BeaconHouse Events’

Commitment to Sustainability

Mission

We are on a mission to drive sustainable change within the events sector, and take positive steps towards a net zero future.

We believe that success goes beyond profit. ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) is at the heart of everything we do.

Our commitment is to maintain our high-quality level of service with the lowest possible impact on our environment whilst supporting our local communities.

We don’t just look at our events, we take a long hard look at ourselves too; we track our own activities and their impact as a business and we align ourselves with the 17 Global Goals, to be part of the global movement to build a greener, fairer, better world and we recognise that we have a role in achieving this.

Our ESG strategy focuses on four key areas: environment, society, governance, and financial resilience. We address internal operations and external event services, ensuring a holistic approach to sustainability.

Sustainability Expertise: We have a comprehensive ESG strategy, action plan and a proven track record of delivering measurable results.

Reduced Environmental Impact: We utilise carbon tracking tools, promote sustainable food choices, and implement responsible waste management practices.

Ethical Partnerships: We collaborate with suppliers who share our commitment to creating a better future.

Community Focus: We support local charities aligned with the 17 Global Goals, giving back while we build lasting connections.

Our commitments

BeaconHouse Events is committed to ensuring that our actions are impactful, leaving a positive legacy on the environment, with our people and in our communities. Our values are Purposeful, Resourceful, Trusted and Connected and we believe that these thread through our internal operations, external engagement and service delivery.

Our sustainability policy resonates and is actioned across both our core internal business operations as well as our external services delivered for clients. We believe that to truly be responsible and sustainable, you must look internally at the organisation before looking outwardly to the services we provide.

We commit to:

• Being an example of sustainability both in the way our organisation is run and, through our event delivery
• Accrediting annually with The Planet Mark to track, measure and report our organisation’s carbon.
• Setting sustainability KPIs through our action plan which we will then measure against and report on.
• Ethically offsetting our organisation’s carbon to local environmental charity annually
• Donating time and money to community charities and projects annually
• Integrating sustainability criteria in our procurement policies, specifications and introducing a supplier code of conduct in Jan 2025
• Being a thought leader in sustainability in the North east business community
• Being events sustainability experts to drive change in the industry through networking, sharing our learnings, representation at events and in industry groups, and speaking at events
• Tracking, measuring and reporting on carbon on our events and aim to reduce the carbon year on year
• Creating initiatives and driving behaviour change at our events, to encourage uptake of lower carbon, more sustainable options (food, travel etc)
• Promoting and encouraging (to all relevant audiences including staff) energy use reduction, low carbon travel options, circular economy initiatives, sustainable food practices and sustainability certifications. We will celebrate good practice.
• Leading the sustainability supply chain roundtable for the events industry in the north east
• Embedding diversity, equality and inclusion into our organisation’s culture and core values
• Continuing to train our team as Mental Health First aiders to support their colleagues as well as our event stakeholders (first certified in 2024)
• Completing access & inclusion audits for our key events to ensure an equitable experience for all
• Continuing to certify with the North East Combined Authority’s Good Work Pledge for which we gained advanced status in 2024 focused on: valuing and rewarding the workforce; promoting health and wellbeing; effective communications and representation; developing a balanced workforce; and social responsibility.

Continuous improvement

We aim for continuous improvement and review our ESG strategy and action plan annually, reviewing and re-setting our KPIs. We are creating an impact report in autumn 2024 and will repeat this ongoing to track and share our progress with our wider stakeholders. We are transparent and open to share our challenges, learn from others, and adjust our plans should something not have the impact as anticipated.

We have an internal sustainability team and our aim is to continue learning, sharing best practice and looking externally to see where we can improve our own operations and services.

We have embedded sustainability into our core business strategy with associated goals, and each team member chooses a sustainability objective aligned to our strategy as part of their six monthly appraisal. Staff will receive regular training on the policy and their responsibilities as well as opportunities to make positive impacts.

Following our sustainability policy statement and our guiding principle to ‘Do the right thing’ will help us to deliver on our mission to drive sustainable change within the events sector, and take positive steps towards a net zero future.

Sarah Thackray and Catherine Duhaut

Co-Founders and Directors

BeaconHouse Events

Reviewed: November 2024