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Great events shouldn’t cost the earth

Great events shouldn’t cost the earth

How we manage waste, energy and water during events to lighten your event’s carbon footprint

Waste is an inevitable part of any event, big or small.

But effective waste, energy and water management will help minimise the environmental impact of the event. We care about the environment and know our customers do too – that’s why we work to reduce, recycle and reuse.

At University of Birmingham, we turn 75 tonnes of food kitchen waste into green energy via an anaerobic digester each year. We recycle used coffee grounds into energy logs – except at Winterbourne’s Terrace Tea Room, where we add them to the garden compost. Single-use plastic has been removed and all water is served in glass bottles. We also encourage visitors to bring their own bottles and refill at any of our water zip taps across campus, which provide filtered, chilled water for free.

For meetings, we’ve removed notepads, pens and branded giveaways to cut down on waste and avoid printing where possible, by using digital signage for example.

Many of our venues receive heat and power generated by the University’s onsite Energy Centre. The Teaching and Learning Building is fitted with solar panels.

The Exchange – our city centre venue – is connected to Birmingham District Energy, contributing to a mass of 18,000 tons of CO2 saved per year.

Calculate the environmental impact of your event using the SAM Carbon Calculator.

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