How Sustainable Are We?

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When it comes to our awards ceremony, we pride ourselves on being a sustainability awards programme that walks the talk, and we share our actions and experiences to encourage others to follow. We believe that if we are to recognise and reward change across all aspects of purpose driven sustainability and social impact, then we must match our entrants’ sustainability credentials.

At the event…

Event Venue:

Since 2018 we are proud to have worked with BMA House, a venue that is always striving to be more sustainable. They are continuously lowering their delegates’ carbon footprint, reducing water use and utilise 100% renewable energy where possible. BMA House holds a Gold Green Tourism accreditation, Beam and was awarded the Platinum ECOsmart accreditation. Not bad for a Grade II listed building!

Food & Drink:

We work with BMA House to deliver a fully vegan menu and, this year, guests will enjoy fruit and vegetables rescued by Waste Knot who are making a big dent in the 7% of perfectly edible food grown in the UK that doesn’t make it to a plate.

Toast Ale will provide beer brewed from surplus bread to replace barley which avoids waste and carbon emissions by using less land, water, and energy. Toast also gives all profits to Feedback, not shareholders, to drive positive change and fix the food system.

We have selected vegan wines from Ellis Wines who supply BMA House – they carry biodynamic and/or organic certification and are all vegan and made using sustainable practices.

Bax Botanics, a past Global Good award winner, will provide non-alcoholic spirits made with organic, ethically sourced herbs and botanicals, distilled in beaten copper stills.

Materials:

All printed marketing materials have been sourced/printed sustainably since 2016.

Our event signage is minimal, relying mainly on our venue’s digital screens. Any used is made from cardboard or recycled and recyclable plastics, and all printed by Seacourt Print – a holder of four Queen’s Awards for Sustainable Development and rated in the top 5% B Corps globally with a whopping score of 124.3!

Travel:

Until 2019, we Carbon Balanced (offset) our event delegate travel but from 2022 we’ll be following advice to replace these offsets by supporting CoolEarth in their efforts to protect forests that absorb and store carbon more efficiently.

We also don’t allow delegates to travel from overseas if it means flying, offering instead a live stream of the ceremony. This is our first hybrid event.

Dress Code:

We encourage a ‘freshly-eco’ dress code where people wear something sustainably made, something from a charity shop or dig something out from their wardrobe and ‘reuse’.

Trophies:

Our trophies are true works of art. Created by one of Britain’s leading contemporary fused glass artists, Siobhan Jones, the beautiful glass ‘G’ is made entirely from offcuts and fragments of glass from her workshop with the bases made from reclaimed wood by Eco Elm. Our frames are also made in the UK from FSC certified wood.

Goody bags:

We have replaced the traditional and less sustainable ‘goodie bag’ with an ‘Eco-goodies Market Stall’ – only selecting eco-friendly products from sponsors, partners and entrants that contain no single-use / unrecyclable plastics and allowing attendees to select those goodies they wish to have. They’re even asked to bring their own bag!

The rest of the year…

Charity:

A £5 or £10 donation is made to CoolEarth per paying entry to protect a tree or plant an Inga Bean. In addition to this, and as a 1% for the Planet member, we donate 1% of all turnover from sponsorship, entry fees and ticket sales; also to CoolEarth.

Bank:

We bank with Starling Bank, one of the very few truly sustainable banks.

Website:

With the help of Erjjio Studios, our website is not only hosted with 100% renewable energy, but also optimised to reduce carbon emissions on page loading.

Accreditation:

We are very proud that the Global Good Awards have been accredited with the OUTSTANDING standard Awards Trust Mark for five consecutive years, giving our entrants the highest level of assurance that this is an ethical, fair and transparent awards programme.

Venues:

Where possible, we conduct meetings online but, for those occasions throughout the year when we need to meet (such as our judging day) we choose venues that meet certain sustainable standards or have ethical and/or social values and use caterers and suppliers with similar standards.

Education:

We organise online webinars and clinics run by special guests to inform and share best practice with entrants and wider audiences.

As well as celebrating all our finalists and winners on the night, we have a driving force at the Global Good Awards to bring about change by democratising sustainability through year-round education and sharing and promoting best practice.

If you are thinking about hosting an event please look at our check list of considerations to ensure sustainability is at the top of your agenda.