Venue - Sustainability Measures
Jaarbeurs’ goal is a carbon neutral future. They focus on making their hospitality more sustainable, zero waste and using circular materials through:
✅ Efficient visitor flows and logistics
✅ Zero waste policy: smarter waste management, for example using mobile waste collection points during the setup and breakdown days, partnering with Plastic Promise
✅ Sustainability in the catering industry with a menu in which vegetables and the use of local ingredients play the leading role
✅ More sustainable transport and care for mobility
Community Support
Jaarbeurs is a proud and committed resident of Utrecht. They support fellow residents and help to create a place where the focus is on healthy urban living.
Jaarbeurs work together with Prinses Maxima Center, Helen Dowling Institute, Trees for All, Hidden Disabilities Sunflower, JINC, Spelderholt Academy, Too good to go, Laptop donations and the Koekfabriek. Further details can be found here.
Travel and Accommodation
Event Staff
✅ UK-based BMJ Events team will prioritise travelling to Utrecht on public transport and the Eurostar.
✅ International staff members requiring air travel will prioritise using the most sustainable airlines.
✅ The selected staff hotel has been awarded the Green Key certification, a globally recognized certification in the tourism sector due to its environmental commitment.
Experience Days and Social Event
✅ We will prioritise public transport or walking where possible to all our experience days and social event venue.
Catering
✅ Jaarbeurs make conscious choices to offer more quality. The product range at the events is between 50-90% vegetarian. They use seasonal vegetables and work with local suppliers to reduce transport miles. To map their food waste, Jaarbeurs uses Winnow, a smart waste bin to measure how much leftover food and swill is thrown away. In 2022, this helped them to reduce 0.7 tonnes of food waste, equivalent to 1,640 meals.
Jaarbeurs can compost the green waste that remains in their own composting machine. With this, they can produce up to 82,800 kg of compost. This compost can be used to grow fruit and vegetables.
✅ We will be committing to 20% plant-based meals, 60% vegetarian, 20% meat/fish, and only white meat at the conference, as well as reducing chocolate and cheese throughout the menu.
Printing
Event Guide
✅ Our event guide will be printed on sustainable or recycled paper, and we are making reductions to the number of pages. The event guide will be made available on our event app, resulting in fewer printed copies being made available on site.
Signage
✅ We will be reusing some of our 2024 signage across the event, and prioritising digital signage at the venue. Where printed signage is needed, we will work with our suppliers to find the most sustainable materials.
Posters
✅ We have partnered with a local printer for poster authors to order their posters. These will be delivered in one drop-off at the event.
Waste
✅ We will be collecting lanyards after the event to recycle for future years. We will also be reusing our lanyards from 2024. Any additional lanyards that are needed will be made from eco-friendly materials.
✅ We will be reducing or restricting handouts, pens and notepads at the event.
CSR/Charities
✅ We will work with a community group or charity for our Opening Ceremony. We will also be discussing CSR opportunities with the venue that we can support.
More initiatives will be confirmed shortly.
Programme
As part of the programme, there will be Sustainability Huddles on Thursday and Friday. These will allow attendees to make new connections and share ideas with like-minded professionals working on embedding sustainability in healthcare systems.
These informal networking sessions will offer an opportunity to think differently about common challenges and potential solutions and forge connections with whom to share the journey.