Midlands Arts Centre gains Green Meetings Silver Accreditation

As an arts sector leader on sustainability in the West Midlands, Midlands Arts Centre (MAC)'s Commercial Hires team has just been awarded the Green Meetings Silver Accreditation from Green Tourism.

Green Tourism is the world’s largest sustainable certification programme of its kind, delivering industry-leading sustainability accreditation and support for the tourism and hospitality sector for over 25 years.

In 2021, they launched the Green Meetings Standard as a new certification specific to meetings and event venues, becoming the sustainability label of choice for over 100 venues across the UK public and corporate sectors.

For MAC's Green Meetings assessment, our Commercial Hires team reviewed MAC's efforts to adopt best practice across all commercial operations, from ethical buying to reducing energy use and waste production.

Thanks to the hard work of Chris Davidson, Head of Trading and Anna Holowko, Head of Sales and Events, MAC was able to meet the following criteria for the Green Meetings Silver Accreditation:

• A demonstration of good practices across all of MAC's sustainability goals in areas such as comms, training and community projects; catering, travel and venue operations; and targets for energy, carbon, water use and waste reduction.
• A solid action plan for improvements to enhance sustainability practices within the business, demonstrated by the ongoing Environmental Policy and Environmental Action Plan set out by MAC's Green Champions group of staff volunteers.

Chris Davidson, Head of Trading, said:

"Gaining the Green Meetings Silver Accreditation is an immense source of pride for MAC, and a testament to the hard work our staff have put in to implement sustainability across the business.

As a cultural organisation, it's essential that we reflect our sustainable values not just through MAC's artistic programme, but by minimising our environmental impact as a commercial venue too - from our conferences and hires spaces to our catering operations.

We are excited to see what the future holds for us as a Green Meetings accredited venue, and to continue our partnership with Green Tourism to develop and improve MAC's sustainable practice."