sustainability

The Diabetes UK Professional Conference limited its environmental impact. This was 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 chose 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, put a carbon reduction plan in place, offset their carbon footprint and support credible, high-quality projects.
• Creating a Social Value Impact Plan.
• Achieving the Green Meetings Gold Award.
• Being the 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 are managed, and assessing the impact of event location on travel and accommodation for attendees and crew.
• Converting to LED lighting across the campus.
• Collecting rainwater from the roof of the building, accounting for 40% of the water used for flushing toilets within the arena.
• Helping clients donate leftover items from conferences and exhibitions to local community groups.
• Providing clients with environmentally friendly preferred suppliers.
• Developing a waste strategy that has seen the introduction of a cardboard baler, which means they do not send any cardboard to recycling.
• Installing dispensers throughout the arena to drastically reduce the use of single-use plastic across the venue.
• Processing food waste on site via anaerobic digestion or donating it to local charities across the city region.
• Introducing a cycle to work scheme to encourage employees to consider alternative modes of transport.
• Committing to becoming Carbon Net Zero by 2030, twenty years ahead of the events industry target of 2050.
• Using 100% renewable electricity across the entire campus.
• Ensuring 33% of retail catering menus on offer are plant-based across the arena.
• Using biodegradable cups where crockery is not available. These break down into wax and return to nature in less than a year, without microplastics.
• Providing carbon labelling on food menus, empowering clients to make sustainable food choices.
• Sending zero waste to landfill.
• Sponsoring sustainable industry events, delivering sessions alongside Sodexo Live! on food waste, and hosting event legacy workshops for clients.
• Using no single-use plastics in the Convention Centre.
• Providing an in-house team that gives every event a carbon measurement report, measuring the footprint of on-site activities. Event organisers can then use these learnings to implement positive changes at future events.

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

How we drove positive change 

We want to create more sustainable events and help our attendees do the same. Here is how we put our B Corp values into action:

• Carbon measurement: in partnership with isla, we used the TRACE platform to measure emissions and actively reduce our carbon footprint for 2025 and beyond.
• Sustainable procurement: our B Corp-aligned procurement process required suppliers to demonstrate their own sustainability initiatives. We prioritised partners who share our commitment to social and environmental impact.
• Low-carbon catering: we prioritised seasonal, local produce and swapped high-carbon foods for lower-carbon meats, vegetarian and vegan options.
• Zero-waste focus: we operated a paperless event experience with digital agendas and online marketing. The majority of our onsite signage was returned to depots for specialist recycling.
• Renewable energy: we prioritised venues that use renewable energy sources and are located near major public transport routes to encourage low-emission travel.
• Circular materials: we encouraged exhibitors and sponsors to use sustainable, reusable or recyclable construction materials for their onsite presence.

Continuous improvement is at the heart of being a B Corp. We are committed to constantly evolving our event practices to lead our industry toward a more sustainable and equitable future.

Here are some ways delegates helped us reduce our collective environmental impact:

• The venue was located in the city centre, with all hotels and social venues within walking distance of each other. Delegates were encouraged to walk and explore the city, use public transport or use city bikes instead of taking taxis, where possible.
• For those who could not avoid flying, excellent bus shuttles were available from the airport to the city centre.
• Delegates could calculate their carbon footprint using the WWF environmental footprint calculator. Whether they were able to attend or not, it is a useful tool for tracking impact on the planet and learning about changes that can help limit it. 
• Delegates were asked to deposit their lanyards and badges in the reuse boxes provided at conference registration.
• Delegates were asked to follow the waste separation instructions at the venue.
• Water fountains were available at key points, and delegates were encouraged to bring a reusable water bottle.
• Delegates were encouraged to be thoughtful about all conference-related printing and reduce this where possible. Agendas and floor plans were provided on the app, and the venue provided free Wi-Fi, reducing the need for printing.
• Pens and paper were not provided to delegates to encourage the reuse of both paper and pens. Delegates were encouraged to bring notepads made from scrap paper or use digital notes features on handheld devices.
• Alternatively, delegates could use the ‘notes’ feature on the digital conference platform instead of using pen and paper to take notes. This feature allowed users to add personal notes for each session and email themselves a copy as a spreadsheet.

We are B Corp™ Certified 

This event was hosted and organised by Wonderly, part of Haymarket Media Group, a Certified B Corp™. This means our entire global business meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability.

Our standards & accreditations 

• ISO 20121 Certified: Haymarket was among the first media companies in the UK to achieve this international standard for sustainable event management. We use an accredited method to self-audit our live events, ensuring ongoing enhancements in efficiency and performance.
• ISO 14001 & ISO 50001 accredited: we hold accreditation for Environmental Management and Energy Management, ensuring our operational footprint is managed responsibly.

FAQs