Global Alliance venues recycled over 1,300 tonnes of waste created from events in 2013 (January – December 2013).
Global Alliance comprises five venues on four continents with member venues including; Durban International Convention Centre (South Africa); Adelaide Convention Centre (Australia); Centro Banamex (Mexico); ACC Liverpool (United Kingdom); Boston Convention & Exhibition Center and Hynes Convention Center (United States of America).
Each venue is committed to recycling events waste in different ways. Centro Banamex in Mexico has achieved its Earthcheck Silver Certification, an International Sustainable Tourism Certification programme that evaluates companies in their adherence to environmental best practices. The venue places organic and inorganic waste receptacles throughout the site complex and everything is then sent to a waste recycling plant.
Advantage Boston has made a firm commitment to sustainable meetings and events through recycling, responsible purchasing and donation programmes. The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority’s recycling programme diverts 42 per cent of its waste from landfills and also encompasses purchasing a wide variety of recycled products for use in its centres. Beyond recycling, the organisation donates clean, usable, non-perishable items from convention centre events to local non-profits for reuse. Pallets and carpet padding left behind after exhibitions are donated or shipped to a recycling facility to be made into cement blocks and asphalt to be used on motorways in the country.
Durban ICC was the first venue, and remains one of only two venues, in Africa to be ISO 14001 accredited. The design of the building itself incorporates green elements such as large glass facades for natural lighting and a unique air-conditioning systems which build up ice overnight, which is used to cool the building the following day. The venue’s landscaped gardens make use of indigenous plants from the KwaZulu-Natal region thus reducing its reliance on irrigation and the culinary department maintains its own garden where herbs are cultivated for use in the ICC’s kitchens. Waste recycling remains a priority for the centre with over 87,003KG of waste being recycled last year.
ACC Liverpool is the only BREEAM and ISO 14001 accredited venue in the UK. The venue has an impressive list of green awards under its belt including achieving Gold Standard in the Green Business Tourism Scheme, Healthy Stadia accreditation and a Green Apple award for the building.
The venue has its own Environmental Task Force (ETF) which, among other initiatives, develops and delivers objectives under ISO14001. The ETF fast-tracked the venue to ‘Zero to Landfill’ status in 2009.
Adelaide Convention Centre (ACC) is one of the few convention centres in the world to have achieved EarthCheck Gold certification and received gold status last year. The venue has an on-site worm farm and since inception in 2008 the worms have consumed 14,552 tonnes of kitchen scraps which would have gone to landfill but were subsequently turned into fertilizer. The venue also has on-site BioBins which are composting vessels with an aeration system. Each BioBin breaks down seven tonnes of scraps to four tonnes, and on average one bin per month is compost. Through partnerships with Foodbank SA and OzHarvest ACC ensures that surplus meals from an unexpected drop in event numbers are put to good use. As a result, disadvantaged and homeless South Australians have now received over 87,000 meals from the venue.
Global Alliance’s Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Durban ICC, Julie-May Ellingson, says: “It is becoming more and more expected that events are sustainable and venues have a responsibility to meet those expectations.
“All Global Alliance venues are committed to environmental sustainability and the success of our venue sustainability schemes is creating a culture that empowers everyone to make a contribution including clients, employees and suppliers.”
