ACC Liverpool announces its ethical approach to food

14 Feb 08

Europe's newest convention centre has introduced stringent new policies to ensure all food served at the facility is as eco-friendly as possible. 

Catering at ACC Liverpool, home of the BT Convention Centre, has been designed to keep food miles and food wastage at an absolute minimum, in line with its ambition to be the most environmentally-friendly facility of its kind.

Celebrity chef Paul Heathcote's company, Heathcotes, is supplying all catering at both the state of the art BT Convention Centre and the adjoining 10,600-seat Echo Arena, which opened on January 12 to mark the start of Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture.

Now conference delegates at the world-class venue on Liverpool's World Heritage waterfront can dine in the knowledge that the production and delivery of their food has had as little impact as possible on the environment.

Gary Bates, Managing Director of Heathcotes, explained that minimising food wastage and food miles is a major issue in the industry at the moment: "We work very hard to accurately provide the right amount of ingredients for any given catering event at ACC Liverpool.

"Our planners are experts at successfully forecasting demand and, with ACC Liverpool's environmental credentials, that is absolutely crucial. We also don’t cook, chill and re-heat our food – we produce it fresh on site."

As well as the high quality of food and service, Heathcotes was chosen by ACC Liverpool as its official caterer because it is based in the Northwest and is committed to using fresh, seasonal produce from the local area.

Mr Bates adds: "We offer a sustainable menu in the very first instance which can be locally sourced and this removes the need to ship in ingredients from further afield."For example, you won’t find strawberries on our menus in November, because that means they have to be air-freighted in from Israel. Instead we use local suppliers such a farmer in Goosnargh, Lancashire who supplies corn-fed chickens and ducks, and all our breads and pastries are from a Merseyside-based supplier.

"Guests at ACC Liverpool who make use of the catering we offer benefit – nothing tastes quite like good local British produce in season."

Jacquie Rogers, BT Convention Centre General Manager, said: "Food miles and food wastage are huge issues in the industry at the moment and ACC Liverpool is absolutely committed to reducing both.

"Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do – from the impact our futuristic new building itself to our recycling policies. They are issues which matter increasingly to our clients – and to us."

The £164million venue has been designed to produce half the C02 emissions of a traditional building and use 20% less electricity. As well as its own purpose-built wind-farm, it also features rainwater harvesting on the roof.

The BT Convention Centre will have 1,350 seats, a 3725 sq metre multi-purpose hall and 18 further meeting rooms offering complete flexibility. Total exhibition space is in excess of 7000 square metres.