Sustainability Pledge

Purpose

Black Hat is committed to positively impacting the cybersecurity community and the planet. Our aim is for our community to feel represented and knowledgeable of how Black Hat is delivering sustainable events and how each of our stakeholders can contribute. We are committed to the below initiatives for all our events.


Initiatives

Inspiring Sustainable Development

We are committed to inspiring sustainable development in the cybersecurity community, while promoting the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals:

  • We work with contractors and vendors that align with our sustainability standards
  • We partner with venues that have their own rigorous sustainability programs, such as: Mandalay Bay Convention Center, ExCeL London, Marina Bay Sands, and the Metro Toronto Convention Centre
  • We establish purposeful partnerships with non-profit associations
  • As a team, we prioritize sustainability in event decision making and work closely with the central sustainability team to ensure the shows we deliver meet our long-term sustainability goals
  • We have a Community & Career Briefings track, as well as a Community Program, dedicated to addressing the vast and diverse issues affecting the cyber community, as well as creating new purposeful partnerships and scholarship programs to increase access to our industry

Minimizing Environmental Impact

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:

  • Sustainability is front of mind when making all procurement choices and how they will affect our attendees, sponsors, and vendors
  • We choose general service contractors that value sustainability
  • We prioritize using digital signage, and in the instances we are unable to, we aim to use signage that is made from 100% recycled materials and/or is recycled post-event
  • We are moving away from printed conference materials and have created a mobile app for our events
  • We actively educate our sponsors on more sustainable options for booth buildouts
  • We are removing aisle carpet from each event. For example, this change helped us divert 102,000 square feet of carpeting from the landfill from Black Hat USA 2022. This is the equivalent of 46% of the length of the Las Vegas strip!
  • Our events are powered by renewable electricity, helping us in our journey towards Net Zero
  • 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 becoming a net zero carbon business 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:

Designing Socially Responsible Events

Black Hat seeks to create value for our host cities and communities and enhance Diversity and Inclusion within our events. We want to ensure that all attendees feel welcome and included:

  • We have established several scholarship programs to provide members of the cyber community the opportunity to attend our events
  • We have developed a thorough Code of Conduct that is implemented at all our events
  • We offer an on-demand experience, complete with captioning
  • We focus on highlighting content and sessions that pertain to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within the cyber community
  • We offer pronoun ribbons and there is an optional field on our mobile app to display pronouns
  • We recommend visitors support local restaurants, hotels, and attractions to help the local community and economy
  • We work to make sure our events are accessible to all, by providing dedicated seating and attendee resources. Extensive resources such as a prayer room, childcare and a nursing suite are provided at our largest event, Black Hat USA

How you can help us reach our sustainability goals by reducing your carbon footprint

  1. Consider your travel options and the impact your chosen mode of transportation makes. Consider donating to a carbon offset project to help fund green initiatives.
  2. Consolidate your meetings during event week to make the most of on-site connections and lessen your yearly travel.
  3. Bring a refillable water bottle to fill up at our available water refill stations.
  4. Avoid food waste by ordering only what you will consume.
  5. Accept only the giveaway items and paper materials that you will use.
  6. Recycle your waste and compost materials as often as you can.

Sustaining Partners