Vision:2025 welcomed a packed audience for its ‘Journey to Net Zero’ conference at The Showman’s Show, 20th October 2021.
Arena sponsored the Vision: 2025 conference supplying a pristine temporary conference venue, which was filled with event organisers, supplier members, and Showman’s Show visitors.
Graham Brown, managing director, Brown Fox Comms, hosted the event and steered a fast-moving program, with valuable insights, updates and information, starting with four Industry Briefings.
Chiara Badaili, sector knowledge and intelligence lead at Julie’s Bicycle, gave a concise insight about what a ‘Net-Zero journey’ means for event professionals and how Vision: 2025 can support them on a journey to reduce their carbon impact, highlighting reductions in fossil fuels and meat (agricultural sector) as priorities.
Naomi Lawson, project manager at Ecolibrium, explained the importance of measuring travel emissions and how Ecolibrium’s app, alongside their November launching series of guides ‘The Artist’s Guide to Sustainable Travel’, will help reduce travel impacts.
An energy briefing, by Tim Benson (Powerful Thinking/ZAP Concepts), warned that duty relief on red diesel ends in 2022, doubling fuel costs, saying: “Whilst HVO fuel offers an immediate solution to reducing emissions, it is not the solution, saying: “We need to fundamentally change how we deliver energy, focussing on demand reduction, grid connection, and batteries.”
Helen Harland, event manager at Manchester City Council, was joined by Chris Johnson, Chair of Vision: 2025. They showcased how to manage reusable cups and what the benefits are. Helen shared statistics from Manchester events in 2018 and 2019, where “1.7 million cups were avoided across six major events, with some events saving 40% on waste costs.” This gave a valuable insight into the impact of using reusable cups makes and how to introduce them. She then launched the new guide ‘Reusable cups at events: ‘Why It Matters and How To Do It.’
Chiara Badiali, hosted a detailed ‘Journey to Net-Zero Panel’, with guests Alex Spinks, head of health & safety and environment at Arena UK, Chris Johnson, co-founder of Shambala, and Helen Harland. Chiara led the discussion around setting targets at events, alongside experiences from stakeholders in the room. Alex Spinks gave a supplier’s insight into reducing carbon emissions. He went into depth about Arena’s journey explaining how “early conversations with clients, and KPI’s for environmental targets within contracts can play an important role in supporting events by delivering more sustainable services.” Manchester City Council has the ambition to be a net-carbon zero city by 2038, and Helen Harland shared how this is going to be achieved. This included how the Council is maintaining strong connections with events to help them contribute to this goal. Chris Johnson shared Shambala Festival’s journey and how it has reduced scope one and two emissions by 90% in the past 10 years. He explained how making the festival meat-free has a positive impact on the reduction and other festival organisers should review the food they offer on-site, as it is a key carbon contributor.
Tim Benson hosted a discussion exploring the solutions to make event ‘campsite power more sustainable’ with Megan Best, founder of Native Events and operations manager at Body&Soul IE, and Jake Pearce, Pearce Hire. Tim announced Powerful Thinking’s new ‘how to’ guide for sustainability powering festival campsites, which is available from the Vision: 2025 website. The resources include how festival organisers can reduce their carbon impact through new tech solutions and innovative solutions through power management.
No conference is complete without a post-show networking drinks, and Purity Ales provided the sustainable drinks to bring the knowledge packed conference to a close.
