The buzz word of the moment: sustainability. It’s something everyone is trying to become a lot more conscious of and is something that we are all working hard on improving. Be that not using/buying single use plastic, making more of an effort to recycle and investing in more eco friendly and reusable products.
Within Citywire, we are working hard on the things that we can improve on sustainability wise. In events alone there is a lot of wastage from plastic to paper to food. There is always an excessive amount left over at the end of an event which just goes straight into the bin. Below are a few of the things we are working hard on improving within our team.
1. Reducing Food Waste
This has always been a big area we struggle with controlling. You never want to run out of food at an event but equally what happens when there is lots left over, it all just goes to waste! We have been looking into charities that we could partner up with and have even toyed with the idea that Citywire staff volunteer to take leftover food out to homeless people once the event has finished. We also want to look into working closer with the hotels we use, seeing what they might already do to improve food wastage.
2. Sustainable Sets
A very exciting step forward for us is our new reusable set! We saw it’s unveiling at our most recent forums in Shoreditch and Bloomsbury. The Curtain and the Kimpton Fitzroy were the lucky hosts of our sturdy new oriented strand board set, which has already appeared at the Next Gen forum, the Income Forum and most recently our Investment Trust forum. This new design is due to appear at a number of events in the future, replacing the printed sets that cannot be reused. We’ve made it possible to retain traditional sponsor branding on our set by coating the boards with a varnish that allows vinyl designs to be applied and removed before and after each event. We are now working on transferring this success to our European set designs so keep an eye out!
3. Eco Friendly Citywire Products
If you have been to one of our events then you will have seen our branding on a variety of different products. We already have a few improved alternatives such as smaller notepads which saves on paper and our pencils which saves on plastic. At the end of every one of our pencils are seeds so once your pencil has been used you can plant it! There are lots of different things you can grow such as Cherry Tomatoes, Forget Me Nots, Basil and Thyme. If you see them start collecting them!
We have also done a lot of research into other products we could start to stock such as biodegradable pens and eco friendly cotton tote bags.
These are just a few of the areas for us to start in but there are so many big things that we can do to make a difference! Keep an eye out for these changes and help us where you can. Look out for the badge recycling on your way out and take your pencils home to grow some plants! All of these small changes will help to make a big difference.