#ThrowbackThursday: Stylish, Sustainable Events Over the Decade

In 2019, ESPN's 27th annual award show and its surrounding events were highlighted by eco-friendly decor. ESPN’s event marketing associate director, Bianca Gomez, worked with 15/40 Productions to produce the ESPY Awards after-party for the seventh consecutive year. The event took over 60,000 square feet of the Event Deck at L.A. Live, and incorporated natural elements to create an environmentally friendly, modern space. Patina, concrete, and wood finishes had touches of live greenery to further the sustainable feel.

The party’s central focal point was a tree that spanned 70 feet in diameter, with a trunk constructed from fiberglass. The 600 branches had been trimmed from trees on a farm, which producers describe as a natural process to help the trees grow stronger and longer. After the ESPYs party, the branches were repurposed as landscaping. Below the tree was a bar from sponsor Coors Light that was framed with mountain archways. To honor ESPN’s environmental efforts, all serviceware was made from compostable materials. See more: How the 2019 ESPY Awards Focused on Sustainability, Inclusivity—and the USWNT

For this year's Governors Ball—the official after-party for the Oscars—event design from Sequoia Productions was inspired by the concepts of "harmony and relaxation," with a color palette of copper and bronze metallics and accents of eggplant and amethyst. Overhead was a floating chandelier made from 2,000 tubes of light, all constructed from recycled materials in varying finishes and textures. Eighty individual strings of Edison incandescent light bulbs added to the lighting design. Sustainability was a recurring theme throughout the event. The Academy eliminated the use of plastic bottles at all its Oscars-related events, including the Nominees Luncheon and the award show itself. See more: Oscars 2020 Preview: See the After-Party's Plant-Based Menu and Recycled Decor

At Huffington Post's Game Changers Awards in 2011, the focal point of the event's cocktail area designed by David Stark was a large sign in the shape of the number 100, a structure embedded with discarded chips and circuit boards from electronic devices. The façade of the bars also featured electronic waste scraps that were later recycled. To further highlight the integration of computer hardware into the decor, the floor was illuminated with circuit board-shape projections. See more: Recycled Circuit Boards, Local Fare Add Sustainable Elements to Huffington Post's Game Changers Awards

In 2013, architecture firm Raw Designs hosted an industry event on the rooftop of a parking garage. The event, which was produced by Kim Graham & Associates, celebrated human power. "While buildings and cranes seemingly build our urban landscape, we wanted to remind guests of the power people have in creating the ideas of shaping our future environments," said Raw Designs director Roland Rom Colthoff in a statement. Teams of triathletes pedaled bike generators provided by Arizona-based ASE Power. The athletes' motion discharged electricity into the event's power grid.

Local athlete Lauren Tomasich helped power the eco-friendly event by running in a giant hamster wheel, which also helped power up beats from New York-based DJ Alex Merrell. See more: Go Green: 9 Ideas for a Human-Powered Event

In 2014, Fox introduced its fall season with an eco-friendly casino-theme event, planned by Fox creative service’s Karin Pofsky at The Bungalow in Santa Monica. “I think when we originally started doing this event years ago, it was probably one of the first events for Fox, and probably in the industry, that focused on producing a big Hollywood event in a responsible and sustainable manner,” Pofsky said. The Bungalow's parking lot was converted into a casino using rented Astroturf flooring from Classic Party Rentals, which planned to reuse the material for additional events.

Locally grown, eco-friendly flowers in bamboo vases complemented the existing decor at The Bungalow. "No synthetic chemicals were used in the fertilizers, the organic waste was composted and decomposed," said Brian Worley, then co-owner of YourBash. "Runoff is used to fertilize the plants, and horse, cow, and goat waste are used to create natural fertilizer." See more: 10 Green Ideas From Fox's Fall Eco-Casino Party

The Green Living Show brought sustainable lifestyle ideas to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in 2015. The consumer show drew some 38,000 attendees—breaking attendance records—and those who took public transit or brought a piece of waste for recycling were given free admission. Here, Ikea crafted a 14- by 24-foot art installation made of recycled toilet paper. The installation promoted Ikea's use of recycled napkins, toilet paper, and paper towels in Canadian stores. See more: How This Trade Show Helped the Environment

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Blue Jeans Go Green denim recycling program, Cotton Incorporated hosted a pop-up gallery in 2016 that combined art, blue jeans, and education. Produced and designed by BMF Media Group, the event featured a setup inspired by the program, which collects donated denim from across the country and recycles it into cotton fiber insulation for homes. Elements included cotton-inspired decor, artful denim-infused stations, and informative life-size charts that showcased the recycling process and highlighted the program's civic-minded initiative. Here, a GIF photo booth featured a backdrop of various jean washes.

The event showcased a giant wall that explained the steps of how cotton becomes denim, which is then recycled into insulation. The diagonal sections each had a backdrop of the item relevant to the process it described. See more: How This Pop-Up Gallery Artfully Celebrated Recycled Denim

Japan's annual Winter Illuminations festival in 2013 displayed more than seven million sparkling LED lights, spread across the grounds of the Nabana no Sato botanical garden. The popular 200-meter-long Tunnel of Light enveloped guests in more than a million of the energy-efficient lights. See more: 6 Tips for Making Events Truly Eco-Friendly

At the 2014 Make It Right Gala in New Orleans, event designer David Stark created decor from construction materials that later were donated to the Make It Right Foundation's (founded by Brad Pitt) efforts to build homes in the city's Lower Ninth Ward and in other communities across the country. Here, Stark suspended door frames, ladders, and other construction materials to spell out the name of the foundation in an overhead decor piece.

For the small stage backdrop, 1,200 paint cans were arranged to spell out the word "give." See more: Why Brad Pitt's New Orleans Gala Had a Construction Theme

For Absolut Bar Recycle, which took place in April 2019 at West Edge, the brand tapped Team Epiphany to design an interactive space with vignettes and bars made from recycled materials and natural elements such as recycled wooden pallets, bubble wrap, and fresh flowers and greenery. The brand’s mission was to encourage locals to become better recyclers and raise awareness for recycling efforts in the city. The event featured blue furniture and plants to complement the Earth Day theme. A blue silhouette of the Absolut bottle was created with plastic bubble wrap.

Another wall of wooden pallets was located behind the bar, with green moss used to spell the name of the event and shelves holding Absolut bottles.

An installation promoting the campaign depicted the Absolut bottle as land surrounded by water. The wall was created entirely with recycled straws. See more: See an Absolut Bar That Accepted Recyclables as Currency