Silverstone Conference & Exhibition Centre signs pledge for ‘Net Zero Carbon Events

Silverstone International Conference & Exhibition Centre has signed the ‘Net Zero Carbon Events’ pledge, a joint commitment across the events and meetings industry to achieve the targets laid out in the Paris Climate Accord. The pledge commits organisations to achieve ‘net zero’ by 2050, at the latest, and halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

The ‘Net Zero Carbon Events’ pledge is the result of global collaboration throughout the events industry. Over recent months, facilitated by the Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC), more than 100 stakeholders from across the sector drafted and finalised this commitment with the support of UNFCCC Secretariat (United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change). The pledge was presented at the Global Climate Summit COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 10. At the time of launch, there were more than 100 signatories, making this the most global and inclusive collaborative action tackling the challenges of climate change within the events sector.

Hayley Smith, Head of MICE Sales at Silverstone said: “We’re really pleased to be joining this initiative.  It is only with collective collaboration throughout the events sector that we will be able to make swift and essential progress towards reducing the overall carbon footprint of events and it falls at a time where throughout Silverstone we are considering how we reduce our impact on the environment”.

The Net Zero Carbon Events initiative brings together a wide range of event industry stakeholders to:

–  Jointly communicate the industry’s commitment to tackling climate change and driving towards net zero by 2050

–  Develop common methodologies for measuring the industry’s direct, indirect and supply chain greenhouse gas emissions

–  Construct an industry-wide Roadmap towards net zero by 2050, and emissions reductions by 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement and climate science, with support and guidance on key issues

–  Foster collaboration with suppliers and customers to ensure alignment and common approaches

–  Establish common mechanisms for reporting progress and sharing best practice.

The next step of the ‘Net Zero Carbon Events’ initiative is to develop the roadmap which will support the objectives outlined in the pledge.