'eeco' Initiative

A Lean, Green New Year with Cavendish Hospitality

Cavendish Hospitality is looking forward to digging deep and pushing harder for a yet more sustainable 2008! 2007 saw the central London conference and meeting venues receive recognition for its environmentally friendly efforts through the Green Mark accreditation scheme, but this year they plan to do even better!

Read on to find out what the year ahead holds for Cavendish Hospitality and perhaps get some inspiration for your own ‘corporate resolutions’..

• Building on the Green Mark accreditation won at the very end of 2007, of a possible 36 points it achieved 29.80. 
• Introducing a whole new set up menus for spring 2008; at a minimum to insist that supplier’s products are entirely traceable right back to their source. The plan is to gradually extend this to being able to guarantee that none of the products sourced for internal catering or otherwise have been air transported at any stage.
• All inputs to catering to be subject to a rigorous analysis as laid out by the centre’s new purchasing policy, the number one determinant (more important than price) being the input’s environmental impact.
• Wherever a reliable supplier can be identified, shifting to ISO 14001 accredited entities.
  

Cavendish Hospitality is also building what is believed to be the first carbon calculator specifically designed for a conference venue. Using this tool we will be able to quantify and then offset all the carbon emitted as a result of that conference, i.e. not just the carbon resulting from the operation of the centre, but also that resulting from the delegates traveling to and from the centre, using a Swiss based company recognized by the WWF as a market leader in offsetting.

To tackle the problematic issue of food waste and recycle, the three venues are teaming up with other local companies to arrange for regular pick ups for waste to be taken to recycling sites.  

...Finally,  the Cavendish team aim to work with its clients and in turn their clients (exhibitors / delegates etc) to incentivise the reduction of the sometimes enormous quantities of waste left, (delegate packs / exhibitor materials etc). Thoughts here include introducing a small surcharge (i.e. £0.50p per delegate) to pay for the cost of recycling the waste left, then refunding when minimal amounts of waste are left. This would not be a money making scheme; any shortfall would be covered by Cavendish Hospitality, and if there were surplus it would be donated to the International Coffee Organization ( the UN agency partner which receives up to 50% of profits). Any thought on this proposal would be most welcome so please get in touch! (Click Here)