IWFM recently issued a call to action for workplace and facilities management professionals, recognising their pivotal role in advancing sustainability within organisations and contributing to a better, healthier, more sustainable future. The challenge was to accelerate action on sustainability. In parallel, we’ve embarked on a journey to enhance the sustainability of the Awards by introducing a new sustainability strategy for 2023 and beyond.
As part of the IWFM Impact Awards sustainability strategy, we took additional steps in 2023 to make the Awards more sustainable. We partnered with event:decision to assess the environmental impact of hosting the IWFM Impact Awards 2023 and produced a pre-event carbon footprint report that highlighted some of the areas where we could reduce our carbon emissions for the 2023 Awards.
Post-event we also produced our carbon footprint report and offset the CO2E and will share further details on this shortly. We will use these reports to look at the areas where we could improve further for the 2024 IWFM Impact Awards and beyond.
We are just starting our sustainability journey and hope to build up the strategy and make incremental changes over the years as we gain more knowledge from assessing the impact of the event.
These are some of the areas where we are focusing on sustainability to reduce our carbon footprint:
Menu
In 2023 we served a vegetarian menu to help reduce the Awards carbon footprint. Information provided in our pre-event carbon impact report based on information from the 2022 Awards showed that making this change could reduce the overall carbon footprint of the event by around an impressive 16%.
Venue
At JW Marriott Grosvenor House London, sustainability is embedded into their business strategy and driven by a wide range of initiatives to operate responsibly. The hotel continues to work with us to collectively reduce the environmental impact of the event, as well as transparently reporting on the energy usage, consumption, waste, and green goals.
For more information on JW Marriott Grosvenor House London’s Sustainability Initiatives and Sustainability and Social Impact Goals – please click here to download.
Travel
Travel is the biggest contributor to the event’s carbon footprint, and we encourage all guests to travel via public transport if possible or to travel in groups in taxis or private cars.
We also asked all guests to help us by filling in a quick survey about their travel and accommodation for the Awards night.
Event materials
Printed materials – We have reduced the number of printed items for the Awards. Any printed items will now be printed on recycled stock where possible that is fully recyclable. Where possible we will use digital methods to display items such as the table plan, sponsor logos and photobooth images.
Programme – We have moved to a digital programme this year and all guests will be sent the link to the programme the week before with their e-ticket and will be able to view it online on the night.
WiFi – To ensure that all guests have an adequate internet connection in the Great Room to view the digital programme, we have a dedicated Awards wifi connection.
If you have any questions regarding the sustainability measures of the Awards or would like any further information then please contact us at awards@iwfm.org.uk