The food & stalls area can often have the most significant environmental & social impacts at an event. Aspects such as energy use, waste, water and safety all add up to make this area of an event a priority to focus on when planning for a more sustainable event. Making time to consider all these factors may seem overwhelming at first but the good news is that there are many resources at your disposal to help!

Food Vendor Agreements are an ideal way to start working towards a more sustainable food services system. A document which sets out all the pre-determined practices of the food vendors, this document will allow event organisers to enforce sustainable practices not on just themselves but also external vendors who participate at the event.

Alternatively, a Wash Against Waste (WAW) system can also be employed to promote sustainable cleaning and food serving practices. WAW systems provide food vendors with the opportunity to serve their meals on reusable crockery that can be collected after use, transported back to the WAW station, cleaned using environmentally friendly cleaners and solar-powered water, and then returned to vendors for further use.

Licensed areas create most waste in terms of container use and disposal - including cups, bottles and glasses. A little strategic thinking and planning can drastically reduce these impacts. Event organisers can situate container recycling deposits nearby these areas and high traffic areas. A WAW system can also be used here to encourage licensed areas to reuse crockery as well during the event.

Many events don't have policies to ensure stall holders to execute more sustainable practices when they participate at events. This may be due to the lack of resources to enforce this or event organisers may be deterred by possible undesired reactions to these demands. However, event organisers may want to approach this from a different angle and instead of thinking about demanding these practices, make use of special offers and concessions to stall holders who voluntary take on pre-determined sustainable practices and a similar approach can also be taken with event attendees.