proactive rather than reactive.
And I think there’s a lot of people that are finding themselves in this murky water because they’re having to be reactive because couples are coming to them and saying, well, where’s the source from? Can you do it foam free? And then they’re in this panic trying to make the sale and trying to work out what to say to them.
But actually, the people that can go out there and know solidly what they can say and be completely honest and have a policy or a page on their website or something that they can show an accreditation is going to be a lot of us stronger.
You’re not going to feel that, like, oh, no, I don’t know what to say in the same way, because you’ve been proactive and I’m sure that the people that are working with you feel confident in that.
Michelle
00:06:50.170 – 00:07:49.810
Absolutely. And they see it as a competitive advantage. Like no longer is sustainability sort of a bolt on, an add on.
Like there is a big return on investment now with sustainability. Yes, it does take time to invest in your business, just like in any part of your business.
But actually if you take that time, you understand what couples looking for and how you can adapt your business, then that is going to give you a competitive advantage. You are going to see that growth in that part of your business, whereas others aren’t. And we definitely see that.
We were only last week talking with one of our flower farmer florists that is completely bucking the trend at the moment. They have seen growth year on year for the last three years in their business and they haven’t changed their marketing strategy.
They’re honest, they’re consistent and they’re just transparent about everything they’re doing. And people are coming to them purely because sustainability is what they’re leading with.
And so actually it’s a real competitive advantage for so many different types of businesses.
Becca
00:07:49.810 – 00:08:48.270
Yeah, it’s a really interesting way to look at it as well because I think sometimes people are afraid of the cost involved in it and we have to be honest, sometimes there are added costs to being sustainable. I know it myself from looking at my conference.
So for example, I’ve been trying to work out what to do about name badges and I put a post up and then someone came back to me and said, could you do something more sustainable? And I started looking at all the options. I’m just being totally honest here. And obviously there are cheaper options and more expensive options.
And then it’s weighing that up because I was looking at, okay, well I could get this more expensive seed paper, but then it’s single use and how many people actually plant it. Or do I go for the plastic, which on the whole is worse for the planet. But actually I can wipe it clean and reuse it year after year after.
And so I know everyone in their business is trying to weigh up all of these things all of the time. And the cost does come into it as well. It has to.
Because as a business owner we need to make money, but also we want to make sure we’re doing the right thing. So I’m sure people are having that struggle themselves.
Michelle
00:08:48.430 – 00:09:46.020
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that is, I think that’s one of the strengths of what we do in the alliance is the community.
So the reason that we started the alliance was because that we were seeing exactly this.
People on their own in their business, trying to solve a problem and not knowing that that problem has been solved 10 minutes down the road by somebody else. So bringing people together, being able to have that community of guys, I’m really struggling with this. Does anybody have any experience of it?
Can anybody help? Can anybody put me in the right direction of a supplier that’s so valuable?
Because that time it takes, as you know, to go and find all of those options, that is so time consuming, that is a cost to your business.
So actually being able to connect with other people that get it, that have been there, that have done that, that can actually help to show you the way. And then you in turn are able to then help other people down the line. That’s exactly why we started the alliance in the first place.
Becca
00:09:46.180 – 00:10:07.680
And the community part is really important. Now, you mentioned to me earlier that you’ve recently had a retreat with some of your members. And I love a retreat.
I think it’s a great chance to go in depth. You spend a lot more time with people. So from the people that spent time away with on your retreat, what kind of messages are you hearing?
What’s going on in the ground? What reflections have you personally taken away from that time?
Michelle
00:10:07.680 – 00:14:04.110
It was such an amazing few days. First of all, we brought people together to at one of our members, sheepdrove Organic Farm, so really rural in West Berkshire.
And it was just the most amazing few days, working on their businesses, doing the work, but also out in nature. So being on organic farm, being.
And our area of outstanding natural beauty, where we’re really able to kind of spend that social time outside connecting with people maybe in a way that we haven’t had opportunity to before. And because of that, we were able to kind of shift the conversations we would normally be having.
You know, sitting on Zoom, having conversations, on group calls, on WhatsApp chats, they’re all great things and you share so much on those. But actually being in person with people for so many days, so many hours really allowed us to kind of spend, find out what was going on.
And really we are seeing a huge growth. So in exactly the same way I mentioned before, the conversation I had with the flower farmer was actually at the retreat.
And in that retreat, we sat and had an industry roundtable. So everyone that joined from all different parts of the industry and all over the country, we sat and we talked about what is the issue?
Where do we need to work on most. We know all the positive stuff that’s going on. We see it day in day out in our businesses. But actually, where are the struggles?
And for us, that’s kind of what we do. We really want to be able to support all of the businesses we’re working with and the wider industry and what the struggles are.
And it’s great to see that they have changed. So year on year, we were seeing the same kind of challenges people bringing to us. It’s daunting. People are greenwashing.
I can’t find the right suppliers, I don’t have the time, I don’t have the money. Whereas now it’s, how do I tell my sustainable story? How do I connect with the couple?
We’ve moved into much more of a personalized shift, so we want to understand what the couple wants.
And the reason that’s happening is because we now see that increasing demand, that couple demand has grown year on year and it’s massively accelerated in the last 12 months and we know that that’s going to continue.
So actually, now we’re shifting and we’re thinking about what we can be doing to connect with those couples on a different level, to be able to talk to them about the story of what their wedding would look like and how sustainability can build a legacy and how they can have a positive impact. And particularly looking at. And focusing on nature. So nature is so depleted and Britain is the most biodiverse depleted country in the world.
I heard that statistic yesterday and it was absolutely blew my mind. And actually, there’s so much we can do in the wedding world that could have such a positive impact on that.
And so actually now we’re looking more at what can we do to build nature, what can we do through all of the weddings that take place in the UK to support nature regeneration? So that’s kind of where we’re shifting and that’s. That’s where we see our members on the ground. They’re having conversations with couples.
That’s where we can start having this really positive conversation around sustainability rather than the, you can’t do this, you can’t have this, you can’t have that. Actually, what we want to do is inspire people.
These are all the amazing things that could happen by having a more sustainable wedding, by making those more conscious choices. And it was great. I mean, I stood at the front of that round table and we talked about.
But actually the conversation was completely led by the people in the room and our ambassadors, who are amazing people from all over the country that we have regionally that are local members and other people that are outside the membership. Can Connect with and reach out to just in the way my door is always open and people can reach out to me.
But actually our ambassadors are there in the local regions. They know what’s happening, they know what’s happening on the ground and it’s really important that we have them.
And their contribution is so important to us and the feedback from them is that really couples are wanting to know how they can have this positive impact through their wedding.
Becca
00:14:04.110 – 00:15:01.090
It’s so good to hear.
And also what’s interesting for me is because a bit like you, you know, when you’re speaking on stages, when you’re doing, you know, leadership in this industry, you’re always trying to tell people what’s coming down the road. And for two years I’ve been standing on stage saying, you know, we’re going to see more values led couples. You need to be thinking about this stuff.
And actually two years later, now it’s entering the mainstream and what we’ve said was going to happen is happening.
And it kind of shows the importance of why the people who listen to the education and go to the events and list to the podcast and take action end up being more successful rather than the people who just sit back and go, no, nothing will ever change. And then two years later, they’re now playing catch up.
So it’s always interesting for me to see the things that we’ve been saying actually then hearing that anecdotal evidence that it’s, it’s happening on the ground. Are there any frustrations that you have? I love a frustration on this podcast.
Are there any things that you think are still false narratives in our industry around this area?
Michelle
00:15:01.250 – 00:18:27.960
Yeah, I think, and I know that, that, you know, we’ve just talked about this, about cost, that sustainability is more expensive, that if I have a sustainable product, people are going to think that’s more expensive and they won’t use it.
Sustainability absolutely needs your time and investment, but your, your financial investment doesn’t need to be any different than a non sustainable option.
So, you know, all businesses have, you know, periods where they need to invest in themselves, whether that is through understanding their marketing better, being able to use Google, my business, I don’t know what it’s called these days, but what it used to be, you know, they need to invest time, energy into going to events, building their network. And sustainability is no different. What you’re doing is talking to a slightly different community, a community that can help and support you.
And just as I said before, actually you don’t need to be doing everything on Your own. There are more expensive products out there.
And you know, it absolutely gripes me that it’s more expensive to buy a sustainable toothbrush versus a non sustainable toothbrush. That is really frustrating. But it’s about scale.
If we actually compare the product, actually one product is going to last longer than the other, but to produce one, it’s much quicker, it’s much more efficient because they’ve got cash behind them, they’ve got big manufacturers behind them. And actually by supporting those smaller businesses, they can then have that investment to be able to scale.
And we see it’s exactly the same in the wedding industry.
Those businesses that have been early adopters of sustainable principles are now reaping those benefits because they have got all of this stuff in place. They are ready. Now. Our values led couples are coming in asking these questions.
They are not flapping about wondering how to write sustainability policy. They’re absolutely there leading the way. And therefore they’re able to actually charge realistically what it costs to run a wedding, to make a cake.
There is so many false expectations around. What are a wedding costs anyway?
You know, with unexpected, the, the difficulty when you, you know, you get married and you’ve never planned a wedding before, how on earth are you meant to know how much to spend on a, on a venue, on your catering, on your flowers? People have unrealistic expectations when you throw in sustainability to that.
A lot of people’s assumption is that, well, sustainable lifestyle products are more expensive, so a sustainable wedding will be more expensive. But that’s absolutely not the case. That doesn’t have.
Either way, if you work with the right businesses, they will save you time and money because they have the right contacts, they’ve done the work in their businesses. We, we talk with lots of our members that use the phrase quite often, we do sustainability so you don’t have to.
So by choosing us, we’re helping you to have that more sustainable wedding. The price is no different to working with us versus somebody down the road that will give you the same product or service.
But actually we’ve done the work on our business, we’ve invested that time and energy into our business so we can be confident and stand behind the fact that we can give you that sustainable product or service. And so the whole narrative around sustainability is more expensive. There’s no roi. That’s not true.
That’s just not true in this environment that we’re working in now.
Becca
00:18:27.960 – 00:19:12.060
And that’s the marketing message. You know, I love marketing. That’s the marketing message that your pros should be using.
They’re the ones that are going to change that narrative ultimately by showing, yeah, we can do this for you and it won’t cost you more. And so, so therefore it’s the obvious choice and again, that gives them the competitive advantage. So hopefully they’re leaning into that now.
The other thing I love to do on this podcast, Michelle, is ask questions that no one else wants to ask because they’re too embarrassed to ask them. And I always do this to you, but I know one of the things you do in the Sustainable Wedding alliance is give carbon literacy training.
And I’m going to be honest with you, I still don’t really understand what it is or what it’s for. So can you give us the Idiot’s Guide to Carbon Literacy Training and why we should be thinking about doing it?
Michelle
00:19:12.060 – 00:23:40.740
I absolutely love that that you asked this question. I always love this section because, yeah, nobody wants to stick their hand up and go, what’s that?
It’s like when you hear somebody using a word in a conversation, you’re like, I don’t know what that word means. I don’t know if I should ask them or look it up later. So, carbon literacy training.
So basically carbon literacy training we developed two years ago and have been running it. We’ve taken nearly 400 wedding pros through the training course so far. And what it does is it’s an eight hour training course.
We run it in person or we run it over two half days virtually as well. And it teaches you the fundamentals of what’s going on in terms of climate change at the moment. So, so what are the facts and the figures?
What is the real situation out there? So not what’s being portrayed in media, not what’s happening over in a different country. What’s going on in the UK at the moment?
We look at the science behind it, but then we also look at actually what’s going on in our local regions, how do we connect with our local politicians, our local environmental groups?
We look at what’s going on in the industry and the changes and the shifts we’re seeing and what that looks like regionally and how different different that is. And we do talk about the global stuff because it is, you know, climate emissions, carbon emissions, climate change, it is a global issue.
But actually most people can’t connect with that. It’s too abstract, it’s far away, it doesn’t make sense. It’s like seeing a polar bear floating on an ice sheet, you know, in the middle of the ocean.
It’s not something that we can connect with. So we spend, you know, a good part of the course talking about what’s going on with climate change.
We talk about what’s happening locally, nationally and in the industry. But then the second half of the course is all about practical actions, actually. What can we do in our business to reduce carbon emissions?
So all those greenhouse gases, carbon being one of them, we learn about them in secondary school, in geography, in our GCSes, they’re still doing GCSes. Right. So taking that fundamental knowledge and applying that to actually everything we do in our business, how could we do it better?
How could we have less emissions?
And there are the obvious things, of course, like switching to an EV car instead of a petrol or a diesel, changing your energy supplier, and they’re really kind of generic. But actually, what we talk about is what can you do in your wedding business? So actually, as a business, how do you operate in your community?
Who are your suppliers? Where are your wholesalers, you know, who are you working alongside? What about your accountant, you know, what about your web hosting?
So we really look at what you’re doing as a business so that then people leave with an action plan. We actually make them leave with two actions, so they go away and they have to take an individual action that will reduce their carbon footprint.
And then we get them to go and take a group action where they’ll influence a group of people to be able to make a wider reduction. And what we do, the reason that we have that and we do that is taking an individual action is really important.
So just literally that first step, I’m going to do this, it’s going to be beneficial for me as a business, but also it’s going to be moving the needle forward in terms of, you know, reducing emissions globally, but then collectively working with, with a group of people to pass on your education and to pass on that inspiration and knowledge and get them also reducing, that’s where we start to build the bigger impact.
Exactly the same way that all of our members, by changing what they do in a business, they’re able to impact every single wedding that they’re working with. They’re able to amplify that impact and really we can start to see change at scale.
And that’s why we run it, because is fundamentally there’s a gap of knowledge and people need to know more about what is going on, truly going on out there and what will go on if we don’t make changes.
But actually, we also really need to inspire people and break down those barriers and Understand that it’s just one step at a time, it’s one action at a time and they are really simple things that you can do into your business.
There are loads of quick wins, things we can get on and do right now and there are loads of longer term strategy stuff that we can build in our business, we can put money aside for and we can, can develop for a longer term future. But actually we really focus on the action. What can you do?
How can we make things better and how can you amplify that and talk about that and encourage others to do the same?
Becca
00:23:40.820 – 00:24:52.710
That’s really helpful. So basically we don’t need to worry about the big words because actually you’re just giving us the education that we’re all lacking.
And I think there is an education gap, particularly in my generation, your generation, when we’re at school, this wasn’t spoken about, now my kids at school, this is spoken about.
In fact, I was just thinking as you were talking, my daughter came home a couple years ago of of months ago with her like sustainability challenge document and she was like, mommy, we need to have vegetarian meals once this week. We need to turn down the, you know, the washing machine and wash at a lower level.
And if we do all of these things and I get all my ticks then I get a certificate. And she came home really proud of her like eco champion certificate.
And I think that’s great because she’s getting it then and you know, they are the future. That’s why we’re going to see this increasing, because they’re learning that at school, it’s being celebrated at school.
Of course that’s now part of their life and it’s in ingrained in them. I want to ask you one other quick question about carbon literacy and carbon offsetting because it’s another word we hear banded around a lot.
So if we do something right, so say there’s a part of our business and we think, oh, this isn’t that sustainable at the moment, I don’t quite know how to fix it. Can we then offset that carbon by planting some trees or is that cheating?
Michelle
00:24:52.950 – 00:29:17.760
Offsetting is absolutely a short term solution. So it’s not cheating if you have a long term plan to reduce that carbon.
So what’s really important is that businesses just have the basic calculations of actually what is my business’s carbon footprint.
And then once they know what that is and where the high carbon areas are, most businesses it’s going to come from supply chain or if you’re a small business that isn’t buying in product, it’s going to come from your transport or your energy usage. So actually just understanding where that high carbon area is and then working out if there’s any way that you could start to reduce that.
We call it a carbon reduction plan. But fundamentally you’re looking at where is the biggest carbon spend and how can I reduce it down?
In exact way, in exactly the same way you would be looking at your financial budget. Where are we spending the most amount of money? Can we be more efficient, can we reduce costs? It’s exactly the same process.
So we, we get on, we measure, we then look at that measurement and think, actually where could we start reducing stuff? There might be some really quick and easy things we can do to start reducing them down. Great, we can start saving carbon there.
But actually there might be some really longer term stuff.
And quite often for small businesses that comes down to travel, it comes down to, to if they’re in a rented premises, getting their energy changed is really tricky. And it comes down to your supply chain.
Pretty much every business we work with, there’s a lack of data and knowledge within their supply chain and so they’re unable to calculate it, let alone start reducing it. So what we suggest people do is look at offsetting. Now, offsetting is basically a balancing act.
So we get on, we measure, we reduce what we can and we plan out how we’re going to then reduce the rest of it.
But actually if you can’t get down to zero, and net zero is a term used all the time it’s banded around, you know, we have net zero target as a, as a country of 2050, as do many other countries.
But actually, realistically for a business, particularly in the hospitality industry, that’s quite a long way off and it’s quite difficult to get to, particularly when you factor in your supply chain. So there is likely to be some kind of offsetting. The most important thing when we talk about offsetting is verification.
In the same way that you wouldn’t go and use an accountant that wasn’t qualified, you’re not going to go and offset your carbon emissions with someone that is not independently verified. So it’s exactly the same. So there are various industry standards that you can look at for offsetting.
I can send you the link so you can put it in the show notes that companies can just go to and just double check. There are some really easy, user friendly options out there. People like ecology are fantastic.
They allow you to pay monthly for your offsetting, you can do it as employees.
So all of your employees can contribute towards it monthly or you can go in and you can offset your impact every year and all of their projects are verified. So that’s the most important element of it.
And as long as you know where your starting point is, you know where your baseline is, is you’ve worked out what you can reduce in the short term and the long term and you’re getting on and doing that, then absolutely offset. Offset what you can.
And there are different projects and there are different costs involved and that’s down to each individual business to decide what is the right thing for them to do and also what may be the right thing for them to do from the optics point of view.
You know, for a business, if you want to be talking more about sustainability and you are living on the coast, then absolutely offset by planting seagrass meadows with a company that is doing amazing things. Project seagrass, because that’s going to connect with your local audience.
Planting trees over in Madagascar is not going to connect with your couples.
So being sensible about if we’re going to offset, let’s make sure we can make the story work, make sure it’s right for you as a business, it’s at the right cost, but also that you can use that to tell the story of why you’re doing what you’re doing and support your local community, environmental or social projects.
Becca
00:29:17.840 – 00:29:36.320
Next question then. If I’m sat here thinking this sounds great, where do I start with my calculations? Is there an online calculator?
Is this something that you do in the alliance? Is there a spreadsheet like. Because I’m sure there’ll be people listening going, okay, I like the idea.
A first step for me is definitely working out my carbon emissions. How on earth do I do that?
Michelle
00:29:36.320 – 00:32:17.760
Yeah, and there are, if you type, if you type that into a search engine, you will get a million different calculators and Absolutely, absolutely. It is really tricky to know where to start. So we do absolutely.
With our members, work with them to do these calculations and we run training sessions on it for the more detailed elements to break it down to be really simplified. And this is really simplified. Your carbon emissions for a business break down into three different categories and they’re called scopes.
Scope 1, scope 2, scope 31 and 2 are really easy to measure because they are about the energy that you are burning and buying in in. So they are really data led.
So they are about getting hold of your utility bills, your mileage, if your business owns the vehicle, if your business owns the property. They’re really simple calculations to do.
You basically take your kilowatts per hour or your miles per hour, or the fuel you’ve used, you plug that into a calculator and it gives you your total footprint. I can absolutely give you a couple of calculators that you can pop in the show notes so that people can just go straight to those and have a look.
But the one that we really recommend, and if something. If reducing your carbon emissions is something that you’re interested in, I would recommend going to the SME Climate Hub.
The SME Climate Hub is a global organization. I am a board advisor for the SME Climate Hub, representing small businesses in hospitality in the uk.
And essentially on there, there is a calculator, a very basic calculator. If you’ve never used anything like this before, it takes you through what you need to do step by step.
And there’s a advanced calculator for those businesses that also want to measure the scope 3 element, because that’s quite complicated. There are 15 subcategories, each one of those is quite data driven. You need to go and find the data.
It’s not necessarily easily accessible, but the first two elements of it are quite straightforward. So I’d really recommend people go on and have a look at the SME Climate Hub.
In that system as well, you can also make a commitment to reduce your emissions. So you can make a public commitment and join the Register that is also part of the UN race to zero.
So you can actually be a part of a much wider collective and commit to reducing your emissions to as close to zero as possible. And you can set the time frame as well.
So it’s a really good opportunity to be able to put your hands up and say, this is something I care about, I do want to do this, but I need to know a little bit more about it. But I am going to make a commitment to reduce my carbon emissions and work alongside the UK government’s target of 2050.
Becca
00:32:17.920 – 00:33:32.130
I think it comes back to that same thing.
Education and community is so important because actually having someone to ask those questions to, like me being on this interview with you, I’m able to ask these questions on other people’s behalf, but they may have further questions.
And being able to go and have someone, an ambassador, someone who’s walked that path before you to go and ask the questions and get the education, is the answer, because it is overwhelming otherwise. And you start thinking of all these things and calculators and tasks, time, and you start thinking, ah, I want to do this, but it just Feels a lot.
So actually, I think the answer is finding people that have walked that path first who will help you in the same way as in any kind of business, whether you want to learn Instagram, Google, my business, like you said earlier, you go and find the people who’ve walked that path first and learn from them to save yourself time. It’s no different in this scenario.
Now, the other thing you’re getting involved in very soon is my conference this year, Wed Pros Live, which I’m incredibly excited and terrified about at the same time. And you are going to be there running a break breakout session.
So for those people who are listening that have already got tickets, and by the time this goes out, it may be sold out because at the time of recording, I think we have 10 tickets remaining until we hit capacity. So it’s definitely one that if you’re listening to this as a ticket left, grab it quick.
But if they are coming and they’re looking at what sessions to go to, what are they going to get from your session?
Michelle
00:33:32.370 – 00:34:46.390
So our session is going to be very practical.
So it is really going to be about understanding carbon, but also nature impact and what are the practical actions you can do right now in your business. Walk away having hopefully done one of them. So it is going to be very practical. It isn’t going to be sitting and listening to theory.
I will very happily give you some QR codes on the screen if you want to scan them and you can go and listen to me talk about the theory of sustainability. But this is going to be practical. So the session will be, we’ll be playing some games in the session. We’ll be using some action cards in the session.
And the idea is that you will leave in a similar way to how we work with carbon literacy. You will leave with a set of actions, some quick wins, hopefully, some of which you can achieve there.
And then, and then things that you’ll be able to do in the next day when you get back to your desk, and then in the longer term in the future as well. So we really want to inspire people to be able to take that first step. Step.
If they haven’t, and if they have already taken that first step, then we’ll be talking about, okay, what are the. What’s the next step and what the other things that you could be doing to move the needle forward in your business.
Becca
00:34:46.390 – 00:35:40.630
You had me at action cards and games. I’m like, that sounds like fun. I want to be in the room. We all love a bit of action and not just listening to a dry, stuffy talk.
So there’s definitely no dry stuffy talks happening at WED Pros Live for sure. So yeah, I think it’s going to be a great session.
And the other thing that you’re part of on the day, which is, which I’m so pleased about, is that you’re going to be in my backstage business crew, as I’m calling it, which is where I’ve got people exhibiting.
But I’ve been really careful about curating that group of people because I don’t want it to be a sales pitch, I don’t want it to be a dry, boring space.
I want it to be a help desk zone where people feel free to ask the kind of questions I ask you on this podcast and to not feel like any question is silly or that they’re going to get judged or sold to in any way.
So if people are there on the desk day and they come over to where the Sustainable Wedding alliance are going to be exhibiting and have a space, what kind of things can you help them with there and then practically on the day?
Michelle
00:35:40.950 – 00:37:13.030
So absolutely no question is a silly question. I love it when people come with the, with the I don’t know. But so absolutely come and ask your question. Do not be afraid of asking questions.
We are all about progress, not perfection. Like it is an absolute myth that there is perfection out there there. So no matter where you are on your journey, come over and talk to us.
We can help you with understanding where to go and measure your carbon footprint. We’ll be able to give you links for that. We can connect you with our ambassadors.
If you are in a specific region and want to go to networking events or to meet other suppliers in their local area that are also working more sustainably or maybe are curious about it. Those events are really great for that.
We will be doing some content, we’ll be doing interviews with people so we be asking them where they’re at on their sustainable journey. If they attended the session, then any actions that they’re going to be taking. And we’ll also have our action box on the table as well.
So anyone that wants to come over, play a little game of higher or lower and see and challenge themselves as well, they’re very welcome to come over. But really, you know, realistically it will be Emily and I there being our non judgmental swa selves of, you know, come and ask us a question.
We genuinely want to know, know what your experience is, what your challenges are and we will work together to try and find a solution. And if we can’t do it on the day, then we’ll absolutely follow up with you and you know, hopefully find that solution together going forward.
Becca
00:37:13.110 – 00:38:02.960
Amazing. I’m very excited. It’s just down the road and it’s going to be here.
I wanted to ask you, Michelle, for some personal advice because you have put on a conference and in putting on this conference, which sometimes I question myself why I’ve put myself through this, it’s a crazy undertaking taking. But when I put it on, I was like, I want it to be a really good quality industry conferences.
We’ve all been to some NAF conferences, we’ve all been to some great conferences. And I would put the conference I came to that you put on as one of my top conferences I’ve ever been to. I thought it was incredibly well run.
I love the vibe, I love the energy. I loved everything about it. So have you got any advice from me about what’s the most important thing?
Like, obviously, I know sustainability is core of what you do, but aside from that in the practicalities of running a conference difference, like, what do I need to get right to make it as good as what you did?
Michelle
00:38:03.040 – 00:40:38.150
Oh, I would say my team. So, you know, I’m very lucky.
Our team have been in the events industry for many, many years and so therefore they are well versed at running very slick professional events. And also the venue was extremely amazing and helped with lots of that.
But from a, from a guest perspective, from everyone that decided to come to the event and invest their time, energy, money, actually what was most important, that we gave them time. So we wanted to jam as much value into those conferences as possible in exactly the same way we do with everything that we run.
But actually we understand that in order to do that, you really need to be nurturing people.
So, you know, giving them a really good start to the morning, making sure that everyone’s got time to meet each other early in the morning before they then go into session so that they’re ready and their mind is open and to then listen and learn to be able to sit around a table with people and, you know, have build connections with other people and learn together and share experiences, I think is really important and just lots of activities that can keep that energy high. And I know you, every time we talk about the talk about web pros live, your excitement is just infectious.
And I know that that energy will be there on the day as well.
Well, and I think that is so important because absolutely everybody will be feeding off that energy of the Presenters of the backstage crew, everybody will be looking to those people to kind of keep that energy going. And it. And it is exhausting for the attendees and for everybody that’s involved in planning it.
But it is such a great investment in time because you will be able to do as much business in that one day and get as much learning as you might do for a whole quarter or a whole six months or even a year. So it’s really important that people come ready with an open mind, an empty book, a laptop, however they like to work.
But also bring a business buddy, bring somebody with you or connect with somebody on the day that you can also learn from, because, you know, an example of the breakout sessions, there’s three breakout sessions happening in one time. You can’t be in three places at once. But they’re all such amazing sessions.
So actually, if you connect with other peoples as a solo business, business owner, actually, you can ask for the notes from the other sessions. And so those kinds of relationships that you can build early in the morning could really help you as you go through.
So for me, it’s about getting the guests ready, getting those attendees prepped to be able to make the most value of what they’re doing when they’re there.
Becca
00:40:38.150 – 00:41:15.010
I think the timepiece is so important, and I think that’s a real challenge as an organizer of an event, because you’ve got all these people, people, you know, I could have speakers for 10 days in a row. Like, there’s so many people that are willing to get involved, want to get involved. I know would give good stuff. But equally, you’re so right.
And it’s such a balance to work out. How much time. We’ve just extended our coffee breaks by 10 minutes. I think it is just because I’m like, that we need more time in the breaks.
But also I want to encourage attendees like, you don’t have to go to everything either. Like, you. You don’t have to. Now, I also like on it’s two sides of a coin. I don’t like it when people look at a program and think, I don’t need.
Michelle
00:41:15.160 – 00:41:15.520
Need that.
Becca
00:41:15.520 – 00:42:42.100
Because often the thing you think you don’t need is the thing you actually need. So there’s that perspective. But if you start to feel overwhelmed, the space is big. If you’re a vip, there’s a VIP lounge. You can go chill in there.
If you’re not a vip, there’s the exhibitor space, which you could go and just walk around at your leisure. I mean, the bathrooms at the Royal Horse Guards Hotel, particularly the ladies bathroom, have like five shade launches in them.
Like there is no reason. Like, don’t feel bound to the space if you need to get out and go for a walk.
If you’ve had a particularly intense session and you’ve learned something and you want to go and implement it or go and write more notes on it, like there’s no judgment, feel free to do that. Use the day in a way that’s going to serve you rather than feeling like you’ve got to go to everything.
So yes, I’m building in as much time as I can, but actually if you need more time, take the time.
Like, don’t feel like I’ve got to be in my seat for every minute of every single session because when I attend conference conferences, sometimes I opt to have a coffee during the session instead of going to the session and it makes for a better day. So hopefully that is helpful for attendees.
Michelle, I’m so excited it’s so soon we’re going to be together in person in London, and I know that attendees are going to get so much from both your session, but also from chatting to you as well at your stand. So thank you so much for being part of it. I always end this podcast with the same question.
I asked it to you last January, so we’ll see if your answer is the same same or whether things have evolved in the last year. So the question is, what’s one thing you personally wish you’d known sooner in your own business?
Michelle
00:42:42.740 – 00:44:49.470
So I was thinking about this because I know that you always ask this question and I can’t remember what I said previously. So it’ll be really interesting to look back.
But I think for me and the, the journey that I have seen the businesses we’re working with go on is that actually it’s made me reflect on, you know, what happened happened six years ago when we founded and even before that when I was working as a sustainable wedding planner. I wish I’d known that perfection is the enemy of progress.
I spent way too much time early on worrying about being 100% sustainable before talking about it before, before actually sharing what I was doing. And I wish that back then I knew that imperfection is action, even if it is imperfect is so important. Just taking that first step.
It’s what moves the needle. We need millions of people doing sustainably, imperfectly and not a handful of people doing it perfectly.
So for me, I wish that somebody would have told me back then, don’t get stuck in this perfection trap that so Many people did still do.
So for anyone listening, if you’re thinking, actually, you know, I’ve not quite got that finished, I don’t want to put that, I don’t want to share that. I don’t want to be public about that.
I would really encourage you to share it and be honest about it and say, I’m not 100% there, but I’m working towards this and this is what I’m doing and this is what I found out and I’m really excited about this because actually is never going to be perfect. So get on, share it, talk about it, because you will never know what the ripples are.
When I started sharing what I was doing, when I started building the community, actually, I never really understood how that was being amplified until we started to bring on board our ambassadors and start to actually really see the huge reach that we have. So, yeah, perfection is the enemy.
Becca
00:44:49.710 – 00:45:36.310
It’s so true. And actually that’s one of my big messages this year is just messy action. Take messy action. And it’s really powerful.
What you said there, that actually if everyone did some imperfect sustainability, that’s going to actually have more impact than five people doing it 100% well. And therefore, actually we can all do a bit of something to, to improve.
And I think in all areas of business, messy action is definitely the word for this year. We’ve had too many years of everyone feeling like they had to be Instagram personal perfect. Even Instagram isn’t perfect anymore.
It’s just a messy platform. Let’s all just embrace the messiness now.
Last time when you answered that question, you said that sustainability isn’t scary and I think it’s part of the same message. So you’re absolutely still in the same place that you were a year ago. Michelle, thank you so much.
If people want to find out more about you and the alliance, where are the best places for them to go?
Michelle
00:45:36.550 – 00:45:51.330
Best place to find us is our website, sustainableweddingalliance.com or on Instagram. Sustainable Wedding Alliance UK.
And if you’re a LinkedIn person, then you can come and find me at Michelle Miles or search for Sustainable Wedding Alliance. You’ll find us there too.
Becca
00:45:51.730 – 00:46:05.570
Fantastic.
We will put all of the links and everything you’ve mentioned, send them over into the show notes so that everyone can find all of those resources and find you. And if they’re coming in March, then they’re going to get to see you in person, too. Thank you so much for your time and I’ll see you in London.
Michelle
00:46:05.570 – 00:46:06.450
Thanks, Becca.
Becca
00:46:06.450 – 00:46:24.860
Great conversation.
I always love chatting to Michelle and I hope you guys appreciate me being honest and asking the questions that I know you’re thinking and you don’t like, always feel brave enough to ask. I hope it’s opened up your mind. And if you can get to London and there are tickets left still, then do come along.
You can find your tickets at wedproslive. Com and I’ll see you all next time.
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