What makes a venue genuinely sustainable, rather than just green-looking

Heating a large old building is where the emissions are. Solar, heat pumps, insulation and a genuinely renewable tariff matter far more than paper straws. Ask what the heating is and how the electricity is sourced.

What proportion is grown on site or nearby? Is the default menu meat-heavy? What happens to food waste? Food is usually the second largest footprint of an event and the easiest to improve.

A venue reachable by train is doing more for your event’s footprint than almost anything on site. If everyone has to drive an hour from the nearest station, that dwarfs the rest.

Regenerative claims should come with specifics: what has been planted, what has been left alone, how the water is managed, what has come back. A venue doing this work can talk about it in detail and will usually want to show you.