sustainability

The Diabetes UK Professional Conference is working to limit its environmental impact. This is achieved by:

• Reducing unnecessary paper and materials, including electronic circulation of meeting materials.
• Carefully managing the consumption of energy and resources.
• Choosing environmentally and socially friendly products and suppliers.
• Providing healthy food and hosting events in central locations

Together, delegates and organisers can take action to build a better, healthier world.

The organisers have chosen the Exhibition Centre Liverpool as the venue for our conference because they share our commitment to a more sustainable future. Their commitment is demonstrated through a number of initiatives including:

• Working with Carbon Neutral Britain to measure total organisational emissions to put a carbon reduction plan in place, offsetting their carbon footprint and supporting credible, high-quality projects.
• Created a Social Value Impact Plan.
• Achieved the Green Meetings Gold Award.
• First large-scale venue in the UK to join ISLA, demonstrating a commitment to industry sustainability. This includes capturing emissions from venue energy and temporary power sources, calculating catering emissions and food waste footprint, measuring  how waste and recycling is managed and assessing the impact of event location on travel and accommodation for attendees and crew.
• Converting to LED lighting across the campus.
• Collects rainwater on the roof of the building, accounting for 40% of the water used for flushing toilets within the arena.
• Facilitate clients to donate leftover items from conferences and exhibitions to local community groups.
• Provide clients with environmentally friendly preferred suppliers.
• Developed a waste strategy that has seen the introduction of a cardboard bailer, which means that they do not  send any cardboard to recycling.
• Installed dispensers throughout the arena that will drastically reduce the use of single use plastic throughout the venue.
• Food waste processed on site via anaerobic digestion or donated to local charities across the city region.
• Introduced a cycle to work scheme to encourage employees to consider alternative modes of transport.
• Are committed to becoming Carbon Net Zero by 2030, twenty years ahead of the events industry target of 2050.
• Usage of 100% Renewable electricity across our entire campus.
• 33% of retail catering menus on offer are plant-based across the arena.
• Where crockery is not available, biodegradable cups that break down into wax and return to nature in less than a year, without microplastics are in use.
• Carbon labelling on food menus, empowering clients to make sustainable food choices
• Send zero waste to landfill
• Sponsored sustainable industry events, delivered sessions alongside Sodexo Live! on food waste and hosted event legacy workshops for clients.
• Use no single-use plastics in our Convention Centre.
• Has an in-house team that provides every event with a carbon measurement report, which will measure the footprint of on-site activities. Event organisers can then use these learnings to implement positive changes at any future events.

For more information, including Exhibition Centre Liverpool's 2025 sustainability deliverables, you can view their full strategy here.

Our commitment to change

As the organisers of the Diabetes UK Professional Conference, the team is bold in its commitment to a sustainable event. They believe that honest action is the only way to enact lasting change. Their commitment is demonstrated through:

• Swapping out high-carbon foods like beef and lamb for lower-carbon meats and prioritising vegetarian and vegan option where possible, along with using seasonal and local produce to help lower the carbon footprint of the event. Food waste is a huge problem at events and a surplus of all options is no longer possible. There will always be food available for delegates but it’s possible popular choices will run out.
• A commitment to reducing paper use. While printed posters are still displayed onsite, printed agendas or programmes are not provided and all marketing is digital. Poster presenters are encouraged to be environmentally conscious by reusing or recycling their printed materials. The venue provides waste separation bins in the conference area.
• For a number of years, the organisers have provided facilities to refill water bottles. Single-use plastic water bottles are no longer supplied.
• All marketing materials promoting the event are conducted electronically.
• Conference registration is entirely online and booking confirmations are electronic.
• Conference delegate badges made of paper (FSC certified) and no plastic badge wallets are used.
• The organisers reuse stock conference lanyards.
• The organisers are working with sponsors and exhibitors to minimise materials they, or delegates, dispose of whilst at the conference.

Here are some ways you can help us reduce our collective environmental impact:

• The venue is located in the city centre, all hotels and social venues are located by walking distance from each other – walk and explore the city, use public transportation or the city bikes instead of taking taxis, where possible.
• If you can’t avoid flying, please note that there are excellent bus shuttles running from the airport to the city centre.
• Calculate your carbon footprint using the WWF environmental footprint calculator. Whether you’re able to attend or not, it’s a great tool for tracking your impact on the planet and learning about what changes you can make to limit it. 
• Please make sure to deposit your lanyard and badge in the reuse boxes provided at conference registration.
• Please follow the waste separation instructions at the venue.
• There will be water fountains at key points, please bring a reusable water bottle with you.
• Be thoughtful about all conference-related printing that you do and aim to reduce this where possible. Agendas and floor plans will be provided on the app and the venue will be providing free wifi, so there is no need for printing.
• Pens and paper will not be provided to delegates to encourage the re-use of both paper and pens. Delegates should bring notepads made from scrap paper or utilise digital notes features on handheld devices.
• Alternatively, use the ‘notes’ feature on the digital conference platform instead of using a pen and paper to take notes. This feature will allow users to add personal notes for each session and email a copy as a spreadsheet.

ISO 20121 accreditation

Haymarket Media Group is proud to announce that we have gained ISO 20121 certification making it among the first media companies to become accredited in the UK. At the core of our certification process lies the development and implementation of a Sustainable Event Management System (SEMS). SEMS is a structured framework comprising assessments, commitments, procedures and communications that embody Haymarket's commitment to achieving sustainability in event delivery. With SEMS in place, Haymarket now possesses an accredited method to self-audit, ensuring the realisation of our ambitious goals and promoting ongoing enhancements in efficiency and performance across our live events portfolio. Our steps toward ISO 20121 certification included encouraging reduced emissions from audience travel, choosing venues with renewable energy sources, offering vegetarian menus, reducing meat options and minimising printed event materials.

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