As Sustainability Scrutiny Grows, Maritz Turns to Academia for Answers

Maritz has teamed up with the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business and its Longhorn Impact Fellowship at Texas (LIFT) program, to help push its sustainability efforts from aspiration to measurable action.

In the wake of COP26, Maritz, like many global companies, set ambitious sustainability targets. Since then, it has improved its sustainability performance as measured by EcoVadis and CDP. But progress exposed a persistent challenge, a lack of consistent, practical tools to measure event-related emissions.

"Numerous corporate requirements and global regulations are emerging rapidly. The events industry is at risk if we don’t develop quality tools quickly enough to understand our impact both at the event level and at the industry level,” said Rachael Riggs, general manager of environmental strategy at Maritz. 

No Carbon Footprint Measurement Standard

To address that gap, Riggs, with the help of Amy Kramer, head of innovation at Maritz, designed and developed a carbon footprint measurement tool for live events.  From the outset, Riggs required third‑party verification, engaging Glenn Hansen, formerly with BPA (now AAM) and founder of Reduce 2, as the independent auditor to validate the methodology. 

In 2021, Maritz pilot-tested the tool, and a broader industry challenge became clear. Beyond hotel‑focused guidance from the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, there was no widely accepted standard for measuring the carbon footprint of live events.

That realization led Riggs and Hansen to contribute to the Net Zero Carbon Events Initiative’s Standards of Measurement Working Group, which reviewed more than 40 existing carbon calculators. They learned that most tools are either too complex or too inconsistent for real-world event planning.

Where Can Events Improve?

Even with emerging standards, fundamental questions remained, particularly around waste. To dig deeper, Riggs turned to UT Austin’s LIFT program, asking student researchers to tackle a practical problem: What is the carbon footprint of the materials most commonly used at events, and where can planners make measurable improvements?

Rather than attempting to measure every variable at once, the team focused on four items nearly universal at conferences and trade shows: carpeting, signage, lanyards, and name badges.

The students analyzed lifecycle emissions, disposal practices, and lower-impact alternatives, creating a framework intended to help planners make clearer, data-backed decisions.

Carpeting emerged as one of the largest contributors. Traditional synthetic carpet can emit up to 7.2 kilograms of CO₂ equivalent per square meter. Closed-loop or recyclable options reduce emissions by more than 80%. End-of-life treatment, reuse versus landfill, proved just as critical as material choice.

Signage followed a similar pattern. Foam core and PVC vinyl, long staples of event production, were both high-emission and largely non-recyclable. Alternatives such as eco-board, polypropylene-based vinyl, and FSC-certified paper significantly reduced emissions without sacrificing durability or print quality.

Lanyards and badges, often produced in the thousands and discarded after only a few days, also varied widely in impact. Polyester lanyards ranked highest, while recycled PET, bamboo, and hemp options substantially lowered emissions. PVC badges emitted up to 1.51 kilograms of CO₂-eq each. This is compared to dramatically lower-impact alternatives such as recycled cardboard or cork. Digital badges eliminated physical waste entirely.

Choice Matters

“These are easy fixes,” Riggs said. “Once you can see the data, it becomes much easier to make better choices, and to explain those choices to clients.”

The research was conducted through LIFT’s sustainability consulting model, which places multidisciplinary student teams on live business challenges with weekly client check-ins and executive-level presentations.

For Maritz, the partnership fits into a broader strategy of collaborating with universities to advance sustainability research in areas where industry standards are still evolving. The company has also worked with the UCLA Anderson School of Management.