Registered address:
Blackberry Events, - 11 Greenbox, Westonhall Road, Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove, B60 4AL
ESG Policy
This policy explains Blackberry Events’ approach to sustainability for our events and helps us to clearly communicate this to ouremployees, clients and suppliers. We run many events, eachwith a different set of clients and suppliers and our approach to sustainability is tailored to each event. The objective of this policy is to provide clear cross-event guiding principles for all our event planning and decision-making.
Due to the nature of the events industry there are two areas thatsustainability practices can fall in to:
1. Control – Steps that we can take ourselves to facilitate sustainability (eg. How we travel to events).
2. Influence – Areas that we cannot control but caninfluence decision makers (e.g. using sustainable suppliers and practices).
ESG At Blackberry Events
ESG is fundamental to our reputation as a business. We want all our stakeholders, from clients to our team to be proud to be a partof our business. Part of that pride is understanding how our business makes a positive contribution to the world.
1. Environmental: Environmental sustainability is an ethical and commercial imperative. Managing our carbon footprint goes hand in hand with the strategic necessity to operate efficiently.
Our commitment to tackling climate change at a corporate level is fundamental toour strategic objectives.
2. Social: Our people make up our business. Intellectual capital is core to our clients, our business model and our long-term sustainability as a business. We aim to foster an environment that values and nurtures unique talents and contributions from every individual within a culture of inclusivity. While we have progressto make, we are committed to cultivating and empowering change by building aninclusive workplace where all talents can thrive.
3. Governance: Good governance is foundational to our business, and all aspects of ESG. We cannotthrive without paying attention to our compliance obligations. Our business seeks to go beyond the concept of ‘box-ticking’ and embed compliance into the heart of our business.
Our Aims
We aim to minimise the environmental impact of our events and promote responsible consumption and waste practices, as well as thesocial aspects of sustainability:
- To work with stakeholders to encourage sustainable action at both planning and delivery stage of a client’s event.
-To reduce carbon emissions by encouraging suppliers, staff, exhibitors and attendees to travel to events either via carpool or public transport where possible. We suggest virtual meetings instead of face-to-face where possibleand offer our team hybrid working.
- To ensure that we ask potential venue and suppliers for their sustainability policies and prioritise/highlight those to clients.
- Where viable, we will choose venues with suitable in-house AV to reduce shipping needs.
- To encourage repeat clients to reduce print and plastic and reuse items overmultiple events.
- To improve ways we support the accessibility and wellbeing requirements of our own employees and client event attendees.
- To partner with charities and other organisations to make a positive impact on the local community, biodiversity and good causes.
- To advise clients and request from venues/caterers to ensure that all produce islocally sourced, to reduce red meat content on menus and if fish is offered, that it comes from a sustainable source.
- To encourage the number of single-use plastics at events to be greatly reduced and proper recycling systems are in place for attendees.
- We aim to introduce a charity partner in 2026 and plan to arrange charity initiatives and events with local businesses in the same office building.
- To add value to the local economies where we operate by creating employment opportunities and sourcing local suppliers whenever feasible.
Working With Our Supply Chain
To encourage better waste management and reduction:
- Venues to provide recycling bins and avoid single use plastics where possible.
- Exhibitors to minimise printed materials, offer sustainable or reusable ‘giveaway’ items or switch to digital swag.
- Clients to minimise printed materials and use digital assets (such as digital signage), emails, platforms or apps to give out event information.
- Attendees to bring re-usable drink bottles to events.
To encourage venues and suppliers to have better sustainability policies:
We will prioritise recommending and using venues and suppliers with substantial sustainability policies.
- We promise to educate those we partner with and share knowledge with others in the industry.
- To work with suppliers and venues to gather emissions and waste data and minimise when needed.
To encourage clients to partake in charitable giving:
- As part of their event, we offer to source and organise a charitable aspect suchas having a food bank at their Christmas party or a charity raffle at a gala dinner.
Sustainability At Our Premises
- We recycle waste (paper, plastic, glass, batteries, christmas trees, cardboard and cartridges).
- We will aim to choose energy saving supplies going forward.
- We turn off all electronics at the end of each day.
- We only use lights in rooms where required and have sensors in toilets.
- We minimise use of air conditioning and heating is temperature controlled at 18 degrees.
- We offer a hybrid working model as part of our employee’s contracts.
- We promote carpooling and public transport. For example, for site visits and to and from business events.
- We implement community involvement programs such as offering our employees the opportunity to take paid time out of the office to undertake charity work.
- We pay for membership with the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce which means our employees have access to wellbeing and mental health support as a result.
- We host regular charity events with our local community.
Our Commitment
We aim to achieve these objectives by making incremental changes to the way we operate, through education and training ofour staff and the general public and by developing a long term strategic plan to reduce our environmental impact. We currently partner with Greengage Pulse Carbon to measure our Scopes 1, 2 and 3 against the GHG Protocol and work with Event Decision to now offer carbon and social value impact tracking for our clients too enhancing our focus on the 'S' in ESG.
We pledge to review and update this policy regularly in line with our chosen UN Goals 4, 5, 8, 11, 13 and 14 to ensure itremains relevant and effective in promoting sustainable practices in allaspects of our business and events. We aim to reach Net Zero by 2050 in line with Government plans and expectations and are taking steps to collating the data we need for our baseline year in 2025.
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