ACC Liverpool has announced the addition of ‘Zero to Landfill’ status to its exacting and respected sustainability charter.
The achievement of ‘Zero to Landfill’ for the venue has been fast-tracked by ACC’s Green Dream Team; the venue’s own swat team of committed staff and service partners who meet monthly to hothouse ideas that will make the venue greener and cleaner. Whilst 2009’s target for waste sent to landfill had been set at 25%, ACC’s Green Dream Team have exceeded expectations, securing the ‘Zero to Landfill’ status. ACC Liverpool is one of only a few of such arenas and convention centers in the world.
Host to many of Europe’s leading conferences, exhibitions and live performances, ACC was designed to produce half the CO2 emissions it would without any environmentally-friendly measures implemented and to use 20% less electricity.
Just 22 months since opening, the tireless enthusiasm of the Green Dream Team continues in areas including recycling, waste management and energy efficiency. Testament to the team’s work are recent accolades including Conference & Incentive Travel Magazine’s ‘Best Sustainable Venue’ and Northwest Regional Development Agency’s ‘Sustainable Tourism’.
New practices at ACC Liverpool to enable the ‘Zero to Landfill’ status include:
· Working with local Widnes power station, PDM. All food waste from ACC Liverpool is transported to the power station where it is mulched to form a homogenous purée. The puree is then injected into boilers and incinerated at 1,000C, thereby creating steam to power a turbine to generate electricity.
· Waste from exhibitions and conferences is sent to Orchid Environmental where raw unsorted waste enters the plant and is sorted and ready to re-use, or reprocessed into diesel biofuel.
BT Convention Centre and Echo Arena, part of ACC Liverpool, are hosts to leading live events including the Davis Cup and the TUC Congress as well as high profile live concerts. The venue has hosted over 450 events since it opened in 2008 with over 1,170,000 visitors.
Bob Prattey, ACC Liverpool’s CEO said: “From the day that we opened we have been tireless in our environmental work – 2009 was set to be the year that we achieved 25% waste to landfill. The fact that we have superseded this is a reflection of the very dedicated team we have working on our green initiatives and the importance we place on the topic.”
