As opposed to traditional human-centric design, conscious design takes into account functionality and creativity while centering ecological ramifications in order to lessen or eliminate their effects. Conscious design means thinking about beginnings and endings.

Before any materials arrive in our hands, we investigate its provenance and what sort of impact it had on the way. We prioritise locally sourced, natural and recycled materials. From the start, we must also consider where any materials will go after they leave our hands.

Just as important as using recycled materials is using recyclable materials. We strive to ensure that everything we use can re-enter the world as a usable product, closing the take/make/waste linear process into a loop.

These solutions require forethought to find the adequate technical answers to the creative ideas as well as a long-term vision of both the sourcing of resources and their transformation at the end of the event. We constantly test materials and their impact with our partners. Recently, for example, we found that building a fashion show set with ‘pierre de Bourgogne’ limestone instead of concrete or carpet had 20x less environmental impact.

Conscious design means projecting into the future by prioritising high-quality materials that are built to last, designed to be repaired, and used over and over again. The reusability of a material can also be affected by how it’s used. For example, securing carpets to the floor with petroleum-based glue makes it impossible to recycle, and leaving loose nails in wood panelling similarly decreases its chances of being reused. Bureau Betak spends time and resources with its partners to develop alternative ways to reach the same level of creative and visual results whilst increasing the reuse of primary materials.

Bureau Betak works with evaluators specialised in material processing and sustainability. The way materials are treated during the breakdown of the set is a crucial step to ensuring they are in the proper condition to be used again. Being able to execute all the necessary actions requires a proper allocation of time for a project to be correctly dismantled. This means that some budget must be allocated to rent the venue for a longer period of time and put dedicated teams in charge of properly repacking the materials.

Conscious design is about using every material to its fullest. As we learn to ditch single-use plastic and unnecessary packaging, we also get rid of single-use events. We endeavour to extend the life of our shows and products beyond singular use. For this reason, we have built an extensive network with partners that specialise in material recovery, beginning in Paris and now in every location we operate.

Up-cycling and redistribution takes dedication. Educating team members and making sure they feel connected to the mission is central to accomplishing our goal. For this reason, Bureau Betak takes its internal team to be trained regularly by our different partners.

All our events are unique and tailor-made for our clients. This means we cannot use the same elements of production from one event to the other, and we must continually innovate ways to give them another life once they leave our hands. Waste management begins with increasing the reuse and upcycling of materials and props instead of disposing after one use. If this is not possible, foresight before the waste is produced is necessary to put in place the appropriate waste management system.

Adapted waste sorting ensures materials that can be reused are taken to the appropriate recycling facilities and prepared for their next life. Materials that cannot be recycled can also be disposed of in a way that reduces their environmental impact. Not all methods of recycling are created equally, so it is important to maximise utility with the least amount of processing. For example, reusing wood for furniture is more optimal than turning it into sawdust.

The ultimate goal of waste management is to erase the idea of waste altogether. All resources that move through the system should exit as useful entry points to a new system. Deleting waste from our vocabulary informs what materials we use, how we treat them, and how we sort and prepare them for reuse.

Single-use plastic is best avoided when packaging is optimised. This is true for water supplies (water bottles and fountains vs plastic bottles) as well as in food packaging. We work as much as possible with caterers who buy and store their products in bulk, using minimal amounts of individual packaging in their service. From catering trays and dishes to utensils and condiments, all food items are washable and reusable to cut down on single-use waste.

Packaging also comes with props that we buy or rent for our sets. We try to avoid it by finding a solution with our supplier to have them delivered in reusable packaging or secured in bulk packs, ensuring the material is protected but not delivered in unnecessary wrapping. When single-use packaging cannot be avoided, we try to find alternatives to plastic and we ensure all their proper recycling.

Prioritising delicious, plant-rich meals can greatly reduce the environmental impact of the food we serve. The most impactful food choice we can have is eating less conventionally-farmed meat. Our teams working on set are provided with a healthy vegetarian option. This awareness is increasingly shared by our clients: when catering is offered during an event, vegetarian options are also made available for the guests. In addition, we work with partners that source fair-trade and sustainably grown food that enhances local ecosystems and soil health. Supplying locally sourced food lowers the transport emissions or “food-miles”, and it can also help support local food systems.

An important revelation of recent climate impact studies has been the outsized impact of food waste. Food requires an enormous amount of land, energy, labour and time to create. When we throw away uneaten food, we throw away the painstaking effort that went into making that food. We have worked specifically towards this goal of reducing food waste in two ways: ordering the correct quantities upfront to prevent food waste, and working with partners to distribute leftovers to shelters, food access organisations, or compost facilities.

As soon as the location is selected, we draft a power balance to anticipate supply and demand. The first step to reducing energy consumption is to calculate a project’s energy needs as accurately as possible.

We have two main challenges: firstly, our service providers often overestimate their equipment needs: they are often afraid that there is not enough energy available which could compromise the event so they request supplementary generators. We apply extra efforts to measure energy needs as accurately as possible.

Secondly, the existing network of the city is often under-exploited. Connecting to the city's energy system is the best way to optimise our energy consumption. Once we are connected to a city’s network, we need to make a contract with an energy supplier. The key is to anticipate the energy needs to ensure that green energy suppliers are available in time, otherwise the opportunity to use bio-fuels can be missed. In many places it is possible to opt-in to renewable energy sources for an extra fee with a green energy supplier. We also try to select event locations based on built-in availability of renewable energy.

Where generators can’t be avoided, we prioritise green suppliers and we opt for biofuels such as HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil). Colza generated biofuel is 100% renewable, creates 60% less CO2 compared to a non biofuel source and liberates up to 80% less fine particles. While we are exploring these less-impactful solutions, we are aware that even though it is one of the most interesting alternatives on the market, the manufacturing and the use of biofuels is not without consequences for the environment and biodiversity (greenhouse gas emissions, monoculture, use of arable land, etc.). We are also aware that these solutions work well in France and England but are still complicated in other countries where we actively produce events. We are committed to participating in the evolution of those practices.

Air travel still represents the most significant source of CO2 emissions of any production. Demonstrating this fact, one of our biggest clients halved the number of invited guests from pre-pandemic to post-pandemic shows, and the global impact of the show was reduced in the same proportions mostly due to that change.

Travelling guests is one thing, but it is also important to take into account the impact of travelling production teams. We avoid air travel when possible and encourage train travel when there are reasonable options available. On production sites, we ask for electric or hybrid vehicles over diesel trucks. We choose hotels for our service providers that are close to venues or easily accessible by public transit or other low-impact means of transport. Whenever possible, we will prioritise local production companies, models, musicians, DJs, performers, and any other partners that are locally based to reduce the need for long-distance (often air) travel.

At times, many of our team members need to travel for an event because it takes place in a remote location or a location where we don’t have a local office. In anticipation of an event, our teams need to scout the venue, draft the set and make tests, see samples, and follow the construction executed by local teams. We have rationalised our scouting methods to reduce the number of trips and also avoid last-minute emergency travel as much as we can. A poorly prepared trip increases the number of visits we need to make. We have also learned to rely more and more on the local teams we employ.

To improve our carbon footprint and to be able to offset the CO2 emissions of our events, we must start by measuring each element of the production that impacts the carbon balance sheet as precisely as we can. This requires us to collect precise data from each of our partners. We complete tables and checklists to follow-up directly after every event otherwise the information can get lost and is harder to collect. We then analyse this data with specialised agencies in order to estimate an overall carbon footprint to counteract. Measuring represents a real commitment of time from the teams, for us but also for all our partners.

Once the carbon footprint has been carried out, we share our conclusions with our client so we can set up an adequate compensation system to offset greenhouse emissions. There are different ways to do this, they can finance environmental projects that either counteract those emissions or sequester carbon (process of capturing and storing carbon from the atmosphere). We have actions and partners to recommend to our clients but they make the final choice. Our clients usually compensate more than the number we give them.

Offsetting greenhouse emissions is as important as collecting feedback to develop better practices from one event to the next. Carbon audits allow us to understand the impact of each specific element of the production so we know where we need to continue to improve our solutions. Increasing awareness amongst our clients and partners is crucial, as to date, most of the solutions we put in place are tests and trials that we build together.

Fashion is a shifting, global industry, but we must strive to keep operations as local as possible by employing domestic teams and service providers at each event destination. Events that take place in major cities are able to benefit from the existing ecosystems of the fashion and luxury industries. However when we organise an event in a remote location, the event only makes sense if it can contribute to local economic development. Fashion and luxury are global industries, with global competition. Promoting local savoir-faire and expertise integrates smaller players into the conversation.

Redistributing to local economies, through direct action or NGOs, is another way of contributing. Working with local NGOs specialised in their field is efficient as they are more knowledgeable on how to optimise the resources given for social initiatives. We try to stay current about these initiatives and we rely on our network of partners to take benevolent actions.

While digital tools can replace and reduce the need for physical travel and other carbon-emitting factors, the storage of data and streaming still have real world impacts. Digital tools function across three categories: the devices we use to access content (computers, smartphones, tablets and other IoT connected devices); data centres, composed mainly of servers that store and process data; and networks that transfer data between devices and data centres (DSL/fibre routers, land based and undersea cables, radio transmitters, fibre optics).

Digital actions that have environmental impacts range from sending an email to streaming a video or commenting on an Instagram post. The subject of video is particularly interesting, considering the majority of digital assets for fashion weeks during the pandemic was video content. The pandemic has impelled fashion houses to accelerate the digitisation of their events. Today, online video alone generates 60% of global data flows (this data is collected from our partner Paris Good Fashion). This is why some clients now measure CO2 emissions derived from video streaming in order to offset those emissions.

Although our activities revolve around the creation of digital assets, we are committed to regularly informing ourselves of the best ways to mitigate the impact of digital technology on the environment.

It is our responsibility to monitor the social impact of our events. We always strive to learn about the local cultures of the places where we create events, to empower these communities and to integrate their rich customs, practices, materials and talents to enrich the cultural capital of these events. Our goal is to use our influence to help develop forward-thinking and innovative experiences for travelling guests and those watching at home.

Our events also help to promote the diversity we encounter and to improve inclusion and tolerance towards all the different social trends that exist today. We do everything in our power to help promote the end of prejudices about differences, whatever they are. Diversity is promoted as much through the casting of models and other talents than through the local teams we hire and how we collaborate together.

We try to promote tolerance and respect for the local cultures at the same time as we support inclusion and the development of progressive ideas. All these values are ever so important that all those events now circulate worldwide through social media, which means they are also accessible to younger generations. It is no longer just a question of making things right within the industry, it is about how our activities can impact ideas outside of fashion too.