BRICS Friendship Cities Conclave 2026: Advancing Sustainable Events and Zero Waste Management

Quick answer: Greenmyna served as the Sustainable Events Partner for the BRICS Friendship Cities Conclave 2026, held in Mumbai on August 11 and 12. The two-day summit, part of India's BRICS presidency, ran on battery-powered infrastructure with no single-use plastic bottles and was audited for zero waste to landfill, a first for a government event at this diplomatic scale.

Key takeaways

• The BRICS Friendship Cities Conclave 2026 brought together representatives from roughly 15 cities across BRICS nations in Mumbai, under the theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability."

• Greenmyna managed sustainable execution end to end: battery-powered infrastructure, no plastic bottles, sustainable banners and signage, and structured waste segregation.

• The event was audited for zero waste to landfill, meaning every material used was tracked through to its actual end-of-life outcome, not just diverted and assumed handled.

• This is one of the first Indian government-hosted events at this diplomatic scale to commit to a zero-waste-to-landfill audit, a real precedent for how large public sector events approach sustainability from here.

• The event reflects a pattern in how Greenmyna works: sustainability commitments only mean something when they're measured and verified, not simply stated.

BRICS Friendship Cities Conclave 2026

Mumbai hosted the BRICS Friendship Cities Conclave 2026 on August 11 and 12, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Worli, organised by Mumbai First alongside the Government of Maharashtra and the Government of India, as part of India's year holding the BRICS chair. The conclave built on the original BRICS Friendship Cities framework launched back in 2016, also hosted in Mumbai, bringing the idea full circle a decade later at a moment when Indian cities are under real pressure to demonstrate climate resilience, not just discuss it.

Sustainability wasn't a side track at this event. It was built into the premise. A summit centred on urban climate resilience only carries weight if the room hosting that conversation is willing to practice what it's asking cities to do. That's the gap Greenmyna was brought in to close, turning policy language into something delegates could actually walk past and see working.

Greenmyna's Role as the Sustainable Events Partner

The conclave's sessions covered climate resilience, urban planning, and sustainable development at the policy level, the kind of conversation that happens in a room with flags and translators and carefully worded panels. Greenmyna's job was different. It meant translating that same conversation into what actually happened on the ground: which materials got used, where the waste went, what powered the lights.

That distinction matters more than it sounds. Sustainable event management works best when material and infrastructure decisions get made during planning, vendor selection, power specification, signage sourcing, rather than retrofitted once the logistics are already locked in. Bolt-on sustainability tends to look like a recycling bin next to a diesel generator. Built-in sustainability looks like the generator never showing up in the first place.

Key Sustainable Practices at the Conclave

A few concrete choices carried most of the weight.

Battery-powered event infrastructure replaced the diesel generators that are still the default at almost every large Indian event, corporate or government. Single-use plastic bottles were eliminated entirely, going beyond what India's existing single-use plastic rules, in effect since July 2022, technically require. Signage and banners were sourced with actual end-of-life handling in mind, a category most events treat as disposable without a second thought once the branding comes down. And structured waste segregation ran across both days of the event, staffed and organised rather than left to a few unlabeled bins in a corner.

Practice area	Typical large-event default	BRICS Friendship Cities Conclave 2026
Power infrastructure	Diesel generators	Battery-powered infrastructure
Drinking water	Single-use plastic bottles	Plastic bottles eliminated
Signage and banners	Standard vinyl, disposed post-event	Sustainable materials with planned end-of-life
Waste handling	Mixed waste, minimal segregation	Structured on-ground segregation
Sustainability verification	Self-reported or unverified	Independently audited for zero waste to landfill

Working Towards Zero Waste to Landfill

Zero waste to landfill sounds like a slogan until it's actually defined. In practice, it means every material used across an event gets tracked to a verified end point, recycled, composted, reused, or otherwise diverted, rather than assumed to be handled responsibly once it leaves the venue.

The audit is what separates that from a claim. An audit means independent verification of where materials actually went, not a self-reported estimate written into a post-event summary. That distinction is worth sitting with, because most "zero waste" language attached to events never gets checked by anyone outside the organisation making the claim.

For a government event with this kind of diplomatic visibility, that verification carries extra weight. Public sector events set precedent, whether or not that's the intention. A confirmed, audited outcome at this scale gives other event organisers, public and private, a concrete reference point instead of an abstract goal to aspire toward someday.

From Climate Conversations to Real-World Action

Inside the conclave, Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister and Governor both spoke to delegates from across BRICS nations about resilience, cooperation, and the urgency of translating urban policy into outcomes cities can actually feel. That message lands differently when the room it's delivered in is running on battery power instead of diesel, and when the water bottles handed to delegates aren't the plastic ones everyone's used to seeing at events exactly like this one.

That's the throughline worth naming directly. Credibility on climate policy gets stronger when the event hosting that conversation visibly practices it, rather than leaving sustainability as a topic confined to the agenda.

Why Sustainable Event Management Matters

Beyond this one conclave, the same principles hold for events of any size. Reducing environmental impact means measuring footprint against a real baseline, not just swapping in a few visibly green touches. Responsible resource use means choosing infrastructure and materials with their end-of-life already planned, not figured out after the fact. Better waste management means structured segregation and verified diversion, not aspirational language on a signage board. And all of it adds up to a more conscious experience for the people actually attending, who notice the difference between an event that talks about sustainability and one that's built around it.

Greenmyna's Vision for Sustainable Events

Sustainability should be something people experience, not just something they hear about in a session. That's the operating principle behind how Greenmyna approaches events like this one: build practical, scalable solutions that hold up at government-summit scale as well as at a corporate conference or a wedding, and give attendees something they can actually see working, a segregation station in use, infrastructure that isn't running on diesel, rather than a promise made from a stage.

The Bottom Line

The BRICS Friendship Cities Conclave 2026 gave Greenmyna a chance to prove something at a scale that carries real weight: that a major diplomatic summit and a genuinely sustainable event aren't in tension with each other. Sustainability doesn't need another conversation about what should happen eventually. It needs events willing to show, audited and verified, what can happen now.

Planning an event that needs to hold up to the same kind of scrutiny? Greenmyna's corporate events team builds sustainability into execution from day one, and the ESG services team helps organisations turn commitments like this into measurable, reportable outcomes.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the BRICS Friendship Cities Conclave 2026? A two-day summit held in Mumbai on August 11 and 12, 2026, bringing together representatives from roughly 15 cities across BRICS nations to discuss climate resilience, urban planning, and sustainable development, organised by Mumbai First with the Governments of Maharashtra and India.

2. What role did Greenmyna play at the BRICS Friendship Cities Conclave 2026? Greenmyna served as the Sustainable Events Partner, managing battery-powered infrastructure, eliminating single-use plastic bottles, sourcing sustainable banners and materials, and running structured waste segregation across the event.

3. What does zero waste to landfill mean for an event? It means every material used is tracked to a verified end-of-life outcome, recycled, composted, or reused, rather than assumed to be handled responsibly, and confirmed through independent audit rather than self-reporting.

4. Why is zero-waste event management important for large government or diplomatic events? These events carry outsized visibility and set precedent for how public sector events approach sustainability going forward, which makes a verified outcome more consequential than it would be at a typical private event.

5. How can businesses plan a sustainable event in India? Start with material and infrastructure choices at the planning stage rather than adding them in later, and work with a partner who can track and verify outcomes rather than just source eco-labelled products.