Laithwaites Wine Festival
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Event
Laithwaites Wine Festival -
Event spaces
Olympia National -
Market
Wine festival
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Client
Laithwaites -
Event type
Public event
The opportunity
A key area of Olympia Events’ long-term sustainability strategy, The Grand Plan, is to collaborate with organisers and identify strategies that will enable the sustainable delivery of events. One of its core objectives for 2024 was to pilot measuring the carbon footprint of an event. To achieve this, Olympia Events commissioned Green Circle Solutions (GCS) to provide a carbon footprint report on the Laithwaites Wine Festival, following the methodology of the Net Zero Carbon Events (NZCE) initiative and help identify areas of improvement for future events.
Creating success
Working in close partnership with the organiser, the Olympia Events team and Green Circle Solutions undertook a carbon footprint assessment of the Laithwaites Wine Festival. This involved gathering data from the organiser’s main contractors and information on visitor travel, in addition to the data Olympia Events provides as standard to the organiser in the venue’s event sustainability report. The venue’s cleaning team also closely analysed the waste from the event to assess what main components were sent to be recycled.
The results
The partnership enabled Laithwaites to identify the top contributors to their event’s carbon footprint, along with key recommendations for future improvement. Aligning with the findings from the NZCE initiative, visitor travel was by far the largest contributor, accounting for over 95% of emissions. Overall, visitor travel continues to be a critical area for organisers to address, while Olympia Events’ commitment to local food sourcing, responsible waste management, renewable electricity and energy reduction, remain key areas of focus in its wider Grand Plan strategy.
The recommendations provided by Green Circle Solutions, in partnership with Olympia Events, have been invaluable in identifying the key challenges and opportunities for reducing our environmental footprint. We are excited to implement these learnings across our future events.
Libby Woolcock - Head of Brand Experience at Direct Wines