The Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre is committed to being an industry leader in addressing social and environmental sustainability. In July 2009 the GCCEC became one of the first venues in the world to achieve the prestigious Green Globe Silver Certification, a program managed by EC3 Global which has verified GCCEC’s commitment to operating at the world’s highest environmental standards.
The GCCEC opened in 2004, and was developed with sustainability in mind, incorporating sustainable design principles including a grey water system. Recent extensions to the centre also incorporate state-of-the art environmental technologies such as waterless toilets, senor flow hand taps, motion senor light for toilets and back of house areas. In charge of the Centre’s sustainability journey is “Project Green Team”, a dedicated group comprising of 14 people from different departments responsible for the centres green initiatives and strategies. The group meet every two weeks to manage progress and identify new opportunities for continual improvement in all areas of the business.
“The centre was designed and established with eco friendly practices in focus and is striving for continual improvements and excellence in environmental performance”. Adrienne Readings, General Manager, GCCEC
The Centre’s commitment to sustainability can be found at all levels of the organisation, creating a culture of sustainability, good corporate citizenship and a positive difference for current and future generations. The GCCEC is also committed to partnerships with likeminded clients and suppliers and the education and empowerment of staff through training and participation in industry sustainability conferences and events.
Information about GCCEC:
The Centre is exclusive in its size and is purpose built. The tiered Arena seats 6,000 while the centre can cater for conventions of 200 to 6,000 delegates and banquets up to 3,500 delegates. The Centre boasts a 6,345 square metre Exhibition space divisible into four halls, 18 meeting rooms and 10,000 square metres of total exhibition space across the ground floor. The GCCEC is the next generation of convention centres offering total wireless technology allowing delegates and visitors to log on to email and the Internet from anywhere within in the venue. They also offer on-site, award winning catering that is HACCP compliant and audio-visual services by industry leaders Staging Connections, as well as in-house marketing and public relations support and professional event management. Overview of Key Initiatives:
The Centre’s commitment to green initiatives is marked with the formation of the Project Green Team made up of 14 dedicated company employees and leading industry experts. The Project Green Team was formulated with industry expert consultant, Ecosure, providing tailored advice and working together to reduce the GCCEC’s future operational carbon footprint. The GCECC has adopted a mix of technological and operational sustainability initiatives, which have evolved over the last five years and will continue to be reviewed and updated as new ideas and innovations emerge:
- A grey water system for use on gardens
- Sensor lighting in all store rooms, toilets and other limited use areas
- Energy efficient lighting inside and outside
- All toilets rooms fitted with sensor / restricted flow taps
- Waterless toilets have been installed in the new extension
- Fridges and cool rooms are turned off when they are not in use
- Review of all consumable products
- Paper products all 100% recyclable
- Implementation of a comprehensive waste strategy, addressing three waste streams
- All food and beverage is sourced locally and from organic producers where possible
- Finding innovative re-use opportunities for left-over satchel bags and lanyards, including sending them to developing countries who have identified uses for them
Benefits of Being Green:
The GCCEC can boast its position as being a part of an elite group of convention centres in the world to be recognised by the highly rated international Green Globe program, whose rigorous accreditation process ranks businesses and organisations on their environmental practices across a range of operational areas. GCCEC General Manager Adrienne Readings said the very positive results reflected the Centre’s ongoing commitment to its environmental policy and its determination to work with clients and suppliers to implement additional sustainability initiatives to further improve its environmental record.
The Centre has seen significant costs savings associated with technologies and practices that have streamlined energy and water usage. By adopting best practice sustainability practices, and using Earthcheck technologies to measure and benchmark practices against baseline and best practice levels, the centre is also ahead of the game in terms of environmental reporting and is well on the way to being ready for the carbon economy.
Where to next?
The GCCEC will continue to be leaders in sustainability practices by ensuring that they are not only involved in changing trends, but through creating new ones through researching what other industries are doing and looking at ways of adopting these for convention centres. Currently, the Centre is exploring ways of reducing waste streams from one-off materials produced by exhibitors (such as stands and lanyards)
The managers of the Centre are proud to be leaders in sustainability, and their achievements to date, “We understand that the changes that are made here have a positive flow on benefit to the community, by educating and reducing the environmental and social impacts of our suppliers, clients and the families of our staff” Paul Williams, Executive Manager of Operations, GCCEC.