Sustainability wins points when choosing an agency. Paying for it is another story
9 in 10 event managers say sustainability influences how they choose an agency, yet few clients accept higher costs for it. What the data say and how to frame it in your next proposal.
You will know this one. The client’s brief says “sustainable event”. You put together a proposal with local suppliers, a seasonal menu and a carbon footprint estimate. A few days later the reply comes back: “We love it, but what can we cut to bring the budget down?”. And what is the first thing off the list? Exactly that.
It is not just you. Several industry studies, from different publishers with different audiences, tell the same story: sustainability earns points when a supplier is being chosen, but few clients are willing to pay more for it.
It counts, but it rarely decides
In 2025 Eventsost asked 70 corporate event managers how much sustainability weighs when they choose an agency. The answer looks clear-cut: 9 in 10 say it influences how they assess an agency. But look inside that “influences” and the picture changes. Only 25.7% consider it directly decisive. 64.3% see it as a relevant added value, though not a decisive one.
Put another way: for most of them, sustainability is a tie-breaker. It does not win the pitch on its own. One of the comments quoted in the report puts it bluntly: of 100 requests, only 5 asked for anything about sustainability.
Asked for, but barely paid for
The Effectiveness Takes Center Stage study by Experiential Executive asked live communication agencies across Europe about their clients. 27% of agencies say more than half of their clients, but not more than three quarters, ask them for sustainability credentials. Another 16% say more than three quarters do.
Now the other side. 60% of agencies say fewer than a quarter of their clients accept higher costs to run the project sustainably. And 10% say none of them do. The report itself calculates the distance between what clients expect and what they are willing to pay, and calls it a “funding gap”: -30.2 points.
Associations look similar. According to the ICCA and Destination Canada sustainability report, 42% of associations are not willing to pay more for sustainable options and prefer to keep costs low. Only 7% would pay significantly more. And just 26% ask their suppliers for specific sustainability efforts.
When priorities are ranked
Cvent’s survey of planners in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at the end of 2025 puts it in order. On a scale of one to five, sustainability scores 3.41 for importance for the in-person and hybrid events they were planning. Ahead of it come, among others, return on investment at 3.72, return on time and experience at 3.71, health and safety at 3.58 and cost containment at 3.55.
This is not hypocrisy. Sustainability matters, but it competes with money, results and safety, and in this survey it comes in behind all of them.
What to do with this in your next proposal
If the client will not pay more, the sustainability you offer has to cost little or prove it is worth what it costs. Here the Eventsost data give a useful clue. What event managers value most is not the showiest option. Top of the list is responsible waste and materials management, at 68.6%. Next comes choosing local and sustainable suppliers, at 52.9%. These are decisions that already belong to production: who you buy from and what you do with what is left over.
Three ideas follow from that:
- Separate what costs nothing extra from what does. If it all sits in one block, you risk the whole block being cut. Our suggestion: offer clear tiers and explain what each one costs and what impact it has.
- Put numbers on what you do. Kilos of waste, the share of local suppliers, how attendees travelled. For 64.3% of the event managers in the Eventsost study, an agency saying it applies sustainability criteria is a clear signal of quality and professionalism.
- Tell it plainly. 28.6% highlight transparent communication without greenwashing. A modest but true figure persuades more than a big promise.
Today, sustainability helps you win the tie-break. Your job is to make sure it does not cost you your margin. And when the client asks you to cut, to know exactly what can go and what cannot.
If you want to know how to read this kind of figure before you put it in a proposal, you may find Forecast or result? How to read an events industry figure useful. Every figure in this article comes from Athena, Sinapser’s free search engine for events industry studies, where you can check each study and its page.
At Sinapser we help event teams work with data and AI. If you want to measure what happens at your events more closely, let’s talk.
