About Green Event Ninjas
Sustainable events made easy, since 2013.
Who we are
Green Event Ninjas is a Toronto-based event cleaning and waste management company. Founded in 2013 by James Watson, we started with a simple idea: the people who plan big events should not have to become waste experts to run a clean, green one. So we do that part. We recruit, train and run the crews, we bring the equipment and the bins, we sort the recycling and organics by hand, and we hand the site back clean.
We don’t plan events, rather we help those that do, do so in a more sustainable manner. That has taken us from a downtown Toronto festival village to the Great New York State Fair, the RBC Canadian Open, the National Bank Open and the Toronto FIFA Fan Festival (2026, working with GFL Environmental); see our clients and previous work. Our services are event cleaning, event waste management and recycling, event bin rentals, and sustainability consulting for organizers who want the whole picture.
Green Event Ninjas by the numbers
2013
Founded in Toronto
600+
Recycling Ninjas on our largest single crew, the Great New York State Fair
6
Seasons at the Great New York State Fair, 13 days each
3
Regions we work in: Ontario, New York and Texas
Where we work
We’re based in Toronto, with a growing foothold in New York and Texas. Across Ontario our crews cover Toronto and the GTA, Hamilton, Ottawa, the festival grounds in between, and the golf tournaments that move to a new course every year. In the US we work across New York State, from Syracuse down to New York City, and in Houston and the wider Texas market. Over the years the Ninjas have also turned up in Chicago, Miami, Calgary, Vancouver and, yes, Antigonish, Nova Scotia. If your event is somewhere else, just ask.
How we create value
A cleaner event, run by one team
Cleaning crews and waste sorting under one on-site manager means the grounds stay clean, the recycling stays clean enough to be accepted, and you have one phone call when something changes. That is our event cleaning service and our event waste management service, together or on their own.
Creative problem solving
No problem is too big or too small for a ninja. Every site, crowd and schedule is different, so we co-craft the plan with you: bin placement, crew size, shift pattern, hauling, reporting. Our event bin rentals are the smallest version of that; a month-long fan festival is the largest.
A better bottom line, and a better story
Sorted waste costs less to dispose of, a diversion report gives sponsors and the city something to point at, and a visibly clean event is the kind people come back to. Where you want to go further, our sustainability consulting looks at the whole event: waste, carbon, water and energy.
Our Guiding Principle & Values
We like to describe ourselves as a lean, mean, fighting machine that’s fiercely committed to making sustainable events easy. While we’re driven by this guiding principle, “Sustainable events made easy,” it’s our company’s core values that keep us on track and focused:
“Sustainable events made easy.”
Quote Fairly
We prefer to present our estimates in a “management + cost” manner due to the dynamic nature of the industry. It allows us the flexibility to work with our clients to adjust the budget should any (or all!) factors change, which is often the case with events.
We believe that this transparency is of key importance to our relationship with our clients. It affords a level of candidness that allows us to solve problems collaboratively – creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Be a Responsible Employer
We prefer to hire direct from a client’s and/or an event’s local community. This allows us to choose the best candidates and to properly train and prepare them for the kind of work that they’re signing up for (i.e. “Yes, you’ll be sorting through yucky garbage.”).
By carefully vetting and choosing the best candidates possible, we’re able to build a team that understands what is being asked of them, receives the appropriate training, and may even share some of the passion for the environment that we have.
Challenge the Status Quo
We have gotten to where we are today – in a position to shift the events industry to a greener and better future – by challenging the status quo at every turn. We always have and will always continue to question when others say it cannot be done.
“It’s too expensive. It’s too complicated. It’s too much work. It’s too risky.” These are all excuses that we have proven to be false time and again. When you’re committed to doing good through the use of creativity and intelligence, solutions have a tendency to present themselves to you when you need them most.
Remember Your Ethics
In the fast-paced environment of the events industry, it’s common to come across situations where you could cut corners and none would be the wiser. When faced with these moments, we make a point of reminding ourselves of why we got into this business in the first place and what we’re aiming to achieve.
Besides always striving to be the very best, we’re also working towards shifting the events industry as a whole towards becoming altogether more responsible – environmentally and socially. Progress cannot be built on a lie and if we were to taint our name or that of the event sustainability movement by acting in bad faith, we would be dismantling all of the good work that we and others have all done up until now.
Our Ninja tribe
James Watson
Founding Ninja and CEO
James founded Green Event Ninjas in 2013 and still lives and breathes event sustainability. He relishes complex operational challenges and enjoys searching for solutions through a sustainability lens. Before the Ninjas he was a Venue Manager for Catering, Cleaning and Waste at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games.
Behind James is a small year-round team, based in Toronto and Houston, Texas, that runs staffing, operations and logistics, administration and client service, and every season they recruit and train hundreds of Recycling Ninjas for the events we run.
Recycling Ninjas
And a lean, mean, tried and true army of Recycling Ninjas: shift managers, zone leads, staffing coordinators and all-around outstanding team players, recruited and trained for every event we run, hundreds of them each season.
Why Ninjas?
First off, who doesn’t like ninjas? They’re great!
But in all seriousness, something like sustainability can be taken a little too… serious. That’s fine for huge nerds like us. We can talk about this stuff for hours! Try that with anyone else and you will not get the same enthusiasm.
So our approach is to keep things light, add a little humor, and blend it with the fun and creativity of the events industry. Everyone in it is innovative and ambitious, and we try to embody that in everything we do. Sustainability must make sense for you, and for us. Otherwise it will not last.
Get started today
Ready to talk about cleaning, waste management or bins for your event? Tell us the dates, the site and the crowd and we’ll be in touch to set up a call. You can also email hello@greeneventninjas.com or use our contact page.
Looking for event work rather than event services? Head to our jobs page.