A meeting of bishops in London's Lambeth Palace proves that historic venues don’t have to
choose between preservation of heritage and sustainability.
What was the event: Convened by Justin Welby, The Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Lambeth Conference is a worldwide gathering of bishops from across the Anglican
Communion for prayer, reflection and dialogue on church and world affairs. The
aim of the conference is to explore what it means for the Anglican Communion to
respond to the needs of a contemporary world.
Why was Lambeth Palace chosen as the venue? The theme for the 2022 special conference day was
Environment and Sustainable Development, and the event’s organisers, the
Lambeth Conference Company, decided that Lambeth Palace was the natural choice
to be the host venue.
How did Lambeth Palace hit the sustainability breif? Lambeth Palace has a well-established history of sustainable
and environmental practice and is a leader in proving that historic venues do
not have to choose between preservation of heritage and sustainability.
The Palace has robust practices that are guided by its
procurement department, the ethics department and also the onsite
sustainability working group.
On the day, more than 1,500 delegates and staff travelled to
Lambeth Palace for the event which was held in the Palace’s 10-acre organic
gardens.
The day provided the ideal opportunity for the Lambeth
Conference Company to launch the Communion Forest project, a legacy project
that builds on a history of creation care within the Anglican Communion around
the world.
What other sustainability practices did Lambeth Palace
showcase?
Working in collaboration with Greengage Solutions, the
Lambeth Palace team undertook measures such as hiring luxury cloakrooms from
Just Loos that use the latest technology to reduce waste and water by 90 per
cent.
With the event being held in the Palace Gardens, all signage
was designed to work with the natural features of the garden and was completely
recyclable.
All menu ingredients were sourced from a radius of under 50
miles. With oversight by executive head chef, Rob Gathercole, Lambeth Palace is
committed to using seasonal products from sustainable suppliers; noting how
produce is farmed, packaged and delivered.
Food waste at Lambeth Palace is mitigated by feeding the
on-site Palace community with surplus complete meals or ingredients. Any
unavoidable food wastage is used to produce compost on site or is composted
through the local council via the First Mile scheme.
Single use plastics were completely eliminated from the day.
Glass water bottles were refilled with filtered water while wines were supplied
by Liberty Wines, the UK’s first ‘carbon neutral plus’ national wine
distributor.
How was the event’s carbon footprint measured?
The special conference day was one of the biggest events
staged by the Lambeth Palace team in recent years and the team was keen to
understand what Scope 1 and 2 emissions the day had generated as well as the
event’s overall emissions.
Greengage Solutions was asked to prepare an independent
report that showed that the event was actually carbon neutral when it came to
scope 1 and 2 emissions. When scope 3 was taken into consideration the report
that showed the day emitted a total of 11 kgCO2e
Greengage Solutions helped suggest that Scope 3 emissions
were offset by carbon credits funding carefully selected projects in developing
countries that have strong additional benefits beyond just reducing carbon
emissions. These include health benefits, saving low-income families money and
reducing deforestation.
