Conference Care recently announced they have been B Corp-certified. The venue-finding event management company is based in the East Midlands. Managing director, Andrew Deakin, and sales director, Pauline Beattie, discussed their journey towards becoming B Corp-certified.
Gaining the B Corp status is rigorous. It comprehensively evaluates a company’s governance, community engagement, environmental practices, and customer relations. Highlighting how Conference Care had to demonstrate tangible, positive impacts across multiple dimensions of its operations, Deakin said that the journey towards gaining the B Corp status not only involved legal adjustments to prioritise people, planet, and profit equally but also required an evidence-based approach to showcase their sustainable practices and community contributions.
The company’s internal ‘Plan-It team!’, a cross-functional group of sustainability champions, has been instrumental in driving initiatives ranging from community fundraising to advocating for environmentally conscious event planning. The team was established in 2020 and consists of representatives from finance, events, sales, operations, and other business areas to ensure a wide-ranging perspective on sustainability. The team meets monthly to assess and drive forward the company’s sustainability goals. These regular meetings facilitated a continuous focus on environmental and social initiatives, with the team actively involved in activities such as regular volunteering, community fundraising, and working with local charities, further expanding its impact.
Conference Care was ahead of the game by scoring 90 points out of 200 in their BIA Assessment, with 80 being the minimum score needed to get certified. This meant they were already implementing environmental and social impact and were not required to make further changes but keep working towards a more sustainable future. Beattie said, “It’s not about what we intend to do; it’s about what we have already implemented and what we are already doing and evidencing that to B Lab.”
Among Conference Care’s good practises, which have helped them on their journey to gain the B Corp certification, is their carbon disclosure service. The service allows their clients to select venues based on the estimated carbon output of their events, aligning with the broader objective of reducing carbon emissions associated with event management. Beattie and Deakin stressed the importance of reducing carbon emissions before offsetting. Their consultancy allows clients to reduce the carbon footprint of their event. On average, carbon consultancy clients reduce the footprint of their event by 20%. They will continue to work and assist their clients with offsetting strategies that align with their clients’ philosophies. Conference Care offers robust offsetting programs that adhere to the gold standard program to guarantee the legitimacy and effectiveness of offsetting. Deakin stressed the importance of educating clients and suppliers towards more sustainable practises and shifting their behaviour and mentality to make a lasting positive change.
Touching base on new legislation which will require companies and significantly larger organisations to disclose their carbon footprints within their financial accounts, Judith Dix, Conference Care’s sustainability specialist, said: “Some of the largest organisations in the UK are currently required to disclose their Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions in their annual reports in line with the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) framework, but Scope 3 emissions remain largely voluntary.”
She continued to say: “Legislation is proposed to make this mandatory – from Oct-Dec 2023, the government did a call for evidence about the pros and cons, which has now closed. They are currently analysing this evidence, though it has been later than anticipated, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero anticipate new legislation this year to make some scope 3 reporting mandatory. This will likely be for the largest companies and largest polluters.”
“It was eye opening. We do so much as a business. And we know we do so much but it’s actually documenting it and evidencing that to an organisation. I didn’t realise how much we do because it was going on all the time. We got the accreditation, and then we start thinking to ourselves, we need to do more, we need to do more. For us for our local community, we need to support the charities, we need to help and support purpose driven organisations. We also need to be doing more stuff within the business in terms of reducing further our own carbon and changing the behaviours of our customers. It’s been a really wonderful experience to do to be honest, it’s been very motivational. And I think it’s been great to talk about it and share it with various people.”
Conference News is pleased to announce the launch of its call for papers for the CN Sustainability Summit 2024, with submissions due by 22 April 2024.