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WAYS TO MAKE YOUR EVENT MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY
WAYS TO MAKE YOUR EVENT MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY
Aberdeen Science Centre recently took delivery of an electric vehicle, thanks to £39,500 funding from the Just Transition Participatory Budgeting Fund.
The branded van will be used to take the climate conversation on the road. It will provide the perfect vehicle to explain climate change and also includes graphics to explain the benefits of switching to an electric vehicle and the resulting reduction in the STEM charity’s carbon footprint.
This new arrival got the Aberdeen Science Centre events team thinking about sustainability and what could be done to reduce the impact of events on the environment.
There are many elements to consider when it comes to ensuring your event is sustainable. Erin Flett, head of business development at Aberdeen Science Centre, recommends that event organisers should incorporate sustainability throughout their event plan.
Food miles are a way of attempting to measure how far food has travelled before it reaches the consumer. They take into account where food has come from, and the distance it has travelled. The resulting impact on the environment is measured in terms of pollution.
To counter this, many of us try to choose foods with low food miles when doing our weekly shop, so why not apply the same principle to events?
Incorporating food from a local supplier not only showcases what the region has to offer but also ensures an event’s food miles are kept as low as possible.
At Aberdeen Science Centre, our in-house catering options are provided by Grub Fresh Food. They pride themselves on using the brightest and best local suppliers to create delicious food for event delegates to enjoy, with more than 50% of their menu coming from local suppliers and a further 25% from Scottish suppliers.
Well-known Aberdeen staples including The Bread Maker and McWilliams butchers are among Grub Fresh Food’s local suppliers.
Taking this approach, and choosing to use local suppliers wherever possible, means that food miles associated with Aberdeen Science Centre are kept as low as possible. It also means that event delegates get to enjoy delicious, local food and drink including mouth-watering cakes from The Bread Maker.
Also think about the waste that your event might generate. Food miles are not just associated with getting food to the consumer, they also accumulate when food waste is disposed of.
Keeping tight control of your numbers and catering accordingly can help to reduce unnecessary waste.
Another tip is to ensure that any disposable food packaging used at your event is compostable.
Similarly, consider choosing local suppliers to provide any additional support that is needed, whether that is using local resources or buying in services. Making local choices, where possible, promotes responsible environmental behaviour and also supports the local economy and business community too.
One final point to consider when running an event is whether it should also be live streamed. Doing so can reduce unnecessary travel and potentially opens the event up to a wider audience too.
It is not enough to think about our environmental impact in isolation, for example, just when thinking about our own habits at home. Rather we need to promote wider sustainable behaviour and in doing so reduce our impact on the environment.
Based on Constitution Street near Aberdeen beach, ASC is home to almost 65 interactive exhibits, allowing people of all ages to discover topics including Space, Energy, Life Sciences, Engineering, and more.
Aberdeen Science Centre offers exclusive venue hire as well as room hire for corporate, social and private events. For more information visit: aberdeensciencecentre.org/venue-hire
