The ACC Liverpool Group has achieved carbon neutral status.
The organisation, operator of the M&S Bank Arena,
Exhibition Centre Liverpool and convention centre, undertook a number of
measures as part of its commitment towards sustainability in the events
sector. It signed the Net Zero Carbon Events pledge and set its
own goal of Net Zero by 2030, in line with owners Liverpool City Council.
The company is now carbon neutral, achieving
its milestone in time for Global Goals Week - an
annual week of action, awareness and accountability for the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals.
It has been
working with leading sustainability organisation Carbon
Neutral Britain to measure its total organisational emissions
and put a carbon reduction plan in place, offsetting its carbon footprint with
credible, high-quality projects.
Eddie dos Santos, director of operations and
venue management at The ACC Liverpool Group, said: “It’s incredibly important that everyone works
together to minimise the environmental impact of events and supports each other
to do as much as we can.
“It has been a
huge team effort across the organisation and with the support of the city to
develop and implement many measures in our drive towards sustainability.”
The ACC Liverpool Group is currently replacing
hot water boilers in the arena and convention centre with air sourced heat
pumps after Liverpool City Council received £1.4m from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, which
is delivered by Salix Finance, from the Department for Energy Security and Net
Zero. The project is currently expected to directly save more than 4,200
tonnes of carbon over the lifetime of the project in addition to reducing
running and maintenance costs.
Earlier this year, The ACC
Liverpool Group achieved the Green Meetings Silver award provided by Green
Tourism following an assessment that examined all areas of the business
involved with delivering conferences and exhibitions. ACC
Liverpool became the first large-scale conference venue in the UK to join isla
– an independent industry body created to support the events sector’s
transition to a net-zero future.
The organisation – which recently installed LED lights
across the campus - aims to maintain zero to landfill status, support the
development of super low carbon events and reduce single-use
plastics.
Dos Santos continued: “Even though we have been certified
carbon neutral, this is only the first step of the journey. We are committed to achieving carbon zero by 2030,
effectively reducing our emissions and the need for offsetting. We are
currently finalising our roadmap and next steps towards achieving our 2030 Net
Zero status.”
Environment, sustainability
and climate action are key focuses for the organisation’s Social Value Impact
Plan launched in 2021 – more details can be found here - https://www.accliverpool.com/organising-an-event/why-choose-acc-liverpool/social-value/
