The Edmonton Convention Centre in Canada has announced plans to reduce it its greenhouse gas emissions, beginning in January 2020.
It aims to reduce the venues greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 15% by 2025, and 30% by 2035. The Centre’s plan also supports the City of Edmonton’s GHG reduction plan to reduce its emissions by 35% by 2035.
Since January 2019, the Edmonton Convention Centre has participated in the City of Edmonton’s ‘corporate climate leaders programme’. The programme helps corporations take action on climate change through GHG management across its operations.
The Centre has also collaborated with Climate Smart, an organisation that provides training and support for businesses looking to reduce its GHG emissions. This ensured the Centre began to track its emissions data and create action plans to achieve its reduction targets.
In order to reach its reduction targets, the venue will make behavioural and structural changes in the areas of energy generation, heat usage, transportation, waste management and communications.
The GHG reduction plan follows the launch of the Edmonton Convention Centre ‘responsible meetings' programme. From October 28-30, the Edmonton Convention Centre hosted SPARK 2019, which was the first carbon-neutral convention to be hosted in Edmonton.
Arlindo Gomes, vice president and venue manager, Edmonton Economic Development, said: “The message from the City of Edmonton is clear - we need to act faster and on a larger scale to mitigate climate change. As stewards of a public facility, we have a responsibility to contribute to the City of Edmonton’s GHG reduction targets and have substantial potential to help the city reach these goals.”
“By recognising the importance of managing the carbon footprint created by our operations, we are positioning ourselves among the early adopters of long-term sustainable business planning in our industry.”
