Click to Call: 
At WM Events, we love to make a big impact with our events, creating life-long memories and the photos to go with them. But when it comes to the environment, we want our impact to be as low as possible. So we focus on sustainability in everything we do from how we run the office and warehouse to the lifecycle of event décor and where all the flowers go when the party ends.
In fact, sustainability is one of our core values.
And we’re not alone in understanding the importance of increased environmental stewardship in the events industry. Case in point – BizBash named “Sustainable Design” as one of the top trends for brand experiences in 2025.
Of course, we understand, sustainable design is more than a trend. It’s a foundation from which to begin event planning and business practices more broadly. Today, sustainability goes way beyond recycling plastic bottles (or better yet, avoiding them all together).
In Special Events magazine, Events.com president, co-founder and COO stated, “It is no longer just about reducing waste but rethinking how gatherings can leave a positive footprint from start to finish.”
For all of our two decades, we’ve made an effort to reuse or repurpose event décor. And we’ve had a longstanding program bringing floral arrangements from yesterday’s event to senior living communities and nursing homes, as well as donating them to nonprofits for their offices or events.
Through the years, our focus on sustainability has grown, and today it has become so central to who WM Events is as a company, our own Chris Nelson holds the title event operations and sustainability manager. Chris has spearheaded numerous programs to track and improve our footprint, and new efforts are also on the horizon. Additionally, Chris will work toward earning two professional certificates for sustainability in the events industry this year.
Here’s a bit more about what WM Events has achieved under Chris’ guidance:
Composting
We work with CompostNow, a B Corp Certified provider of organics recycling, through its commercial program to keep waste out of trash and landfills and turn it into soil-enriching humus. Each week, the service collects our 65-gallon containers (we have three!) and brings us clean ones. CompostNow also brings us humus to use in our gardens.
Because we receive regular Impact Reports, we’re able to share the quantifiable results of this program. In the first four months of 2025, we have diverted 1,849 pounds of waste, created 185 pounds of compost, and avoided 192 pounds of methane and 4,808 pounds of CO2.
Reducing, Reusing, Recycling
To reduce our impact even more, we’re constantly on the lookout for creative ways to give products we use a second life.
Of course, it all starts with recycling, so we’re adamant about making sure we do. As far as weekly recycling, which includes paper, cardboard and plastic, based on the size of our bin, we keep 5,564 cubic feet of materials out of the trash each year. To put it another way, that’s about the volume of 1,000 bathtubs – enough for our entire team to enjoy a Sunday spa day almost every week.
In addition to recycling these traditional items, we take toner cartridges to Office Depot, and we’ve brought them 23 already this year. Plus, we’ve recently added battery recycling to our repertoire, including AA, AAA and others. While we are targeting using only LED rechargeable products for lighting and other applications, not everything is available in that format yet, so we still need to choose battery-powered items in some cases. But we don’t want those batteries to end up in landfills.
We also reuse packing materials from deliveries to package our florals and props for transport to our events.
In our break rooms and kitchens, as well as when hosting visitors, we choose glass and china over plastic for serveware, glasses and flatware as much as possible. (This is a habit we picked up a long time ago when planning an eco-friendly wedding in Colorado.) We also avoid plastic water bottles and encourage employees to use the company-branded water bottles we provide. When we can’t make reusable selections, we opt for recyclable or compostable versions.
We are big fans of purchasing pre-owned/used office equipment and design materials, sourcing everything from desks to heavy warehouse racks to tile from liquidation houses and specialty sales.
Now here’s one we think is really fun! As often as possible we reuse or encourage clients to save and reuse printed fabric graphics like signage, backdrops and step-and-repeats. When it’s time to retire them, we donate them to an organization that turns them into recycled bags. They make excellent gifts.
Getting Off the Road
If our composting efforts can be equated to the number of miles not driven (5,398 for the first four months of 2025), we also track actual miles not driven by our employees. By allowing members of our sales, design and floral departments to work from home one or more days a week, we decrease vehicle emissions.
Chris calculated the distance of each applicable team member’s round-trip commute to determine the total of each person’s CO2 savings per year based on 48 weeks of driving. With more than a dozen team members included in this program, our 12-month work-from-home allowances saved 13,795 pounds of CO2, or roughly the amount of CO2 about 287 trees could absorb in a year.
Lowering Energy Consumption at Our Headquarters
As you may know, our Atlanta headquarters is new to us. WM Events founder William Fogler firs encountered it as a dilapidated building and reimagined it into a modern structure with curb appeal and eye-catching interiors to house our offices, a massive warehouse, the floral department, conference rooms and more. In renovating the building, William included eco-conscious construction choices like LED lighting, dimmer switches, motion sensors and temperature-regulating window coverings.
When it comes to working and partnering with other organizations, we start by sourcing materials and equipment from local and regional vendors and give priority to those that are also eco-conscious.
Being Evergreen
Since moving to our new headquarters, we’ve been thrilled to have an entire floral department. This has enabled us to store and preserve flowers longer in our walk-in cooler, which in turn has made it possible to receive fewer, larger shipments. In its full capacity, our internal grow room sustains the life and usability of trees, large plants, orchids and succulents. We also choose chicken wire over floral foam, which is more sustainable and can be used more than once.
And because we keep the flora so fresh, arrangements usually retain their beauty for several days or even a week after they make an appearance at one of our events. Rather than immediately toss them into the compost bin, we give them a second life through our donation program to local nonprofits and senior care communities or through client and staff giveaways.
Putting Our Best Footprint Forward
This description of our current sustainability efforts is just the beginning. We have plenty of additional strategies already planned, like the efficacy of purchasing renewable energy credits. With the goal of earning sustainability certifications, our sustainability manager Chris will undoubtedly learn about more opportunities and practices that will move us forward in our effort to be the best environmental stewards we can be.
To put it succinctly, we want to make sure more than just our logo is green!
