The official convention bureau for Cambridge and the surrounding area is celebrating its team being given a Silver Award for successfully completing a wide range of tasks to enhance the organisations sustainability.
Meet Cambridge secured the accolade in Cambridge University’s annual Green Impact Awards, an accreditation scheme open to Colleges and departments that want to reduce their environmental impact.
To earn the award, the Meet Cambridge team made several important changes in the office, including conducting an energy audit to examine current behaviours and identify energy-saving opportunities.
They also hosted a vegan lunch, taste-testing various dishes, including pasta salads, sushi, cinnamon and apple cake, and peanut butter biscuits and they stopped using single-use plastic on Mondays, eliminating such items as drinks bottles and food packaging. The Plastic-Free Mondays have now been running for several months, significantly reducing the team’s waste output.
Sarah Maycock, Venue-Finding and Marketing Executive who led the initiative says: “As well as thinking about our own environmental impact, we aimed to provide inspiration on sustainability issues to our network and to promote best practice to our members and partners.
“After completing the tasks in the Green Impact workbook, an assessor from the Green Impact team visited our office to conduct an audit – and subsequently we were very pleased to hear that we had achieved the Silver we had been aiming for! It’s great to have our efforts recognised in this way.”
Susannah Cook, Sustainability Engagement Manager at the University of Cambridge’s Environmental Sustainability Team said: “It has been a pleasure to support the Meet Cambridge with their award this year. The enthusiasm of Sarah and her team has been infectious, and their award is well deserved.”