Initiative to plant trees and offset carbon impact
The Guildhall Trust, the charity that runs Portsmouth Guildhall, is committed to reducing the impact that its operations and activities can have on the environment and has now teamed up with Ecologi in a new initiative to plant trees and offset carbon impact.
Through the initiative, for each Conferencing event held in the main auditorium, The Trust will fund 100 trees to be planted through Ecologi. It is anticipated that over 2,500 trees will be planted within the next 6 months through Portsmouth Guildhall’s conferencing events with plans for the scheme to be widened out to other carbon offset projects and concert audiences in the coming months.
Ecologi is an environmental organisation that facilitates the funding of carbon offset projects and tree planting around the world. It is their mission to reduce 50% of global CO2 emissions by 2040 and responsibly plant billions of trees every year. As of today, Ecologi has planted 50million trees and offset 2.2million tonnes of CO2e through projects verified by Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard and Gold Standard, a certification supported by bodies such as WWF and United Nations.
You can track our progress here!
Of the new initiative, Conference & Events Manager for The Guildhall Trust, Victoria Campbell-Phillips said, “As an organisation we take our responsibility towards the environment very seriously as do many of the organisations that hold their events with us, so we are delighted to be taking this positive action to collectively influence change. We will also be offering event organisers the option to match our funding to achieve even greater impact”.
The new initiative is just one way in which The Guildhall Trust has made changes to reduce the impact of its operations. Other initiatives have included changing to LED lighting throughout the venue, recycling and changing to oxo-biodegradable flexy-glass and veg-ware materials in its bars and Square Kitchen café. The venue is proud to have achieved and retained an ‘A’ for the building’s energy performance operational rating – a great achievement when public buildings typically score a ‘D’.
For more information about The Guildhall Trust’s sustainability initiatives please see: www.portsmouthguildhall.org.uk/about-guildhall/about-us/sustainable-guildhall/