BMA House’s focus on sustainability has led to several major event wins as well as shortlistings in the London Venue Awards sustainability category and the Hire Space award for Greenest Venue.
Recently the centrally located London venue has hosted: • The Global Good Awards, which recognise and reward change across all aspects of purpose driven sustainability and social impact. • Global Student Living Conference – the leading international conference on student living and lifestyle. • London Convention Bureau’s Sustainability in Tourism Day, which saw senior figures from the UK’s hospitality sector gather, learn and sign up to a series of commitments in line with the Mayor’s London Environment Strategy.
The Global Good Awards were such a success that they have already booked BMA House for the 2020 awards, as explained by Karen Sutton, founder of the Global Good Awards: “I have worked with a range of different event teams and venues over the past few years and from Day 1, BMA House delivered a level of customer service that is rarely seen in the events industry. Our needs for a fully-vegan menu were understood and given that these dishes were not on their menus, they immediately took the idea on as a challenge. The head chef and catering team tweaked the recipes until it was 100% perfect and delivered a vegan menu that satisfied even the most dedicated of carnivores! I am delighted to hear that they’ve now added a permanent selection of vegan options to their catering offerings to clients.”
“We require a high standard of sustainability from all of our venues, which is why BMA House was shortlisted. We’ve now used BMA House for our awards ceremony two years in a row, having never re-booked the same venue. Following our experience from working with such a fabulous venue and one that shares our sustainability commitment, a return to BMA House is a must!”
In addition, BMA House hosted an MIA workshop titled – Is Your Venue Committed to Sustainability? The MIA’s member support executive, Jane Owen commented: “When delivering an event about sustainability we were looking for a London venue that’s helping to lead the way in this area. We received glowing feedback from delegates who left feeling inspired about developing their venue’s sustainability credentials, and we have no doubt that BMA House’s commitments were influential in supporting this.”
BMA House recognises there is still some way to go on its sustainability journey. However, completed initiatives include: upgraded PIR and LED based lighting around the building, digital way-finding signage to reduce the need for paper signs, water saving devices on toilets instead of standard flushes, sustainable and locally sourced food ingredients, in-house caterers who support fair trade tea and coffee growers, recycled paper for flip charts, plentiful paper recycling units in all meeting rooms, plus onsite cycle racks for those travelling by bike. They have removed takeaway cutlery and take away straws from food outlets and introduced reusable food containers for all staff, as well as ‘Keep Cups’ with a staff incentive to reuse them. BMA House does not provide plastic water bottles in meetings and filter all water on-site into glass bottles and since introducing new reusable plastic food containers earlier this year, they have reduced the need for disposable plastic food containers by 98%.
The venue is also proactive in the community, taking part in projects such as hosting Chelsea fringe events, participating in a Gardens and Health in the city event, a ‘take the stairs initiative’, working with local partners to create a Clean Air Walking Route from Kings Cross for delegates and a new staff gym. Recycling efforts over the past year have saved 1,342 trees and enough energy to power an average house for nearly 20 years.
Kat Winfield, venue manager from BMA House concluded: “BMA House places sustainability at the heart of everything we do, this has not just won us new clients but also allowed us to showcase our sustainability credentials to our own industry colleagues and peers. Achieving the shortlist for the London Venue Awards is further recognition of our hard work and commitment to sustainability, which in the past has been rewarded with a Gold award in Green Tourism in 2017, a ‘Hire Space Greenest Venue’ award in 2018, and more recently we were named ‘Most Sustainable Venue’ at the London Summer Event Show 2019. We are especially proud to have hosted the Global Good Awards this year and look forward to welcoming them to the venue again in 2020.”
For further information on holding your sustainable event at BMA House, please contact the events team on 020 7874 7020 or visit http://www.bmahouse.org.uk/