ACC Liverpool gets the green light on 'Zero to Landfill'

9 Dec 09

ACC Liverpool's Green Dream Team has fast-tracked the venue enabling it to add 'Zero to Landfill' to its exacting and respected sustainability charter.  The Green Dream Team is the venues own SWAT team of enthusiastic staff and service partners who meet monthly to hothouse ideas that help to make the venue greener and cleaner.

Despite 2009's target for waste sent to landfill being set at 25%, ACC's Green Dream Team have far exceeded expectations, making it one of only a few 'Zero to Landfill' arenas and convention centres in the world.
 
Host to many of Europe's leading conferences, exhibitions and live performances, ACC was designed to produce half the CO2 emissions it would without any environmentally-friendly measures implemented and to use 20% less electricity. 
 
Just 22 months since opening, the tireless enthusiasm of the Green Dream Team continues in areas including recycling, waste management and energy efficiency.  Testament to the team's work are recent accolades including Conference & Incentive Travel Magazine's 'Best Sustainable Venue' and Northwest Regional Development Agency's 'Sustainable Tourism'. 
New practices at ACC Liverpool to enable the 'Zero to Landfill' status include:

Working with local Widnes power station, PDM.   All food waste from ACC Liverpool is transported to the power station where it is mulched to form a homogenous puree. The puree is then injected into boilers and incinerated at 1,000C, thereby creating steam to power a turbine to generate electricity.

Waste from exhibitions and conferences is sent to Orchid Environmental where raw unsorted waste enters the plant and is sorted and ready to re-use, or reprocessed into diesel biofuel.

BT Convention Centre and Echo Arena, part of ACC Liverpool, are hosts to leading live events including the Davis Cup and the TUC Congress as well as high profile live concerts.  The venue has hosted over 450 events since it opened in 2008 with over 1,170,000 visitors. 

Bob Prattey, ACC Liverpool's CEO said: "From the day that we opened we have been tireless in our environmental work – 2009 was set to be the year that we achieved 25% waste to landfill.  The fact that we have superseded this is a reflection of the very dedicated team we have working on our green initiatives and the importance we place on the topic."