Event logistics specialists ZiaBia Events Consultancy achieved ECOsmart certification in 2024 and have since continued to build on their sustainability initiatives across the business.
Sustainability is increasingly shaping how meetings and events are designed, delivered and measured. For agencies, frameworks such as Greengage ECOsmart certification provide a structured way to embed sustainable practices into day-to-day operations.
We spoke with ZiaBia’s co-founder and Director, Debbie Bell, about the agency’s journey, the value of collaboration with Greengage, and how the industry is evolving.
Tell us a little bit about ZiaBia and your background there.
I am one of the co-founders and directors of ZiaBia. My fellow co-founder, Vicky Gardner, and I met at another agency, and we decided we wanted to set up on our own, which we did back in 2012.
We’re now in year 14, and we deliver events with passion. It’s all about relationships – we’re a service industry, and that was really important to us – we wanted to deliver events and forge those strong relationships with clients.
Before ZiaBia, I worked with various agencies and gained a broad range of experience.
Prior to that, I worked in hotels, so my expertise centres on hospitality, and I took those skills and utilised them to deliver events across the UK and globally for a variety of clients in different verticals and sectors.
I have experience across all aspects of event logistics, which is our focus at ZiaBia, where we partner with suppliers as needed for each client. We know that there is no one-size-fits-all solution and every event and client is different. Our partnerships and long-standing relationships reflect that, too.
We always look at the best fit for each event because there are so many factors in those decisions – location, sustainability, budgets – it’s all about what the client wants to achieve.
You’re a busy lady. Is your role quite varied?
Yes, it covers a lot of areas. Maybe less hands-on event delivery these days, although we had a really busy 2025, so I have been delivering onsite.
My role in the business is general operations. I oversee event logistics policies, processes, HR, GDPR and IT Security and sustainability.
We became B Corp certified at the end of 2024, so I’m also on the project team for that. Its an ongoing process, the B Corp standards changed recently, so we are now working through those changes and working towards recertification.
I’m also in our sustainability action squad (SAS)! The three of us – myself alongside Rebecca, our senior project manager, and Emily, one of our event consultants – are very passionate about it.
One thing we really focused on in 2024, when we first met Andrew Perolls from Greengage, was looking at what we’re doing as a business in terms of sustainability, culture, and wellbeing. We thought about how we could become a better business as a result of focussing on these areas.
You mentioned meeting Greengage early on. Can you tell us about your collaboration and achieving ECOsmart certification?
We’ve always got industry events on our radar, and we attended the Greengage Conference and Awards in January 2024. We didn’t know much about them at that point, but we were already talking about starting our B Corp journey.
I met a couple of Greengage team members on the day of the conference and enjoyed the event. It was really beneficial from a sustainability perspective, and I was introduced to Mark Bevan, whom I knew from within the industry.
He filled me in on Greengage and ECOsmart, and I was amazed by it all. I immediately thought, ” We absolutely need to do this – the portal looks great, and we’d love to work with you.”
We set up team SAS in February, and one of the first projects was to become ECOsmart-certified as a business. We gave ourselves until the end of 2024 to go through the whole process, so we started regular calls with Andrew and Becks, and we actually achieved our certification in July 2024.
It was such a collaborative experience, and they showed us where we could focus to improve what we were doing and It was quicker than we had anticipated because they were so supportive.
We worked through that in 2024, which was a really amazing experience. We were thrilled to be certified early and were recertified again in August 2025.
It’s great to see Greengage growing and developing too. We were finalists and won gold for the sustainability team of the year at their last awards. The team was so proud to be recognised for what we’ve done.
For ZiaBia, everything is a collective – we achieve as a team, so everybody gets involved in that recognition too.
What sustainability priorities are you focusing on now?
What we’ve done so far as a business is focus on what we’re doing – getting our own house in order first.
We measure our own footprint currently and have sustainability on our bi-weekly team meeting agenda – we look at new initiatives and anything good we’ve seen that venues are doing.
Now, we are looking what we’re doing with clients’ events, including carbon measurement. It can be a minefield in terms of where to look and how to get support.
That’s why I’m very excited to be working with Greengage. We’ve been speaking to Rebecca and Andrew there, and learning about their carbon measurement tool for meetings and event organisers, IMPACTportal.
It’s a fantastic tool, so easy to use – we have now got a licence in place and the team have had training.
Has sustainability always played a part in your professional life?
I’m always conscious of what I’m doing personally, recycling and doing all the good things you do in your home environment.
But from a business perspective, it’s been more since COVID. That time taught us a lot about what we could do as the human race. We still found a way to connect without travel during that time. But it also proved, more than anything, that face-to-face connection is really important – we can achieve a balance though with sustainability even with face to face. Its acting with purpose.
That’s when sustainability became a greater professional focus for me.
You mentioned recycling and things at home – what does sustainability mean to you personally?
I’m very fortunate to be married to a retired chef, and his passion is his allotment. We grow a lot of our own vegetables, which means we’re able to share produce with friends and family. And occasionally it goes to the team at work.
I’m really lucky, and because he’s from the industry as well, he understands and is supportive what we do as a business – he’s very much into food provenance and reducing food waste and so on.
Have you seen attitudes towards sustainability change in the events industry? I was speaking with Ruth Duggan at Doyle Collection, who said that because live events halted overnight, businesses were able to look at what they were doing.
I think it’s part of a wider change. Events have become more rounded with consideration of sustainability, wellbeing, accessibility and inclusivity.
That’s definitely something else that has become much more important in the last few years. People have started to put more time for wellbeing on their agendas, realising we needed to look after attendees.
It’s not just about having a quick break – it’s giving space for those face-to-face connections or networking opportunities or personal wellbeing time.
Everybody has different priorities, so it’s about being more mindful that all of those priorities are embraced and included. It’s not just a tick-box exercise either; it needs to have value.
There has been a very noticeable shift in attitudes in the last five years or so, hasn’t there? It really did used to be a tick box exercise back in RFPs a decade ago, and it completely changed, hasn’t it? Clients – and their delegates and the businesses – demand more.
Yes, it’s completely changed. And makes me think of what we value about Greengage – the support network. Andrew took the time to come and meet the team. He already knew Rebecca and me, but he came to Bristol, had a team day with us, and we had the most interesting conversation around sustainability. And we honestly couldn’t stop the team from asking him questions. As the session really sparked their curiosity.
Andrew is such a wealth of information, and it’s really important for us to have access to that knowledge, relationships, and the Greengage network.
You mentioned earlier that sustainability is a collective effort across the team.
Because we all work remotely, we do quarterly wellbeing challenges – one of those centred on sustainability.
We created a Teams chat for that challenge to share initiatives and things we were doing well. For example: switching off everything at the mains at home, using the economy setting on the washing machine, growing vegetables, sharing recipes, and walking instead of taking the car.
Everyone got involved and shared ideas. It was a great collective challenge, and we used much of that information when writing a working-from-home policy.
Everyone buys into the policy because we were all involved in its content.
So many ideas came out of our team challenge. It’s about being more aware, too. We didn’t have a single-use plastic policy before we started working with Greengage. Now, we can look at the business, and what we do for clients’ events – What should we be doing, and what can we recommend, even just in proposals to improve outcomes.
You guys signed up for the Conscious Pledge on single-use plastics.
Yes. Andrew shared that one with us – a really simple way to swap plastic for purpose. So, replacing single-use plastics and giveaways at meetings with suppliers and encouraging suppliers to do the same.
What motivates you personally about working in sustainability?
If you see the research, it’s scary. We’ve got to do something, and we’ve all got to be better. In the hospitality industry, we know people need to get together, and we know we can make improvements.
If there was one sustainability tip you could share with others in the industry, what would it be?
Mine is remembering that even one small change makes a difference. Every little thing or action matters. Collectively, we have all become better. That’s why we talk about it as a team and discuss ideas.
I would add another, actually – speak to people. There are so many people in the industry willing to give their time and share knowledge. Community is key.
Looking ahead, what are you most excited about in terms of sustainability projects?
Carbon measurement, definitely.
Greengage’s improvements in IT, too – they’re great at streamlining the portal. They take people’s feedback on, and just me looking at where it’s changed between 2024 and 2025 is amazing. I’ve met their IT Manager now, and it’s great because it helps us all be more accountable and collaborative.
They’re building things with the user in mind – we’re all busy delivering events, so Greengage is taking this all on board. They’re making everything as streamlined and as easy to use as possible, and that really appeals to me.
Inspired by ZiaBia’s journey? Whether you’re just starting to structure your sustainability approach or looking to go further with measurement and reporting, the Greengage team is here to support you.
