The conference and events bureau for Cambridge and the region is celebrating being given three separate awards in recognition of its environmental achievements.
Meet Cambridge has achieved a Bronze Award from Green Tourism, a Bronze from Cambridge University’s Green Impact Awards and one of its team, Leah Gibson who has championed the campaign, was given a Highly Commended Environmental Hero Award.
In October 2017, the team set a series of objectives that would make a difference, with help from the team at Green Tourism. These included a focus on recycling and communication, together with raising awareness of reducing paper usage, saving electricity and re-using items that would previously have been discarded.
Events executive at Meet Cambridge Leah Gibson, who headed the campaign, said: “I am delighted that we have received three different awards in recognition of our green achievements and thrilled to have been named an Environmental Hero!
“The key thing was to set objectives that were possible rather than making them too ambitious. We quickly saw results – with one of the most successful elements being the reduction in paper use. In 2016–2017 the team used 16,000 sheets of paper and so far in 2017–2018, that figure has reduced to just 5,000 sheets.”
Gibson added that recycling had also been successful and the art of communicating the activity to team members, such as sharing facts with venues through the newsletter.
The team also decided to do ‘Toilet Twinning’, something recommended by Green Tourism as a way to demonstrate social responsibility.
“After doing some research I was really surprised to discover that in Myanmar more than 17m people are without a toilet or fresh drinking water,” Gibson said. “By paying a small fee, we could help to change this, educating the villagers about hygiene and distributing materials to enable them to build their own toilets.”
Peter Lumb, a judge for the Green Impact Awards added: “Our ‘special awards’ aim to highlight individuals who have gone the extra mile as part of the University’s Green Impact initiative. Our much-coveted Environmental Hero award is now in its sixthyear and is all about recognising a Green Impact team member who has been nominated for their ability to take action, as well as enthusiasm to get others involved in sustainability. We were pleased to present a ‘Highly Commended’ award to Leah Gibson of Meet Cambridge.”
Photo shows, L-R, Meet Cambridge’s Kelly Vickers and Leah Gibson
