To attain Gold in the Green Tourism scheme, venues need to improve and create new initiatives every year and adhere to high environmental standards set by the organisers. Those taking part in the scheme are assessed on ten criteria including management, marketing and communication, energy saving, water use, waste management, social responsibility and culture. The venue scored ‘Excellent’ or ‘Very Good’ in all of the categories, achieving a total score of 83.3%.
Central London’s largest purpose-built conference centre won the award after an assessor from the Green Tourism scheme visited the site and undertook the highly detailed accreditation grading visit.
The report cited the quality of Central Hall’s integrated management system along with ongoing staff training and awareness, which led to the venue winning the Gold award for the second year running.
“There are many fantastic green measures in place. Monitoring and management is very good indeed due to the robust integrated management system as well as ongoing staff training and awareness. This has allowed many other green measures to fall into place such as sustainable procurement,” said the Green Tourism Chief Executive Jon Proctor.
“The venue plays a great role in the community, as a church, but also supporting various good causes,” he added.
Central Hall was also praised for its excellent preservation of an iconic listed building, its aims to create a paper-free environment, own water bottling system, sustainable and fairly traded food and drink, energy efficiency and achieving zero waste to landfill.
Paul Southern, Managing Director at Central Hall Westminster, comments: “To achieve Gold in the Green Tourism scheme, it is not good enough just to stand still, we need to improve and launch new environmental initiatives every year. Therefore, we are absolutely delighted to have won the Gold award for the second year running.
“From the creation of a ‘Green Team’ to launching sustainable initiatives and community projects, we have worked hard to reach the Gold standard for Central Hall. I am very proud of every member of staff for helping us to achieve this accolade,” he adds.
