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Sustainability at Africa Tech Festival

The Africa Tech Festival team is committed to positively impacting people and the planet. We want to play a vital role in helping the Tech industry across Africa improve its own sustainability by connecting people with the networks and knowledge they need to help solve the significant challenges of the future. 

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Better Stands and sustainable options

At Africa Tech Festival we are committed to delivering a sustainable event for both exhibitors and attendees.

Disposable, single-use stands account for around 80% of the total waste from our event, which is why we are launching the Better Stands programme.

Better Stands is about moving away from the use of disposable stands to not only vastly reduce waste, but also improve the ease, quality, safety and sustainability of the exhibitor experience at our events.

We believe that sustainable, reusable stand options offer a better way forward for the events industry. As an exhibitor you can work with your Exhibitor Appointed Contractor to design a stand that fits this criteria.

What we're committed to doing

Inspiring Sustainability

  • We are committed to embedding sustainability into our event to inspire our sector to be more sustainable, promoting the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
  • We put sustainability at the forefront of our planning and production of the event and collaborate with vendors to do the same
  • We encourage and promote sustainability to our attendees through education and sharing
  • AfricaIgnite is the flagship event for founders, investors, and key players in the tech ecosystem highlighting the critical role of entrepreneurship in fuelling Africa’s digital economy – it also helps drive innovation in the region
  • We’ve partnered with GirlHype, a local charity in Cape Town dedicated to closing the gender gap in Tech

Environmentally Responsible

Our goal is to become carbon neutral, halve our waste, and save customers more carbon than we emit by 2025, as a stepping stone to being zero waste and net zero carbon by 2030 or earlier. Here are just some of the things we’ve done to stay at the forefront of driving change within the events industry:

  • We ensure sustainability is considered when making our procurement choices, whether that's catering, our venue choices, or the accommodation we promote to attendees
  • We provide the option for attendees to offset the environmental impact of travel during registration
  • We’ve replaced almost all foam core signage with signage made from 100% recycled or recyclable cardboard substrate
  • We’ve eliminated single-use plastic from our event since 2022
  • We’ve eliminated printed conference materials, now publishing all our conference presentations online

Socially Responsible

Africa Tech Festival champions Diversity and Inclusion and seeks to create value for our host cities and communities. We want to ensure that all attendees feel welcome and included at our event. A few of our 2024 programs around Diversity and Inclusion include:

  • We are committed to welcoming a diverse range of speakers across our agenda
  • The venue is physically accessible for all attendees. It also has a prayer room and nursing room available
  • We are recommending visitors visit local restaurants and attractions to help the local economy 
  • Using local suppliers as much as possible for sourcing AV equipment, technical crew, furniture, and signage

Learn more about our sustainability initiatives

YOUR WELLBEING AT AFRICA TECH FESTIVAL

As your host, we seek to create an all-encompassing culture of well-being at our event. Programs include:

  • We are hosting a fitness challenge to encourage exercise and wellbeing
  • We have an allocated wellness zone to welcome everyone to relax
  • Healthy meal options and hydration breaks. Stay hydrated throughout the event with regular water breaks!
  • Water refill stations throughout the conference venue.
  • Easy access to the outdoors
  • It can be tough being on your feet all day, so wear comfortable shoes and take regular breaks.
  • If you require special assistance or other reasonable accommodations while at the conference and/or expo, please contact info@africatechfestival.com  at least four weeks prior to the event date
  • Africa Tech Festival’s Code of Conduct guides the expectations of attendee conduct at our events. Participation in Africa Tech Festival requires that all attendees be considerate and respectful of their peers and will not tolerate demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behaviour and speech.

HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT OUR SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS

  • As an attendee, please consider the following:
  • Consolidate your total business travel by making the most of your time at Africa Tech Festival
  • You can save yourself travelling to meet individual companies, by arranging to meet them all at Africa Tech Festival. This will help reduce your costs and carbon footprint.
  • Consider how you'll get to the event and if you can avoid air travel or take lower-carbon transport
  • Bring a refillable bottle to save plastic
  • Recycle your waste onsite and in your hotel where possible
  • Avoid food waste
  • Only take the give-aways or brochures you need and will use, consider if there are digital alternatives

FASTERFORWARD BY INFORMA

  • Africa Tech Festival is part of Informa. Sustainability at Informa focuses on the long-term impacts we have on customers, colleagues, the communities we work in, and the environment. For this reason, Informa developed the FasterForward approach to sustainable business.
  • Informa’s aim is to become an ever more sustainable, positive-impact business. Through the FasterForward program, we are embedding sustainability into everything we do and seizing opportunities to help our customers and markets do the same.
  • FasterForward is a structured three-part program with ambitious commitments and a wide range of activities, covering Informa's business operations, our brands and products, and our broader community impact. When it comes to sustainability, we’re moving FasterForward.
  • Africa Tech Festival has been working with Informa's central sustainability team on creating bespoke priorities that are right for the event's audience and subject matter. Our team was awarded the Faster Forward Runner-Up Award due to all of our sustainability initiatives and impact.

AFRICA TECH FESTIVAL POWERED BY RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY

  • As part of our continued commitment to the sustainability of Africa Tech Festival, we have switched to 100% renewable electricity for our events. This makes our electricity usage carbon neutral and significantly reduces the carbon footprint of our event.

COLLABORATION FOR GOOD

  • We are dedicated to sustainability through our partnerships and collaborators.

MEET OUR 2023 CHARITY PARTNERS

In 2023 we collaborated with the following charity partners - all doing fantastic work in tech, education and sustainability through supporting their communities.

Stay tuned for details about our 2024 charity partners!