The venues listed below have confirmed that they are using the "Greener Events" guide as a tool to help reduce the environmental impact of conferences and seminars that they are associated with. The notification date is shown in brackets.

Venues listed here are not necessarily doing everything detailed in the guide's checklist, it means that they agree with the guide's principles of low carbon, use of local produce where possible and low waste and that they use the guide and its underlying principles to work towards continual improvement for their events.

There are commercial, financial and reputational advantages in being seen to be using this guide as a management tool to help reduce environmental impacts whilst supporting local producers. See the venue case studies and YouTube video below.

Whilst www.oursouthwest.com cannot endorse individual venues, many of those listed here do provide facilities that meet sustainability criteria with lower environmental impacts and are therefore worth considering for your conferences, seminars and other events.

Need expert help? For improving the environmental performance of your venue philharding.net can provide access to independent experts.

Case Studies - from venues using the Greener Events Guide

Click on the following links to case studies to see how using the greener events guide makes a positive difference with benefits for venues, event managers and delegates:-

  Bedruthan Steps Hotel, Cornwall

  Riviera International Conference Centre, Devon

  Taunton Conference Centre, Somerset College

  Winter Gardens Pavilion, North Somerset

Bedruthan Steps Hotel
Mawgan Porth, Cornwall TR8 4BU
www.bedruthan.com

From kitchen assistants to directors, the team at Bedruthan do all that they can to reduce the hotel's impact on the environment. As Sustainable Tourism Award winners 2005, Bedruthan's green ethos is echoed throughout the organisation. The building planning team has revolutionised the building and refurbishment programme to include the latest technologies which will help them minimise their impact on the environment and greenhouse gas emissions.

Guests and staff are encouraged to recycle where possible from paper to plastic bottles, drinks cans to wine bottle corks. From their arrival at the hotel, guests can have a greener holiday by participating in a scheme where they pay £10 to plant a tree that will be allowed to grow for 100 years removing CO2 from the atmosphere and locking it into timber. The trees will be planted in a new forest locally."Our guests react very positively to our environmental efforts and they have been great in helping us with all our recycling projects and waste reduction."

In 2004, with the help of Manda Brookman, Manager at the Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project (CoaST), the hotel formed its green team and encouraged members from every department to become involved. In 2005 they became the first Cornish hotel to sign up as registered users of the Greener Events guide to share their commitment to green, more sustainable standards and to help make conference organisers more environmentally aware.

The hotel has taken on the role as an Ambassador for CoaST to share its knowledge and experience to help other businesses become more sustainable. They also hope to educate their guests and staff to show that they can all make a difference by working together.

Since starting to use the Greener Events guide the hotel's revenue and profit from conferences and events has increased and business guests make it clear that they are happy to help the hotel promote this. The hotel encourages many clients to embrace these environmental and sustainability issues and in the future it will be the norm to organise sustainable conferences and events.

Their clients are happy with the services offered: 'The quality of the venue is matched by the expertise of the staff when organising an event. Our delegates certainly enjoy the wonderful surroundings, stunning views and mouthwatering cuisine' - Ian Bruce, In-Service Coordinator, National Association of Head Teachers, South West Region.

The hotel has won several awards reflecting its commitment and action on linking quality of service with sustainability issues. These include:-
Gold award in Green Tourism Business Scheme;
Cornwall Tourist Board's Hotel of the Year 2005;
Cornwall Tourist Board's Sustainable Tourism Champion 2005;
Cornwall Tourist Board's Winner of Winners 2005;
Gold South West Tourism Large Hotel of the Year 2006/7;
Silver South West Tourism Sustainability 2006;
Silver South West Business Tourism 2006;
Sustainable Tourism Business of the Year (Gold), Cornwall Tourism Awards 2008.

(Date of case study: last updated October 2008)

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Riviera International Conference Centre
Chestnut Avenue, Torquay, Devon TQ2 5LZ
www.conferencetorquay.co.uk

The arrival on the scene of the Greener Events guide proved to be the catalyst for the centre to really move forward on addressing environmental issues and go on to apply for the Green Tourism Award. The centre was delighted to achieve the silver award in July 2006 - at that time the first conference and leisure centre in England to achieve Silver status.

Using the Greener Events guide to get started, all managers throughout the centre were briefed on the issues raised by the guide and consulted on the next steps to take. They were then tasked to contact all suppliers.

The Government's Envirowise and Carbon Trust programmes were also brought in to assist. In a short space of time the centre was using fairly traded coffee, more locally produced food, improving energy efficiency through efficient lighting and improved use of its Building Management System, and recycling more of its waste.

Conference Bureau Manager, Nicky Harding, said "We include environmental management issues in the training programmes for our employees and they have really taken to this. They are pleased to see the company they work for setting the right example and they want to help us make a difference for the environment whilst supporting other local businesses. The reaction from our clients has been great too; they have welcomed our whole approach to these issues."

"The challenge for us is to take this on to an even higher level - and achieve the Gold Green Tourism Award. The Resource Efficiency & Corporate Responsibility - Managing Change guide from GOSW and Envirowise is a great help. Use of the guide's Change Management Matrix as a diagnostic tool and route map has enabled us to identify and prioritise our next moves to make more rapid progress in changing the way the whole organisation addresses its environmental responsibilities. For example it has highlighted the personal development requirements of our Departmental Environmental Champions. We shall continue to use the matrix to re-examine and maintain our performance levels."

The centre's Managing Director, Barry Cole, commenting on their environmental achievements said "Showing potential conference buyers and organisers how committed we are about our own corporate and environmental responsibilities has proved essential in securing future conferences to the RICC".

(Date of case study: last updated August 2010)

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Taunton Conference Centre (incorporating the Genesis Centre)
Somerset College, Wellington Road, Taunton, Somerset. TA1 5AX
www.somersetenterprise.co.uk

37% more business!

The Genesis Centre at Somerset College was constructed in 2005 as the first sustainable construction resource centre providing conference facilities in the South West, leading by example is therefore very important to us.

The Greener Events Guide has helped us review the whole events process from concept to completion. Since the introduction of our Sustainable Conferencing Policy using the guide as a management tool to guide the design implementation of the policy, we have seen an increase of 37% in our bookings largely due to our approach to sustainable conferencing.

Actions we have taken include:
- annual staff training reviews look at all aspects of delivering more sustainable events with particular focus on low waste and green housekeeping practices;
- paperless booking process from start to finish;
- transport policy for visitors strongly encourages use of public transport;
- catering produce is locally sourced and organic wherever possible;
- handouts for delegates are made available in electronic format.

(Date of case study: January 2010)

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Winter Gardens Pavilion
Royal Parade, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset BS23 1AQ
www.thewintergardens.com

As one of the largest conference centres in the Bristol region, the Winter Gardens on the seafront in Weston-super-Mare has always attracted customers because of its outstanding position, facilities and friendly service. However, in order to remain a competitive player within the hospitality market, we needed to continue to attract new customers and minimise costs and resource use.

In early 2005 the staff at the Winter Gardens decided that they wanted to go further in reducing the building's environmental impacts. Operated by North Somerset Council, the venue drew on the expertise within the authority and together, became the first council service to pilot an Environmental Management System (EMS). The Winter Gardens catering partner, Parkwood Leisure, had already attained ISO 14001, so this seemed the natural next step.

From simple paper recycling, save-a-cup plastic cup recycling scheme and ensuring that computer monitors are not left on standby overnight, to installation of energy efficient equipment, everyone has responded enthusiastically, and suggested ideas to help. One such idea led to plumbed in water coolers being installed in office areas in place of bottled coolers, removing the need to transport the water - and saving money. The benefits of this have been recognised within the authority and it will soon be implemented throughout the rest of North Somerset Council.

One of the significant aspects that a venue like the Winter Gardens has is energy consumption. This has been dramatically reduced by upgrading the computerised building management system giving greater control over consumption, whilst improving the temperature control and comfort for our customers. The Winter Gardens also purchases green electricity and the team behind ENVEC last year helped us install photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof to help offset the carbon produced at the annual ENVEC event. Our improvements programme including attention to energy efficient lighting is ongoing. Water consumption has also been reduced through initiatives such as the fitting of water saving devices to the toilets and urinals.

Another area that has been addressed in our EMS is the hosting of events and the various environmental impacts they create. Committing to meet the criteria of the Greener Events guide and promoting use of the guide to our customers has helped us achieve one of the targets of our EMS by reducing impacts and raising awareness.

New and existing customers of the Winter Gardens recognise our efforts and have been keen to support the venue. We believe that a significant amount of new conference business has been won as a result of the Greener Events guide, demonstrating the growing awareness that event organisers have regarding sustainability issues. Our experience has clearly demonstrated that an environmental ethos can have a commercial benefit and reinforces our long term commitment for future improvements.

(Date of case study: July 2006)

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