Our Green Venue
ACC Liverpool is one of the greenest venues in Europe, specifically designed with the most energy efficient, environmentally-friendly green criteria in mind. A venue with a fresh and innovative approach to conferencing and events, ACC Liverpool has been designed to produce half the CO2 emissions it would without any environmentally-friendly measures whilst using 20% less electricity – lighting, for instance, is high efficiency and controlled by motion detection.
We are the only BREEAM and ISO 14001 accredited venue in the UK: the entire building is designed to be inherently efficient, with an insulation and air control system that requires significantly less energy than a traditional build. Rainwater is collected on the roof which we use to flush toilets and five 20-metre low noise wind turbines on the river side of the venue contribute to our electricity supply while the roof of the Galleria – the spine linking the Echo Arena and BT Convention Centre - is made of the same construction as the Eden Project with twin layers of plastic blown up with air, ensuring the building stays cool in summer and warm in the winter.
Our commitment to the environment is more than just skin deep. ACC Liverpool’s Environmental Task Force creates and develops ideas that change the way we do business to make it greener and cleaner, as well as supporting our hotel and tourism partners to do the same. And our suppliers and support teams are chosen not just on their service and expertise, but on their environmental ethos too; they make fewer deliveries to us, use less packaging and environmentally-friendly chemicals.
And we’re working on a carbon offset programme to offer our event organisers, so future events can all be carbon neutral. Now, that's refreshing; we don't just talk about our green credentials, we deliver them to each and every event.
ACC Liverpool's environmental ethos is as fresh as our approach to events. Designed to be one of Europe's greenest venues, we are the only BREEAM and ISO 14001 accredited venue in the UK, have achieved Gold in the Green Business Tourism Scheme and possess a string of innovations designed to reduce our environmental impact.
Environmentally friendly measures
ACC Liverpool achieved a 'Very Good' BREEAM rating, the only venue of its kind to do so. It is designed to produce half the CO2 emissions and use 20% less electricity than a traditional build, through a variety of green design features. The design, insulation and air control system is inherently efficient, high efficiency lighting is controlled by motion detection and five 20-metre low noise wind turbines positioned on the side of the river contribute to ACC Liverpool's power supply.Energy Management
The building’s insulation and air control system is inherently efficient through the latest building management systems, requiring 20% less energy than a traditional build and reducing CO2 emissions by 20%.
Five on site wind turbines contribute to ACC Liverpool ’s power provision.
ACC Liverpool has established an in-house ‘Environmental Task Force’ which implements initiatives across the business to reduce energy consumption throughout the venue. They do this in various ways such as educating staff, implementing switch off campaigns, seeking advice from our energy suppliers, E-on, and working with energy consultants.
Along with continuous improvement for environmental procedures in line with ISO 14001, we had a target to reduce energy consumption to under 6Mw by December 2010. This was actually achieved ahead of deadline in April 2010.
Water Management
Rainwater is collected on the roof of the building and used to flush the toilets, accounting for 40% less water usage. We also have smart flushes in the urinals to minimise the amount of water used.
Water meters help us to monitor water consumption throughout the building, and also help us to identify and investigate any usage above the norm.
In terms of cleaning, our service partner ISS use machinery that reduces the amount of hot water used and, where possible, micro-fibre cloths are used to reduce the need for excess water.
Waste Reduction
ACC Liverpool's Environmental Task Force fast-tracked the venue to 'Zero to Landfill' status in 2009, adding an impressive sustainability measure to the venue's respected sustainability charter. The Environmental Task Force 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 Liverpool far exceeded expectations, making it one of only a few 'Zero to Landfill' arenas and convention centres in the world.
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 Blakeleys Waste Management where raw unsorted waste enters the plant and is sorted and ready to re -use, or reprocessed into diesel biofuel.
Innovation
ACC Liverpool is unique in Europe - no other arena and convention centre complex is able to be fully interlinked like ours, enabling a large, flexible facility. No panel of glass on the building is the same either; each piece is a different size.
In the venue’s main auditorium, the two drums - which are unique in England - take a full ten minutes to turn around, creating two self-contained lecture theatre areas in the 1350 seat auditorium, each with a capacity of 250. The multi-purpose hall on the convention centre's lower level features the tallest walls ever created by designer Alco Beldan - bringing natural daylight into the hall on both sides. The room can also be split into up to six individual spaces.