The Brighton Centre is committed to being a sustainable venue and improving the impact that we, and the events that we host, have on our local environment and the planet. We are working hard behind the scenes to look into ways to improve our carbon footprint.
There are many initiatives we have in place including:
We encourage our clients to use local suppliers where possible, as this goes alongside our desire to host events as sustainable as possible to help protect our environment and the world around us.
Please see our supplier list here
Alongside our efforts, our contracted caterers, Be Seasoned, are looking further into our food offerings onsite to ensure we are making available more vegan and local options, for example working with The Milk Shed, Direct Seafood and Brighton Gin - all local suppliers in our city.
They have the following initiatives in place:
We’re excited to let you know that our meals are accredited by the Soil Association’s “Food for Life Served Here” award. This award, from the UK’s leading food and farming charity, recognises our dedication to providing our visitors with catering that is freshly prepared onsite, made from sustainable ingredients and that promote good health. Each year we open our kitchen to the Soil Association’s inspection team who verify our commitment to using honest, local, seasonal produce. This means that the meat we serve can be traced back to the farm and meets or exceeds UK animal welfare standards. All our eggs are free range. What’s more, all ingredients used in our meals are free from additives, artificial trans-fats and will never be genetically modified. Many of the ingredients we use have been sourced locally, reducing the carbon footprint therefore environmental impact of your dining experience with us’.
We know that time is short and that we need to act fast but we also need to ensure any decisions or changes we make are the right ones, not only for us but also for our customers, clients and the environment. We will get there and welcome your co-operation.
As part of Brighton & Hove City Council and their commitment to being carbon neutral by 2030, we have a commitment to sustainability and to being a sustainable venue. So to help us on our way and guide us also, we have decided to commit to and are working towards 5 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
The five we have chosen to work towards are:
Brief summaries of all five, some initiatives and impacts are below:
We signpost our clients to Brighton & Hove Community Kitchen who offer cookery classes with top chefs, who give their time for free and all money made goes towards food which goes back to the vulnerable members of our community. A conference we hosted recently, donated £500 to the charity which went towards Stanmer Wellbeing Gardens – a community space where people can find sanctuary and nurture well being through food growing, gardening, education and nature connected activities. Please see details below to read more:
Our venue caterers are keen to keep to give our visitors healthy options to enable healthy choices to be made by all and to source locally produced food, to keep our local businesses in business and keep our carbon footprint to a minimum. We have introduced meat free Mondays and no longer offer beef in the venue.
As a venue we understand that conference & exhibitions can be highly sensory experiences. For anyone with sensory needs or just going through things it can be very overwhelming at times. That is why at The Brighton Centre we offer a dedicated quiet space with low lighting and soft furnishings for delegates or visitors that need to take some time out. Although this is not a compulsory space for conference organisers to use, we offer it as standard towards our commitment to well-being.
As a council run venue, local government policy is at the heart of everything we do and ultimately as a commercially run venue we have a commitment to ensuring that all our conferences and exhibitions create a sustainable benefit to our city and community, therefore we continually look to signpost clients to various local business and suppliers, giving them the opportunity to give back.
As a venue we are continually looking at ways we can reduce over production and consumption. One of the ways we are doing this for example is by investing in digital signage for events and encouraging conference organisers to use this to reduce paper waste from events. One of our recent conferences went completely paperless utilising our digital screens to feature all the conference information which delegates needed to know each day.
Located right on Brighton seafront this was the most obvious choice for us. Our venue staff volunteer for beach cleans twice yearly sifting out any plastic and other rubbish which otherwise may disappear into the sea. We signpost delegates to this activity which for one particular client is a regular undertaking when they are in the city; and what with the massive plight across the globe to try and keep our beautiful oceans clear of human rubbish, many more are showing interest in this venture.
We are delighted to report the Local Government Association (LGA) have published our case study on the Brighton Centre team’s sustainable conference collaboration with conference organisers.
Watch the video about our nomination for the Brighton Centre’s collaboration with PraxisAuril, which was shortlisted for Sustainable Conference of the Year in the ABPCO Excellence Awards in December 2022
