How much recycled carpet is needed to make nearly two million cups of tea?
By working with their service partner OVS (Opex Venue Services), the recycling of 402,322m2 of carpet into pellets for the plastics industry saved 585 tonnes of CO2 emissions and around 312 tonnes of crude oil. As well as a lot of cups of tea, this equates to the same amount of energy to drive a family sized car for around 39 years.
This continues EC&O Venues pioneering approach to green issues over the last six years that has seen such milestones as them being the first venues to be certified to BS 8901 (British Standard on Sustainable Event Management System); build dedicated recycling centres at both Earls and Olympia and reduce total waste removed from the venues by 27%, or the equivalent weight of 146 double-decker buses.
The latest development is the Refuse Derived Fuel system that, through a process of sorting and processing, turns waste into fuel that is then used for cement manufacture and commercial incineration processes. As a result, 82% of waste is now recycled.
EC&O Venues’ commitment to sustainability continues into 2011. “Following our participation in 2010, Earls Court and Olympia will be part of Earth Hour. In conjunction with the UK AWARE show at Olympia we will turn off all our lights, at both venues, from 8.30-9.30pm this Saturday.
It’s a great initiative, in support of the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF). Meanwhile I’ll be continuing my work getting the venues ready to be certified to the new International Standard for event sustainability – ISO2021”.
Emma Wellman is the venues’ dedicated sustainability advisor and also serves on the ISO 20121 committee. The EC&O Venues sustainability report is available on the website – www.eco.co.uk/csr
Source: EC&O Venues
