Sustainability isn't a "theme" we pick - Diego Ferragud Trillo, VDS

Diego Ferragud Trillo is an experienced founder and ecosystem builder who, over the past 10+ years, has helped multiple companies scale by leading strategic operations, launching innovative platforms, and building thriving communities. He is the Program Director at VDS (Valencia Digital Summit), one of the most important tech events in Southern Europe. He has a strong focus on sustainable practices, which he integrates into event execution. 

Events’ organizational structure and the way their agendas incorporate ESG topics play a crucial role in their carbon footprint and in shaping the conversations they drive within the startup ecosystem. 

Diego emphasizes that sustainability is not just a “theme” they choose:

“It’s a design constraint. In engineering, you build within the limits of your materials and your environment. 

For VDS, we treat the City of Arts and Sciences as a permanent, high-efficiency infrastructure that replaces the need for carbon-heavy, temporary builds. 

We’ve moved to a digital-first architecture where the app isn't just a feature, it’s the central nervous system that eliminates physical waste like paper, plastic badges, signage. 

Our concept is actually an operational protocol: if a process doesn't serve both the ecosystem’s growth and its environmental health, we re-engineer it.”

And they don’t just talk about this, they practice what they preach by strongly tracking sustainability metrics.

“We track three specific tiers:

• Social Equity: We hit a strict 35% female speaker target and 45% international participation in 2025. These aren't "nice-to-haves"; they are KPIs for the diversity of our intellectual capital.
• Operational Waste: We monitor the diversion rate of waste from landfills, using more than 25 dedicated recycling stations modeled after the world's cleanest events.
• Governance: We track the ESG maturity of the 1,600+ startups in our network. Our goal is to ensure that 100% of our pitch finalists provide verified ESG disclosures.”

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These metrics and goals have evolved over time as VDS has grown.

“Our goals have transitioned from a focus on Operational Density to Systemic Resilience. In the early days, the KPI was simple: build an efficient event where startups and investors could meet. Back then, it was primarily a logistics and attendance game.

Today, as we manage 12,000 attendees and facilitate access to investment portfolios exceeding €300 billion, the focus has shifted toward Strategic Anchoring. Our vision is to transform VDS from an annual event into a permanent innovation infrastructure.

Following the 2024 DANA storm, we realized that growth is irrelevant if it isn't resilient. We’ve moved from measuring success by volume to measuring it by our capacity to absorb crises and generate regional value. 

We are currently focused on decoupling our operational scaling from our environmental footprint. The future of VDS isn’t just about being Europe’s largest tech hub, it’s about becoming the operational standard for how a tech ecosystem protects and empowers its environment. We aren't just facilitating connections; we are designing the business model for the future of tech-driven cities.”

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Integrating all these mindsets and practices into such a large event is no easy task, Diego says, but that’s no reason to back down.

“There’s an operational paradox here: on one hand, we want to grow fast and bring 12,000 attendees together from all over the world; on the other, sustainability requires a more measured, deliberate pace. 

Integrating circular economy principles into catering for thousands or eliminating single-use plastics requires everything to run like a Swiss watch. It’s not easy, but if there’s no friction, you’re probably not innovating.”

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One of the biggest challenges they have faced until now is related to the environmental impact of people traveling internationally to attend the event.

“With 45% of our participants flying in from abroad, the largest portion of our carbon footprint lies outside our direct operational control. From our perspective, our focus isn't just on "regretting" that footprint, but on optimizing Value Density per Kilometer. 

If someone flies from San Francisco or Helsinki, my operational responsibility is to ensure that the connections, capital, and knowledge they gain here justify that environmental cost. We are exploring high fidelity offsetting models and mobility partnerships that actually move the needle, but it remains a massive optimization challenge.

On the other hand, the most disruptive progress has been in the Institutionalization of ESG Criteria. We’ve moved from treating impact as a qualitative "nice-to-have" to turning it into an operational filtering standard. In the VDS Startup Competition, we no longer just evaluate Product-Market Fit or financial traction; we’ve integrated rigorous ESG analysis as a core entry requirement.”

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Looking at the event market at large, Diego says that ignoring the environmental impact it has is simply put, a poor long-term management strategy.

“As organizers, we deal with people, infrastructure, and logistics. If we ignore our environmental impact, we are ignoring the operational risks that could eventually put us out of business. In Valencia, we’ve learned the hard way that the climate isn't theoretical; it has the power to bring an entire region to a standstill.

Beyond that, it’s a matter of consistency. Tech events are, by definition, platforms for the future, so you can’t sell the future and progress if your operational methods belong to the past. 

Paying attention to environmental impact isn’t just an ethical choice; it’s a matter of operational efficiency and brand relevance. If you can’t optimize your resources and reduce your waste, you’re showing that you don’t know how to innovate in your own backyard. 

Ultimately, the events that survive will be the ones that understand that sustainability isn't an extra cost, it’s the foundation that ensures we can keep meeting ten or twenty years from now.

Our job is to lead by example through our own operations. If we’re hosting an event that prides itself on innovation, we can’t run it using last century’s processes.

Our focus is on making the VDS machinery cleaner every year. We aren’t at the level of the world’s massive legacy summits yet, but we are on that path.”

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Organisers’ responsibility is doubled by attendees and partners’ expectations, he adds, but we’re still in a transition phase:

“What we are seeing is that expectations are shifting. Attendees no longer tolerate blatant waste, and major sponsors or investment funds have ESG guidelines they need to tick off on paper.

However, for many, sustainability is still seen as a bonus rather than a deal-breaker. The real pressure we feel as organizers is more internal than external. We set these standards for ourselves because we know where the world is heading, not because we have a thousand sponsors demanding a carbon footprint certificate every morning.

That said, the heat is turning up. The investors and partners we work with are already asking how we manage social and environmental impact before committing. It’s not that they’re forcing us to be perfect today, but they do demand that we have a roadmap. 

We’re still waiting for that "pressure" to evolve into active collaboration, where everyone is willing to embrace the costs and the friction that come with being truly sustainable.”

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Beyond reducing environmental impact, VDS also brings impact and ESG topics into the conversation. This was a pragmatic decision, Diego comments.

“We want the ecosystem we are building in Valencia to be tough enough to handle future challenges. If we don’t talk about how tech can assist in natural disasters or how to bridge the digital divide, we are designing a future that will break at the first sign of a crisis. 

For us, it’s a matter of operational survival and a deep-seated commitment to the city that hosts us.

For example, after the floods in October 2024, we couldn’t just look the other way. We launched the DANA Help platform and the "Adopt a School" project, raising nearly one million euros and delivering hundreds of devices to affected schools. To me, the "Social" pillar of ESG is exactly this: using our network of more than 1,600 entities to respond with agility when our community needs us most.”

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The next edition of VDS is happening on October 21-22 in Valencia, at the City of Arts and Sciences.

"We are going a step further in integrating AI with human purpose. We want Valencia to be the place where "what’s next" is actually born.

We’re bringing together 12,000 global leaders and 3,000 startups to focus on tech that actually moves the needle: from AI to DeepTech and health to clean energy and space defense. If you want to see where disruptive innovation meets real-world impact, this is it.”

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Details and registration here: https://vds.tech/

Hope to see you all there!

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Thank you, Diego Ferragud Trillo! 

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