A few years ago, at a major international airport, I was late for my flight and going through the long line at security. As a result of scrambling to arrive on time, I had forgotten to pour out the ice water in my Yeti Water bottle, covered with my favorite stickers. I had a choice: to allow the agents to throw away my water bottle or go back through security. I didn’t have time to go back through, so I begrudgingly hurried off to my gate.

The “Emotional Support Water Bottle” has become an extension of us, like our phones—and that fact doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon. From Yeti to Stanley’s climb to ubiquity everything in between, it’s rare to see someone out in public without one. When attending events, however, we typically see single-use plastic bottles. The outlier who does not like bottled water from plastic bottles, I always look for refillable ice water stations or a water fountain where I can fill my bottle. It can be a real challenge to avoid plastic, and one that usually has me wandering down to the hotel bar and asking for ice water!

With 2025 being the year I dedicate myself to learning more about sustainability, I keep coming back to the statistic that states that only 23% of disposable plastic bottles are recycled. In fact, over 60 million plastic bottles are thrown away in the US—every day. (Source)

Events likely make up a larger part of the statistic above than we want to ruminate on. One solution that some hotels have adopted: offering refillable ice water containers in each conference space. This greatly reduced the plastic waste from a 250-person conference I planned last year, but I wanted to get a sense of guests’ thoughts about this change. In addition to the Client’s post-event survey, which didn’t specifically call out the lack of bottled water, I polled my LinkedIn Audience. Let’s see how they felt!

I asked: “As an attendee, which type of water do you prefer?”

1. Bottled Water received 26% of the votes

2. Refillable options won, with 40% of the votes

3. I want options—both please! Received 32% of the votes

4. It doesn’t matter to only 2% of voters

If we go with the data that is widely available to us online, we see that approximately 60% of adults in the US carry a water bottle, with women being slightly more likely to purchase a reusable bottle for environmental reasons than men. The feedback from our poll echoes some of those sentiments, with an understanding of human behavior—when we are away from home and thus our ‘comfort zone,’ we want a variety of options to choose from.

Based on the results of this survey and a little research, I’d recommend offering ice water stations and bottles of water, by request or on consumption, with the end goal to be chipping away at the amount of plastic you use per event or per annual event season.

What’s your best advice to keep sustainability in mind in events?