What to look for when looking for a sustainable venue

What are their credentials?

Finding a venue with an environmental policy in place is your answer to a fast-tracked sustainable event as they will be able to help you in making your event more sustainable from the offset.

In-house recycling, energy-efficient systems, or even compostable toilets – venues across the UK have a whole range of sustainable elements.

A venue that showcases their environmental policies, credentials or can demonstrate what they are doing to achieve a more sustainable venue will help in your search.

So, when looking for your venue ask how they reduce all forms of waste, power, paper, plastics, and energy.

It’s also a good idea to look out for venues with sustainable certifications or accreditations, such as Green Tourism, as they’ll have checked that the venue meets all the sustainability requirements, so you don’t have to. 

How do they cut down on their energy?

Lights, camera but what action? Venues often need a lot of energy to power the events they host and the general day-to-day running.

To make sure you are choosing a sustainable venue; you need to know what they are doing to cut back on their use.

Automatic lights, insulation, LED lightbulbs, energy-efficient heating systems are all simple and effective ways that venues can implement to reduce their energy use.

Asking venues if they use renewable energy or whether they have any environmental targets for energy and waste put in place will be a good way to ensure the venue you are choosing is striving for the same sustainability goals as you.

And if they cannot be completely carbon neutral, what are they doing to offset this?

Are they socially and ethically responsible?

Sustainability has many different aspects beyond recycling and cutting carbon emissions.

From staff to produce, ask the venue what they are doing to ensure that they are socially and ethically responsible.

Starting with their staff and suppliers, it is incredibly important that you know whether the venue has measures in place to ensure that all employees and those within their supply chain are paid a living wage, prevented from the use of modern slavery and that their well-being is being cared for.

In addition to this, making sure all food sourced for the catering of events is ethically and locally sourced.

Things to look out for include, all fish and seafood being MCS approved, free-range eggs, Fairtrade products, and approved British Retail Consortium suppliers for all meat.

Looking for the right venue whose sustainability goals are in line with yours can be a process, taking some research and questions.

But like an event itself, it takes a lot of people working together to achieve great outcomes, and working together to achieve a more sustainable event will not only have a positive impact on your delegates but also the planet.  

If you’re looking for a sustainable venue in the heart of Birmingham, then get in touch with us today.