Make your event sustainable
Are you thinking about how to make your next event sustainable? You can start avoiding plastic, go paperless, use less transportation and reduce your emissions. And what about your event place? The venue itself contributes a lot to the event sustainability. Start with choosing an eco-friendly venue. We share our top choices of venues across the globe!
Our Top 10 Sustainable Venues
Church House Westminster
One of the most sustainable event venues in the UK, Church House Westminster works in respect for the environment. Energy and water use, catering, venue design, travel, and other business practices are designed in an eco-friendly way. The venue uses only “green” electricity and has water reduction devices in toilets. Talking about the food management program, they serve only fresh food from local suppliers and donate the leftovers to local charities. “We recycle all” is stated on their website, and it includes glass, paper, batteries, plastic, and a lot more.
Church House Westminster is easily reachable by foot or public transport, minimizing the travel waste and emissions. Every staff member and event participant is encouraged to minimize the use of energy and waste production whenever it’s possible.
This venue is a great location for big meetings and events with low environmental impact.
Location: London, United Kingdom
The Moscone Centre
The Moscone Centre is the largest convention and exhibition complex in San Francisco. Its management team follows sustainable practices and tries to achieve greater resource efficiency. Its rooftops have the largest rooftop solar array in the city, and the Moscone Centre uses 100% greenhouse gas-free energy. Having air quality as one of main priorities, they implement the latest technologies and design features to maintain it. Recycling is also a common practice there, as well as a food composting program from SAVOR. They also donate excess food to charities and non-profit organizations.
The Centre is within walking distance of nearly 20,000 hotel rooms and can be easily accessed by public transport. These measures help The Moscone Centre to create fewer carbon emissions per delegate than any major convention center in North America.
Location: San Francisco, USA
Bella Center
Named as Scandinavia’s largest conference and exhibition centre, Bella Center Copenhagen is a great choice for an eco-friendly event. They implemented a waste management system – to collect, sort and recycle every kind of waste produced. They also encourage every employee and visitor to reduce the impact on the environment and try to be zero-waste. Bella Center is participating in energy-efficient projects in order to measure the consumption and search for possible ways to reduce it. A wind turbine is situated near the venue, supplying it with renewable energy.
At Bella Center they support only sustainable sourcing. They use fresh high-quality products that are adding value and have low impact on the environment.Their main approach at work is called “responsible hospitality”. They conduct business that has a positive impact on the environment, people and society as a whole.
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre – MCEC – aligns its work and practices towards its sustainability goals.
First of all, its management team banned the use and distribution of single-use plastic within the centre. They stopped using straws and water bottles made of plastic and replaced them with their sustainable versions. Their waste reduction system allows the centre to reduce their waste, including the organic one, by 70-80%. In addition, the food leftovers are donated to other organizations. All the coffee cups there are made of biodegradable materials and coffee pods, used in MCEC, are recycled.
MCEC is striving to reduce its carbon emissions by implementing several actions. They switched to LED lighting and have partnership only with local suppliers – to reduce their transportation footprint. In 2018 it joined a renewable energy program and is now operating by using wind energy.
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Stockholmsmässan
The work of the venue Stockholmsmässan is focused on 3 areas: Sustainable Community, Sustainable Environment and Sustainable Innovation. The team of the venue is taking different actions in order to follow these principles. Through their social commitment they contribute to a sustainable society. By implementing energy saving systems and using the LED lights they can reduce their impact on the environment. People in Stockholmsmässan reuse the materials and try to reduce their waste.
This venue is easily accessible by public transport and bicycles which reduces the use of private cars. The rooftop of the building is a home for several beehives, and it contributes to the city climate. Management team encourages and supports innovative sustainable businesses and uses their solutions in Stockholmsmässan.
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
1 Hotel Central Park
1 Hotels are situated in 5 locations, including the one near Central Park. This hotel chain is famous for its eco-friendly practises and actions. By introducing a plastic reduction program, they start using room keys made of wood and hangers produced from recycled materials. Hotels have beautifully designed green event spaces and are homes for thousands of plants.
Every day in these hotels starts with fresh healthy food, seasonal fruits and vegetables, delivered from local food suppliers. As a part of their sustainability program, every room is equipped with shower timers – to reduce water consumption and remind visitors about useless waste.
Location: New York, USA
Umweltforum
Meaning the Environmental Forum in German, the Umweltforum is a great location for every kind of event. After the reconstruction in 2002, the venue is using sustainable technologies, including solar facades, photovoltaic system and a combined heat and power unit (CHP). This allows it to provide the electricity from 100% renewable sources.
Umweltforum also pays attention to the source of its products in catering. It is partnering only with suppliers of fair trade goods and food of ecological origin. The rooftop of the Umweltforum is covered with lots of plants that form a big garden there. It is also a home for 10 own beehives, which makes a positive contribution to the city climate. This location is a perfect place for climate-neutral meetings and events.
Location: Berlin, Germany
RAI Amsterdam
RAI Amsterdam is an international exhibition and conference organization that works in an eco-friendly way. Energy-efficient products are used in the venue, such as LED lighting, sensors that measure consumption and others. All the power that is used in RAI Amsterdam is green power with zero CO2 emissions. Management team is running the waste management program: they recycle everything consumed and make RAI a zero-waste location.
When they provide catering, they choose only seasonal food that adds value and that is delivered from local farms. These actions support local businesses and reduce transportation emissions. In addition, they have their own green farm with fresh herbs and fruits. RAI Amsterdam has lots of parking places for bicycles and is easily reachable by foot or public transport.
Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
15 Hatfields
Situated in the heart of London, 15 Hatfields is named as the UK’s most sustainable conference center. By implementing different eco-friendly practices, this venue was awarded ISO 14001 certification. They use energy saving devices that helped them to reduce up to 50% of usual energy consumption. In addition, they switched to plasma screens and try to reduce their paper consumption.
15 Hatfields is a part of #oneless campaign that encourages people to stop using plastic water bottles. They provide bottles made of glass and offer free water refill stations. These actions prevented more than 1 million of plastic bottles from ending up in the landfill. This venue also distributed 2 millions of wildflowers to stop the decline of bees.
15 Hatfields is continuously improving its venue management to reduce the impact on the environment.
Location: London, UK
Blue Point
Blue Point in Brussels is a perfect place for any kind of occasion – from corporate meetings to outdoor events. They provide sustainable catering with careful choice of food suppliers. They have their own kitchen and they offer a tailored menu for every kind of event. Due to that event organizers do not need to order external catering, which will reduce transportation and CO2 emissions.
The venue is equipped with a wide rage of technical tools, including screens, projectors, video presentation devices etc. It helps to renounce paper usage and switch to digital solutions. Blue Point can be easily accessed by bike, it has big bicycle parking lots and several charging points for electric cars.
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Want more ideas?
Do you want to learn more about strategies on how to make your event more sustainable, get useful tips and case examples? Then check out our free e-book „Green events for a better planet“ – checklist included.
