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BeaconHouse Events, a leading events agency based in Newcastle upon Tyne, has dramatically reduced the carbon impact of a major North East event by making one simple change to catering; delegates were given vegetarian meals by default.
As part of the TechNExt Festival 2023, BeaconHouse Events, who co-founded the festival in partnership with Sunderland Software City and Dynamo, designed the catering throughout the week to reduce carbon emissions by encouraging people to make conscious choices about what they were consuming. That meant that all buffet options at the Main Stage event and Festival Party were meat-free and the menu for the 120 guests at the conference dinner was vegetarian by default, with delegates being asked to request the meat option if that was their preference. The result was 55% of the attendees at the dinner choosing the meat-free options, as opposed to the average of only 10% that the team would see at a usual event, greatly reducing the carbon footprint of the event across the week.
BeaconHouse Events announced its five-year ESG strategy earlier this year which aims to deliver considered, achievable actions, help the business reach responsible carbon neutrality and drive sector-wide change from inside the organisation.
Sarah Thackray, co-founder and director of the award-winning agency said, “We believe that great events don’t have to cost the earth, and as part of our five-year ESG strategy we have been examining how we create experiences that move us towards our aim of becoming, and remaining, a carbon responsible business, while still maintaining a fantastic experience for our delegates
“As an office of foodies, we know that the catering options are a corner stone of any event, but the amount of meat consumed was having a major impact on how sustainable our events could be. So we got our heads together and came up with a simple solution – what would happen if you had to opt-in for a meat option, rather than opt out?
“The climate impact of meat is enormous – roughly equivalent to all the driving and flying of every car, truck and plane in the world. This one simple change allowed us to do better for our planet during the week-long festival while still providing a delicious dinner for the guests to enjoy.
“The key to creating impact isn’t simply switching to a veggie or vegan menu, the trick is to communicate the importance of why. Going meat-free was just one element of our ‘Good Festival’ ambition and ‘for good’ was a core value that ran through everything throughout the week. That meant a focus on quality, inclusivity, diversity, accessibility, and sustainability, all of which we communicated the impact of to our delegates in the lead up to the festival.”
The issue of meat-free events and experiences is coming into mainstream consciousness more and more, over the last year we have seen the news that Oxford Council have banned meat from their menus at corporate events, with Cambridge, Exeter and Norwich Councils following suit and Cambridge University Darwin’s College served a fully vegan menu for their ball this June.
Sarah continued, “It is our job as a responsible employer and business to forge the path of what is possible and to collaborate with other organisations, both in and outside of the event sector, to learn from, and inspire, each other. We are seeing an increased demand for environmental reporting from our clients and are proud to be early adopters of TRACE, a digital carbon measurement platform to help the event industry reach Net Zero. TRACE helps us to gather data on our carbon impact at each event, which in turn gives us the ability to work with clients to benchmark and track success alongside their ESG strategy. There is still relatively low adoption for sustainable change across the sector, but with consistent and considered steps we can make real change together.”
This small step is part of BeaconHouse Event’s wider goal to reduce their carbon emissions by 5% year on year, with the key ambition to become and remain a carbon responsible business by looking at carbon neutrality, alongside supply chain engagement, research into sustainably sourcing materials, digital solutions to limit single-use print and staff training to upskill the team on the future of events both in-person and online
For more information on BeaconHouse Events visit www.beaconhouse-events.co.uk
