It’s estimated that approximately 33 per cent of all food produced globally is lost or wasted every single year.
With Stop Food Waste Day taking place on 26 April, Fitzroy Hutchinson, energy and sustainability manager at ICC Wales and The Celtic Collection, gives his advice on how event professionals can reduce food waste.
Giving back to the local community
While it is crucial to support local suppliers it is also important to give back to the local area and to the environment. Across The Celtic Collection and ICC Wales, we collect all of the food waste and transport it to a local waste management facility, which generates it into renewable electricity for the South Wales Grid and for our venues. In addition to this, all of our oil waste is converted to biodiesel, which can be used to power vehicles and machinery.
Eat in season and local produce
In Wales, we are fortunate enough to have a rich natural larder, in fact Welsh lamb and beef rank alongside some of the world’s finest meats. Because of the country’s landscape we are blessed with incredible produce from our coastline, fields and valleys. While indulging in local delicacies it is also an opportunity to cut down on food waste.
I would encourage event organisers to work with their venue to curate a menu that utilises produce that is in season and sourced as locally as possible. If more organisers and venues collaborated, it would likely contribute to less local food waste.
Research your venues
If you are keen to make your event greener, spend some time researching your prospective venues and reviewing their sustainability operations and policies. Many venues will have all of this information, plus their green credentials, available on their website but, if you can’t find what you are looking for or you are unsure of something, strike up a conversation with them.
It is important that if you are pledging to have a sustainable event that your venue reflects and aligns to your values. In my role, I am happy to sit down with clients to discuss what a sustainable event looks like to them and how we can help to deliver their goals.
A desire to travel led Holly Patrick to the business meetings and events world and she’s never looked back. Holly takes a particular interest in event sustainability and creating a diverse and inclusive industry. When she’s not working, she can be found rolling skating along Brighton seafront listening to an eclectic playlist, featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Sean Paul, and Arooj Aftab.
