The conference and events bureau for Cambridge and the region is celebrating being given a Bronze in Cambridge University’s Green Impact Awards, in recognition of its environmental achievements – including making meetings more sustainable.
Over the last 12 months, the team at Meet Cambridge has continued to focus on a wide range of green issues such as recycling, reducing paper and printing and selecting sustainable methods of transport.
It has also worked closely with its member venues to encourage ‘green meetings’, going paperless, providing water in reusable glass bottles and serving refreshments using ingredients from local suppliers.
Leah Gibson, Events Executive at Meet Cambridge who headed up the campaign says: “In addition to ‘green meetings’, this year we introduced regular team nature walks so we could get some exercise and fresh air during the lunch-break and also take in what is available on our doorstep.
“Next year I am aiming for the Silver Award and one of the challenges is to run an environmentally-themed event for the team which I am really excited about. I also plan to encourage and share tips with the team on how to reduce single use plastics.”
Meet Cambridge’s University of Cambridge Green Impact Auditor said: “Meet Cambridge has clearly taken sustainable and thorough steps to transform its office culture and maintain not only environmentally-friendly habits but an attitude that consistently prioritises green concerns. We were very impressed with Leah's ideas for events-hosting and her relationship with venues to make meetings more sustainable”.
In addition to Green Impact, Meet Cambridge has recently signed up to the Meetings Industry Association’s 20PercentLess pledge which is asking organisations to commit to reducing single use plastic items such as bottles, pens and cups through elimination, reduction and reuse. This includes the good practice of avoiding promotional giveaways made from single use plastic, to spread the message to customers.