45 Column procurement , and travel , as well as awareness , communication , and community involvement .
The EICC recently launched its new sustainability programme , Step Change , which focuses on three interconnected areas of impact : environmental , societal and economic . Under this new programme , EICC has launched three initiatives :
First : Event Impact Reports . Every event hosted at the venue will receive a detailed report which will describe the event ’ s specific environmental , economic and social impacts .
Second : Desk to Door . Through this sustainable travel plan , EICC shares recommendations and tips to find the most sustainable method of transport .
Thirdly : Carbon Mitigation . EICC is supporting a long-term strategy to restore peatland in Caithness and Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands over the next 25 years .
Through these programmes , EICC will reassure clients that their events will demonstrate best practice in sustainability , without compromising on the event experience . In Glasgow ,
the Scottish Event Campus ( SEC ) launched its new food strategy , which includes a plan for packaging , with a commitment that all packaging used will be reusable or recyclable by 2023 . The venue is also making strides in the fight against food waste and aims to have reduced kitchen wastage to under 1 % of food purchases by 2025 or sooner . Food waste will continue to be diverted from landfill to anaerobic digestion processing .
Scotland is also home to one of the greenest conference centres in the UK , P & J Live . The venue has an on-site energy centre which uses food and garden waste from around Aberdeen . The waste is digested in an anaerobic plant and the resulting hydrogen gas is harvested and used to power the energy centre which supplies heating , cooling and power not only to P & J Live but also the onsite hotels .
What ’ s to come ?
While we await further outcomes from COP26 itself , I believe we will see further integration of social sustainability in the wider business events community . Social sustainability identifies and manages business impacts on people and is something that must happen in order for the climate crisis to be overcome .
At VisitScotland Business Events we will continue to work with organisations such as Keep Scotland Beautiful and Green Tourism to educate the business events community in becoming more sustainable . We will also continue to encourage our stakeholders and partners to integrate the UN Sustainability Development Goals into events as well as advocating for industry associations to show leadership in sustainability practises .
Now is the time for leaders to redefine business events as a catalyst for social and economic transformation . We are an industry that puts people and the planet first . The idea that we meet today to change tomorrow can be realised by destinations across the world . Those events , venues and destinations that do not put people and planet first as their core strategy will fall behind and , ultimately , never recover . CN www . conference-news . co . uk