Episode 72: Amanda Simons - Designing Sustainability Into Live Events

0:08 Hello, beautiful humans. Welcome to today's show. OK, so call me crazy, but I have a thing for women who know how to juggle. Not necessarily in the literal sense, but some women are just amazing in the way that they're able to juggle the needs of their families, being a loving mom of small kids and running a business and being a fervent activist for causes that they care about. Next guest is an extraordinary woman who seems to be doing just that. Meet Amanda Simons, cofounder of Honeycomb Strategies. Honeycomb is a very cool business that leans into environmental sustainability. In a nutshell, it's about making sure that we're caring for our planet. I'll let Amanda tell you more about herself and her awesome work.

0:50 So welcome to the show, Amanda. Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. Oh, it's wonderful to have you and to talk about you. So first of all, you, we've worked globally specializing in sustainability for almost 20 years, right? Yeah, yeah. I got my start honestly, working. I went over to France and helped start a bed and breakfast and Tour Company there, just to take people around to mostly artists but also cyclists, just to see the small village in the South of France. And that's really where I got my inspiration for living locally and just this different way of life in the pastoral context of southern France. And so it. Really shaped how I love the rest of my life. Wow.

1:32 Wow. And So what was it about that that led you to think about sustainability in particular? Yeah. So really what was interesting is that I shifted from shopping at supermarkets all the time, having a really big fridge, all of these sort of just more traditional American ways of living. And my house in France is really small. My refrigerator was small and we just shopped at the farmers markets every week, and it was fascinating. That's where everyone shot. There wasn't like a huge grocery store where we were. So it was really just what was seasonal, what was local to really just deal with our diet. And then also just taking the time to be around the small community where there were artisans, stone Masons, all these things that sort of we kind of take for granted in our regular lives that people actually make things that it's there, it's their way of life. So I really just wasn't grossed in that for years, and when I came back to the States, that was just such an important part of my journey.

2:30 Going forward and wanted that to stay with me. Yeah, I can totally relate. Because when I was younger, I would go over to England, my mother's British. And yeah, you'd go downstairs from the flat and there would be the local fishmonger and the fresh food. And because they did, they had a small flat with a tiny fridge. And so you bought locally and fresh for that day rather than. Yeah. And then by contrast, in the West, it was big cars, big, big SUV and massive refrigerators where you had a lot of stuff that's frozen and not really fresh. And so, yeah, this idea of just getting back to living each day and being a bit mindful about what you're doing with every day. Yeah, it was very purpose driven, which was really nice.

3:10 Wow. Wow. So at what point did you decide to start Honeycomb and tell us about what that is all about? Yeah. So that was kind of a long and interesting journey. So when I got back from France, I really dove in and said, OK, I'm going to study sustainability more. So this was sort of before. I don't want to age myself. But before there were sustainable master's programs. So I sort of made my own master's program at Portland State University, where I could combine my business background and economics and finance with sustainability, which at the time was really focused on really environmental issues. So it was a lot about like forestry initiatives or water conservation, things like that, which was really interesting to me. But really I wanted it with the business lens. So I went back to grad school and I just was looking for a parttime job and I got a job at an organization. That doesn't exist anymore.

4:01 Called the Green Meeting Industry Council and it was this nonprofit where it brought event planners and event suppliers together to talk about sustainability and the issues in that industry. Because people were really starting to see there's just so much waste that was happening. And just like so many things that they could try and address or that they wanted to try and address from everything from like carpet use to booth building to food and beverage really like how are we sourcing things so. So that was amazing to get involved in that group, to meet a lot of really key players who sort of started that movement in the industry. And it's where I met my cofounder, Lindsay Arrell. So she was working at the Colorado Convention Center at the time, leading a sustainability program there. And we really hit it off and we did a lot of education and programs together there.

4:49 So I was working for a consultant at the time, it was great and I started a family and unfortunately we had a bit of a a differing of opinions when it came to having. Kids and working. And so I sort of went out on my own. And luckily I had been working in that industry for a long time. And so that way I could balance having two small kids at home. A husband that travels, he's an airline pilot. So there was a lot to navigate there. And so I went out on my own and Lindsay and I joined forces in about 2017 because she had also gone out on her own. And it was a really nice partnership of two women, two moms who were working in the same sort of space that could really. Support each other's needs and flexibility, but also really do really meaningful work that we really wanted to keep pursuing. I think that that is such an important point because for companies that don't make it easy for women to have families and knowing.

5:45 I think that things have probably opened up a little bit more, especially over the last few years because there's so much visibility about it. But back then, when you had to take a child to a doctor's appointment or there was a school play or something like that, the attitude that you would get sometimes from upper management was really stressful. I it really made you feel like I am not doing well, either as a mom or as an employee. And there was always this conflict of interest between trying to raise a family and juggle your career, got passions in both places and so you created your own table rather than trying to get a seat at that table. Lindsay both did, which I think is really very notable and commendable.

6:25 And it's something that I think more and more women, I think now more women are graduating from college than men, but the more women are entering into the workforce than men. And it's because we are recognizing that it is OK to be your whole self and to understand that it's not necessarily work life balance. It's work life integration. It's like we have families and we can do it. We can, we can do what we want and we understand our limitations. But we recognize that that doesn't mean that you are any less of a person, an employee or a businesswoman because you have a family and because you've got children and are juggling these things and you can be successful in all aspects of your life as long as you take care of yourself and yeah. Yeah, 100%.

7:10 Yeah, 100%. And I think it was a hard leap because when you have small kids and also just in all honesty of starting your own business is scary, right? You just don't know. But I think just knowing that that work life integration was really important for me and was going to be really important throughout the rest of my career. That it just made the most sense and I am fortunate I had a partner that could help support that in a community around me. And like I said, Lindsay, to sort of both understand and that we could grow and do it at a sustainable rate, right. And that the output could be based on what we wanted to see and do. So that's sort of how we got together. And then as our kids have grown and we've sort of gotten a little bit more freedom with time from that, then we've sort of really pushed the envelope on what we wanted to do.

7:59 And expand our business and and get out there more. And there's also just like this fundamental shift now that's happening in the events industry and in globally, frankly around sustainability. I think the pandemic was a real eye opener for folks obviously in a lot of different ways, but definitely about the environment, what we consume, how we operate in the world, what's important. And so those were things that Lindsay and I had been preaching and working on with companies for years. And so now as everybody was catching up, it just sort of was this catalyst after the. Pandemic to really get more engaged and involved in the work that we were doing. So it's grown major props to your partner for being supportive because they know a lot of people don't have a supportive partner and some people don't have a partner and it becomes even that much more difficult.

8:46 And so those are gifts and blessings that you're able to have such a wonderful relationship. And I imagine it probably wasn't so easy during the pandemic to have a company that was working in the event space. No, it was. 1000 No, That must have been a little bit challenging, right? It was pretty wild actually. Lindsay flew to an event that was happening and when she landed the event said, oh, guess what, we're done. We're not running this event. And so she was like, OK, so this is real. So it was definitely very scary I think, for everyone in that time. But the silver lining for us, which I'm sure a lot of people found a silver lining, was that we suddenly had all this time that we had. Never had and something that we had been working on for a really long time but just couldn't keep moving it forward was becoming A/B Corp And so I was like great, we have this time now like let's do it.

9:41 So we spent a lot of that year getting everything in place and organizing a lot of things to do our B Corp certification. So we were able to just do that and wrap that up at the 2021. So that was really great. And that's been just such a magical community to become a part of and to be involved. With so it also sort of set us on a task which we kind of wanted to have that was still purposeful but wasn't like so tied into Oh my gosh, this industry just gonna implode and then everything. So yeah, So what was it about becoming A/B Corp that made you be like, OK, we want to do this, but we don't have the time. And it taking the better part of a year just is testament to the fact that it's not easy to actually become certified. But yeah, tell us why you decided to do that. Yeah, so Lindsay night.

10:29 Always been really familiar with B Corpse, just we were exposed to them a lot with some of the work we had done with the Green Meeting Industry Council that long ago. There were some people in that group that had become B Corpse that way back then. And so I think it was just this another level for us saying like we are doing all these really important, amazing things and we work in the world of certifications with clients, we help them go through that process and we felt like let's like put our money where our mouth is and like really? Really look at our process and also Lindsay and I wanted to grow Honeycomb at some point really when if everything was to come out, like we really wanted to be able to grow. And B Corp really makes you look at all your processes and what you're doing and how you're doing them. And so it was a really good foundation for us of oh, this is how we want to build a company.

11:21 So it really gave us that good foundation to sort of keep building when the time was right. Excellent. So I want to dive in more specifically to what Honeycomb is. Honeycomb does because I know we've talked a little bit around it. But yeah, tell us about like, what is the mission, what do you do for clients? What is the type of work that you do to help them? Yeah. So our mission is really to empower people with knowledge to make positive change by removing barriers and collaborating on data-driven, really holistic solutions for the future. And we do that through the live events industry. So we really want to inspire and unify those communities and so we work in the. Realm of live events. So that's like festivals, trade shows, conferences. And then we also work with venues, destinations, both sides of that puzzle that piece for an event to sort of take place. So we work with an event organizer basically to look at their whole impact.

12:19 So we look at things like energy, wastewater, obviously those are the big ones. Then we start looking at carbon emissions and then we also take into consideration. All of the social impact. So when you come to a city and you bring 30,000 people, what does that do to the city that you're in, the traffic, the labor market, How are you positively impacting that community and what are the negative impacts? And then we work with our clients to be really strategic around how can we reduce whatever negative impact that might bring. So instead of looking at like we're going to spend a lot of money and we're going to, maybe we'll buy food from somewhere far away or source wherever we really look to be Like how?

12:59 Can we keep that money local? How can we buy local? What items can we procure? What is the waste that's going to be left after the show? What could be donated to local communities, charities, schools, anything that's left over from some of these big stands or booth builds and things like that? How do we engage the local community so you have all these people coming, Are there CSR projects? Are there community needs that maybe this group might be interested in so we can tie those up and provide some social benefit there? So we really try and look at the whole. Picture there. And then from the arena and venue side, so we work with stadiums, arenas, venues. We recently sold a part of our company to partner with ASM Global, which is the largest venue manager in the world.

13:45 So they manage arena stadiums, venues worldwide to help them implement sustainability for all of those venues as well as when they're bringing on new venues, how are they building and developing that so that they're taking? Into consideration, the communities that are there historical issues or like addressing some of those needs of some of those maybe disadvantaged communities that might be sometimes where they want to build something or where they want to move a building or things like that. So really trying to understand what the communal impacts are of those things as well as the environmental impacts. So are we reducing our waste? Are we really looking at carbon emissions and fuel consumption for those facilities also just what they're procuring? Again, so making sure that they're trying to source as much stuff locally as they can, working through good labor laws, all those kind of things to really make sure that we're being the best stewards that we can in those communities in which we operate.

14:43 So, gosh, that is a lot of work. Yeah. No. And it's so to me it's refreshing to hear that companies, organizations, venues, stadiums are really looking at being much more mild mindful with every single aspect of how they are operating and running the business from the actual construction and the materials that they're using in even constructing to see what kind of emissions are in the materials to who's actually building and what is the impact on the local community. All of those things. Because those are the things that had been completely overlooked for years and years and years and years and years. And I think that it's only been within perhaps the last decade that it's really gotten to the point where if we are going to be consuming, if we're going to be engaging and if we're going to be enjoying life, then let's do it responsibly. And so companies such as yours, Honeycomb are helping for other organizations that are doing these big live events, which are massive to try to get down to.

15:46 If there's a point where we can be 0 net zero, you know that that's always like the big question mark about like what is net zero and how can we actually really get there and how do you and all of those things. But these certain steps are helping us to create more mindfulness as well as have the intelligence to make the right decisions. Yeah. And I would say too, like we're in this interesting industry where we're bringing all these people together and people are really cognizant of like, OK, well, am I traveling for this? Like why am I going or what am I doing to make business sense? Is it environmentally responsible, frankly. And so we, the way we kind of look at it as, and I think it really became clear after the pandemic when we couldn't be with anybody how important events are. They're this really like unique and powerful experience. To bring people together.

16:31 And so we want to make sure that that experience is the most sustainable it can be. Because really amazing things happen when people get together, right? Like they feel a better sense of community. They learn, they grow, they see different perspectives. And so for us, it's just such an important realm in which we work in. And so we want to make sure that whatever we're doing is just really minimizing those negative impacts so that people can feel good about coming together and feel really good about all the different pieces that come together. Geez, everything's just happening right now, OK? For years I've been going to natural products Expo W, which I think I believe is a clients of yours. And it always did astound me that for being in the natural industry that there was so much waste and I was only looking at what was on the floor left behind and how people were disposing of certain things or not. And I did notice over the course of years, more accommodation being made.

17:30 There would be more accommodations for the people who were exhibiting. So that if they did have product left behind, a lot of times they were like, you know what I We have all this stuff left behind, pallets of stuff and it's just too expensive to even ship back to our home warehouse. So we're just going to leave it here and it would just be left there and people would either take it or it would just go into the waste. And so having the opportunity to actually donate it to local shelters or local nonprofits so that they can benefit from the product that is left behind was helpful. And it's nice to see that that's available to the exhibitors there. Yeah, yeah, that's been a really awesome project and client that we've worked with for years. And that's a great example of just trying to shift what people have always done to figuring out ways to manage that stuff. So there is a huge donation program that's tied to that show.

18:21 Now at this point, there's been tons of movement on reusable serviceware, having compostable like testers and tasters and all those. Anything so that we can really eliminate single use plastics, that kind of stuff. And then the other really cool thing that happens sometimes when we work with clients, which is really where we get our our inspiration on why we do what we do is that when we're working with a group of people and they're all coming together, right. These big trade shows are like where their industry comes together to solve problems, frankly. And then you see that, oh, there's actually sometimes just problems within our industry and at the trade show and all these things are sort of happening together. So what was really cool about natural? Products, is that one of the issues that they were seeing and a lot of waste that they were actually seeing at the show had to do with packaging and the issues around packaging. And So what ended happening was we sort of talked about this packaging issue that we were seeing at the trade show and all this waste.

19:14 And then they were like, wow, we should really address packaging. And so then they started a summit around packaging at the trade show based on sort of these findings that we saw there. And now it's grown into this really huge group of people who are really trying to address packaging in the. Products industry, which is exactly what we are trying to do and see like to make these big changes in the world. So it's things like that that end up happening by being there and being with these groups to sort of address these bigger huge industry issues, which is really where Lindsay and I get our inspiration and why we just want to keep going and work with more clients to solve some of these bigger issues. Yeah, it starts with the awareness. It starts with the idea that nothing is too small. Of course, you can go after the big ones and the big things like total industries, the package industry I like. So looking forward to the day where we can find this decent substitute for plastic and for a lot of these like polylayered materials that are all of products are in that are just not recyclable or the, yeah, it just goes straight into the landfill.

20:16 And so I mean, I look forward to the day where there's just like multiple solutions, multiple creative solutions for those types of things for sure. But yeah, starting the conversation and what we were saying before is, you know, it starts with just the awareness of the problem. It starts with people really kind of galvanizing and saying, you know, this is a cause that is important. We want to have an Earth that's going to be here a few more years. And the way to do it would be to stop the greenhouse gases. These emissions will help to stave off climate change and to do that can be less reliance on FOSIL fuels. Understanding what we're doing in terms of end of life waste, managing what we're doing and every part of the life cycle of products and the way that we're treating people and make sure that both people and planet are truly as sustainable as possible.

21:04 Yes, definitely. That's our that's our mission. Excellent. And So what do you have on your horizon? What is exciting for Amanda Simons coming into the future? Yes. Well, we're really excited. We just brought on another member of our team, someone we worked with for years, who's really respected in the sports and venue industry. His name's Tim Trefser, so he just joined us this week to really build out our venue. And sports offerings. So we're really excited to have him on board. He was also a member of GMIC. So we've known him for a really long time and he's had some amazing jobs and led a lot of sustainability programs at some really incredible venues. So yeah, we're really excited to just keep growing and really service our clients to just provide them with solutions.

21:51 It's really fascinating right now where clients are coming from and sort of their background. So it's interesting. It seems to always make. Months when we're working with clients like for natural products Expo or for green builds or things like that, right, They're really tied to sustainability missions for those groups, those associations. And we're moving to work to groups that maybe aren't as traditional but are really caring about sustainability. So we have a really great partnership with the National Business Aviation Association. They're really looking into sustainable aviation fuels, electric flying, electric transportation, so they're putting a ton of energy. Resources into solving again some of those big industry problems and they want to make sure that their events are that place where they're also being really sustainable.

22:37 So we're on our way to Europe next month for their European big Expo and then they have one in the US as well. So there's just some really cool new clients that are coming on that are in less traditional sustainable I would say, industries that really are putting their money where their mouth is and really trying to improve. So that's the most exciting. And then I live in Portland, OR and so I'm also just. Looking forward to the spring and the summer, funny today I'm really excited to get outside and not be soaking wet. So that will be great. Yeah, just to do that and to get more opportunities to go on site and to be with our team. You know, we're all virtual. So as a business owner and I think also as a lot of people just out there working, it's awesome to be virtual.

23:21 It's also sometimes hard to just feel that sense of community and team when everybody's like out and so it's really important for us to. Just as a business that everybody gets an opportunity to be together. So we are having our first retreat, which I'm really excited about South that everybody can come and spend a long weekend together and we can talk about the company and plan for the future and really make sure that that their voices are heard and that it's not just Lindsay and I driving the initiatives. You know, I think we really value all of the people on our team and we really understand they bring a unique perspective and so that's what's going to make our business successful. So I'm really excited to have that that meeting with everyone for sure.

24:04 For those of you listening, I want to just recap because I think this is such a beautiful example here of the example that is Amanda Simons that you know, when she was younger, she took a trip and was inspired by the environment, by the area where she was living or where she was at the time, which was in France. And that caused her to think about mindfulness in the way that she was living her own life, which caused her to think about the sustainability of the environment, which cascaded and escalated into her starting this business, which now has an impact, I would say worldwide in many cases. Because you have clients that are all over the place and making a difference not only in the actual live events that she is working with, but also the industries and reaching out to other industries that hadn't been so sustainable in the past, including airlines.

24:57 I mean, look at what the trajectory is of what Amanda has been able to build just by the simple inspiration. And so that's what I want you to take away from this podcast is that you might have that spark, you might have that interest and that excitement in you that really catalyzes you to want to take action. It could be to solve a problem. It could be to make the world a better place. It might be to touch other people's lives in a very meaningful way. And to me, I find it so nice to bring on guests just like Amanda, who have shown that there is power and there is opportunity not only in that spark of but in the people that she's met along the way. He or she, as she found her partner, she's finding new employees through the people that she's been able to align with, the people who she's been able to have a similar purpose and values with that are like, yeah, this is important to me too. So find those connections, really nurture them, hold on to them, really see what you can do to build and collaborate together.

25:52 Because to me, it's much more about collaboration than it is about any kind of competition. We can do much greater things when we build together. And so that's why I'm so appreciative for being able to offer this podcast to you and hopefully you got a nugget of inspiration today out of it. Thank you so much, Amanda, for being my guest today and for juggling all that you had today. Thank. You so much for having me and for juggling with me. I really appreciate it. I will juggle with you. Have a great one. Thank you. You too. Thank you for listening to the Human Beauty Movement Podcast. Be sure to follow, rate and review us wherever you stream podcasts. The Human Beauty Movement is a community based platform that cultivates the beauty of humankind.

26:36 Check out our workshops, find us on social media, and share our inspiration with all the beautiful humans in your life. Learn more at the Human beautymovement.com Thank you so much for being a beautiful human.