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44 Hallam Street is one of the Award Finalists!
We are delighted to announce that our 44 Hallam Street conference venue has been shortlisted for the award of Most Sustainable Venue 2025 by the Conference Awards.
44 Hallam Street (one of four London conference venues in our care), was the first UK venue to build a bespoke carbon calculator, designed to measure the full carbon consequence of our actions including delegate journeys to and from the venue; (estimate to account for 60% of total emissions, isla May 25) we were the first UK venue to introduce the use of purified water (removing single-use plastic bottles from all our events) and the first to use pencils made of recycled CD cases. All our delegate pads are printed on recycled paper using inks derived from plant sources. These are just some of the steps we have made towards genuine environmental responsibility.
The Hallam is Grade II listed, but we are subject to Minimum Energy Efficiency Legislation, as per a new build. In 2025 we are upgrading our EPC rating to B, five years ahead of the 2030 deadline. In 2024, we commissioned a full energy audit via Westminster Council. Following their recommendations, we shifted to LED lighting throughout (January 2025), upgraded heat reclaim pumps on our AC systems, added Weatherstripping to all windows and introduced Soltech blinds in all rooms to further reduce heat loss.
The Hallam is London’s first ‘biophilic’ conference venue – biophilic being a building design concept that aims to help connect occupants with nature, reduce stress, improve air quality, and foster a sense of well-being. The centre is furnished with over 500 + plants.
We continue to face the ongoing challenges of eliminating food waste and reducing food miles – and both lie at the forefront of operations within our affiliated company, Mayfair Catering.
In order to evaluate our food miles, we have set an annual target to localise our supplier base by a minimum of 10% per annum. All our meat, for example, comes from Kent; we only serve English wines and beers; our coffee comes from a local roaster. Every three months we change our menus to ensure they are as seasonal as possible (we use the Soil Association seasonal food calculator).
We believe that a non-meat diet has huge environmental benefits and now actively encourage all clients to choose our vegetarian menus. 44 Hallam Street offers a discount of £10 per delegate when a conference is 100% vegetarian.
As of February 2025, 63% of the fruit and vegetables we use are purchased from The Angry Monk, a good-for-the planet supplier dedicated to a fairer food supply chain by sourcing misshapen or under sized fruit and veg which would otherwise have gone to waste.
In January 2025, we completely rewrote all of our menus to remove all palm oil products (according to the WWF, palm oil production is a major cause of rainforest destruction).
All the fish we use is certified as coming from sustainable fisheries by the Marine Stewardship Council, our tea and coffee is Fairtrade certified and out meat Red Tractor Certified. As of this year (2025), we now grow all our fresh culinary herbs in-house using ultra-efficient LED grow bulbs.
After years of progressive improvements, we have now reduced the amount of food waste going to composting via the Too Good to Go app – a B Corp, social impact organisation. Those who sign up to the app (around 100 million across 19 countries) are offered a chance to order unsold or un-eaten food from local suppliers like us, packed for collection, at bargain prices. All the revenue from Too good to Go goes directly to the catering staff at our venue. We have seen a 60% year on year reduction in food waste.
We have also experimented with different buffet styles to reduce food waste at catered events, but needless waste remains a constant challenge; exhibitors in particular leave large volumes of waste. Hallam Conference Centre offer all clients a rebate equal to 2% of the total booking value if less than one bin bag of waste is left after a conference (this applies to all events over 30 attendees).
In order to reduce transport miles and CO2 emissions, all our waste is now collected by cargo bikes run by First Mile – a B-Corp Certified waste management contractor. For 5+ years, we have been certified as ‘zero to landfill’ (under a First Mile initiative).
We are fully compliant with the new recycling legislation introduced on the 31 March 2025 (as updated by DEFRA on the 27/11/2024).
As part of an endeavour to offset the carbon generated by delegates visiting our venue, the Hallam plants a tree for every enquiry received. So far, we have planted 2,023 trees – a mix of whips and semi mature as per the Barcham Trees CO2 calculator to maximise effective carbon fixing.
We are proud of our achievements to date, but we are constantly looking at new ways to improve: We are also looking to source exclusively from UK suppliers, as well as seeking alternatives to catering slips cloths – the only single-use item we have yet to eliminate from our operations.
If you are looking for Central London conference venues or meeting spaces. Venues that truly take sustainability seriously look no further than Cavendish Venues. We believe that we are the leading London and City of London meeting room and conference space providers when it comes to sustainability. For more details, see our dedicated conference venues' environmental responsibility page.
If you would like further details, please get in touch: enquires@cavendishvenues.com or 0207 706 7700.
