final word

As businesses we can make a big difference to our local communities and the environment.  From reading programmes at local schools, to recycling, to charitable donations, initiatives big or small can make a positive difference.  Many of our visitors already support charities but if you don’t why not add a fundraising element to your next event, you just need to choose a charity. 

Sustainability is still a huge topic in both the events industry and the media. Can you recycle more paper, glass, wood, plastic, etc than you currently do?  And, if you’re a venue or supplier who takes your responsibilities seriously then shout about them because it might just make the difference between someone using you or not.

The Green Apple Award	Donations
Official Charity	EC&O Venues’ commitment
Carbon Clean Up Campaign

The Green Apple Award
As a direct result of the recycling initiative our Ludgate House office was one of the first businesses to win a Green Apple Silver Award for Best Environmental Practice in 2005.  We won a second Green Apple Award for Environmental Best Practice in 2008 in recognition of everybody’s efforts to regularly recycle 80% of waste.

Official Charity for International Confex Meetings Industry Meeting Needs (MIMN) was founded by leading figures in the UK meetings and events industry to raise funds for worthy causes in the UK and overseas relevant to this industry sector. Where such causes do not have access to public funding, MIMN can provide financial support through various fund-raising events and activities. Make a donation here.

Carbon Clean Up Campaign
UBM Information Ltd recognises that there is a lot of waste generated by the exhibition industry and as a result we have introduced a policy to deal with this as efficiently as possible.  At present there is no legislation on the amount of waste that should be recycled by companies; although Friends of the Earth have recommended companies aim for 50%. UBM Information Ltd has set a very high target of 80% on all waste produced at our London office, Ludgate House.

We recycle 172 tonnes of paper-based products, 29 tonnes of cardboard, 3.5 tonnes of glass bottles, 775kg of plastic cups and 171kg of aluminium cans. This equates to a staggering saving of:

 722,400 kWh of energy 
 2924 trees 
 395.6 cubic metres of landfill space
 5,466,160 litres of water
 301,860 litres of oil 

We have recently taken part in the 100 Day Carbon Clean Up campaign which aimed to make businesses reduce their Carbon emissions. During the initiative we saved 231,340 kilowatts of power which equates to a saving of 78 tonnes of CO2. The volume of CO2 saved is enough to fill 8 complete floors of Ludgate House. If maintained for a year this would lead to reduction of over 250 tonnes a year.

Donations
In 2008 the UBM Information Ltd Leadership Development Programme (LDP) sent 15 participants (including Confex Portfolio Director Duncan Reid) travelling to Brazil to lead projects with four NGOs. The five groups of three senior UBM Information Ltd Managers each spent eight days with each of the NGOs. The projects ranged from introducing financial and communication structures, to helping to build a centre for Doutores da Alegria (The Doctors of Joy) in the heart of São Paulo, to alleviate some of the suffering of terminally ill children and to bring a humanising element into hospital care.

Other overseas projects that we support include Basic Needs, an international development charity working to tackle mental illness in the developing world. A number of staff have seen Basic Needs in action in India. We are supporting them to develop their programmes in Cambodia, Vietnam and Lao PDR through a donation of £20,000.

We have also pledged £55,000 to Agents of Change, a charity which operates in one of the poorest regions of Romania providing healthcare, dental and rehabilitation programmes for handicapped and disabled people. This will enable them to buy a house to provide respite care for people who would otherwise never leave the institutions in which they live, as well as hospice care for terminally ill patients.

We also support employees’ own fundraising initiatives through a matched giving scheme. The scheme matches dollar for dollar or pound for pound the funds raised for charities of their choice through events such as sponsored walks, marathons etc. Where an employee participates in a fundraising event, the company will provide up to £500 in matching funds per year. In the UK we also operate a Give As You Earn scheme that enables UK employees to donate to charity in a tax efficient way through the payroll. Donations made in this way are matched by up to £250 per annum. Since April 2005 we have donated over £26,000 in matching funds for UK employees and we are investigating ways in which we can roll out this programme in other countries.

EC&O Venues' commitment
EC&O Venues recognises that in addition to the commercial needs of the business, it has clear duties to its staff, to the environment and to the communities in which it operates. The Corporate Social Responsibility programme outlines the company’s position on, and activities around;

Ethics
Community 
Environment
Energy 
Charity

Earls Court and Olympia are at the forefront of event sustainability, and in recognition of this, they have won two AEO Excellence Awards for sustainability initiatives. Over the past few years they have taken great steps forward in the areas of energy efficiency, recycling and waste management.

EC&O venues are fully committed to continuing to make progress in these areas and are proud to represent UK Venues on the committee which developed BS 8901 -the British Standard for sustainable event management.

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