Utrecht, 30 June 2022 - Royal Jaarbeurs has won the UFI Sustainability Award 2022 for making its hospitality offering more sustainable and for the way food is processed within Jaarbeurs. The award was presented by the global association of event venues and organisers, UFI. Jaarbeurs receives the award for the innovative way it manages to reduce its food waste and for the fact that all menus have become almost entirely vegetarian.
Marloes van den Berg, Chief Sustainability Officer of Royal Jaarbeurs, is delighted with the award: "This international recognition is a huge boost for our team, which has worked very hard to make this sustainability step. UFI has indicated that it sees us as an example for the global exhibition and event industry. Over the past two years, we have used the time we were down due to the corona pandemic to implement and prepare for many changes. Our ambition is to become the most sustainable event venue in Europe. So in terms of hospitality, we are already making a big leap forward."
By 2023, Jaarbeurs s approach aims to save 846 tonnes of CO2 annually in the hospitality sector . It has therefore started adjusting its assortment at restaurants (90% vega), conferences and meetings (80% vega), for employees (100% vega) and for trade fairs and events (50-90% vega). In addition, smarter planning and cooperation with Too Good To Go and food banks save nearly 178,000 meals a year. Jaarbeurs 's own composter will provide almost 83,000 kilos of compost annually. Jaarbeurs also compensates for its emissions through Trees for All, by planting 11,500 trees a year.
Collaboration partners besides Too Good To Go, the Utrecht food banks and Trees for All are Greendish, a company housed in the Beatrix building that helps with the greening of the menus, both in the restaurants and at fairs and events; Winnow, a company that helps with measurements of the VGF waste in the bins; and Beelen, Jaarbeurs 's waste processor that also provides the composting machine. Jaarbeurs is currently investigating how big data and Artificial Intelligence can help even better predict how much food is needed at different events on different days of the week.
Besides greening in the area of hospitality, Jaarbeurs is working on making logistics, its own operation and the location itself more sustainable. Jaarbeurs also wants to discuss with organisers and industries how sustainability can be a substantive theme at various exhibitions, events and other gatherings. By 2030, Jaarbeurs wants to be the most sustainable event venue in Europe.
