Ten sustainable venues for your next event
Planning sustainable events is on the top of our agenda and a big part of tracking carbon footprint can be the venue.
It’s important to ask key questions to choose the right venue for you, such as checking for a sustainability accreditation, where catering is sourced, waste management processes, and renewable energy usage.
The good news is that it’s getting easier to plan eco-friendly events with many amazing venues championing sustainability and launching eco-friendly initiatives in London and beyond.
1. Birch Community hotels
Perfect for an away day, these hotels are based 30 minutes from London, with the invite to immerse yourself in nature.
Birch provides a bespoke experience for members and guests who can try out a ceramics workshop, wellness classes and baking lessons.
Birch Selsdon is set in a 200 acre rewilding project to revive biodiversity and the rooms themselves are furnished with recycled materials. There’s even an on-site farm which creates produce for their seasonal restaurants and catering.
2. Ocean Diva
This venue on the water, is the first carbon neutral vessel that gives you the ability to host events on the Thames and is determined to lead the way to a greener future. They work with industry body, isla, to track the carbon footprint of each individual event and balance this impact through tree planting and funding projects.
On board, there is a zero landfill policy and their catering is centred around sustainable, ethical and local sources.
3. 1 Hotels — Coming soon to London
Based in a number of locations including Central Park in New York, Haitang Bay in China, 1 Hotels let nature lead the way.
This means spaces designed to bring the outdoors in and initiatives such as sustainably sourced menus and energy tracking technologies. All of the hotels are LEED certified and all US properties are 100% carbon neutral.
4. The Barbican Centre- Winner of Most Sustainable Venue in 2021
It’s no surprise that this hidden tropical oasis, home to over 1500 species of plants and trees in its conservatory, makes the list. Being a non-profit, the centre has community and sustainability at it’s core, implementing many initiatives for corporate social responsibility.
Their coffee is 100% carbon neutral and they implement vegan and vegetarian options into their event catering. They also use 100% renewable electricity and filtration systems throughout their building and event spaces.
The venue has also committed to becoming net zero by 2024, in line with City of London Corporation’s Climate Action Strategy.
5. Ham Yard Hotel
Firmdale Hotel’s, Ham Yard Hotel, has a number of beautiful meeting rooms and event spaces, including a rooftop that hosts eco-friendly beehives and a kitchen garden which produce is used at the bar and in seasonal menus in their restaurant. The hotel is also BREEAM accredited!
6. Spaces at the Spine, Liverpool
Wellbeing and sustainability were an integral part of the space’s design and the building itself was designed to incorporate the WELL Standard concepts, making it one of the healthiest buildings in the UK. As a new build, they took the opportunity to incorporate sustainability throughout the venue which has led to a BREEAM certification and multiple sustainability awards.
7. Searcy’s at the Gherkin
This conference space is located in one of London’s most iconic skyscrapers. Not only does it boast stunning views of the city, but Searcy’s has multiple sustainability pledges such as only using responsibly sourced ingredients from local suppliers and starting to implement a carbon footprint calculator.
The building itself uses sustainable innovations such as a natural cooling and insulation systems.
8. BMA House
Seasonal in house caterers at BMA House source produce locally wherever possible to keep their food miles to a minimum, including their onsite herb garden. Through multiple initiatives to offer lower impact events they have reduced delegate carbon footprint by 69% in the past few years, reduced water usage by 5.4 million litres per year and have won multiple sustainability awards.
9. Kew Gardens
Kew is implementing multiple processes to become climate positive by 2030. There are of unique green spaces on offer, including a glasshouse home to 10,000 species of plants. As a charity, hosting an event at Kew means you are supporting their work to help sustain the biodiversity in the Gardens.
10. The Eden Project
This world famous project that transformed a quarry into a global garden, offers an event space amidst the rainforest. They are aiming to be beyond zero by 2030 and already use 100% renewable energy, work on regenerative projects and have locked 10 000 tonnes of carbon in their soil to grow plants.
There are plenty more venues across the globe implementing green initiatives, at Broadsword we can help you plan a sustainable event from venue sourcing to calculating the carbon footprint. Get in touch to learn more about planning an eco-friendly event or our own sustainability initiatives.