Backsberg

Without wanting to be a party pooper, it must be said that having a party, let alone a large corporate event, can result in a mini-environmental disaster. Marc Hirschowitz is trying to provide solutions to counter that view. Based in Johannesburg and London, Marc heads up Conceptspark, an international event management company. A few weeks ago, he gave me a call to supply wine in an effort to organise one of the first fully Carbon Neutral events in South Africa.  The event in question was the launch of global petrochemical company Sasol’s Sustainable Development Report.

In organising the event, Marc was pedantic about reducing carbon emissions and considering the impact on the environmental, wherever possible. Here are a few examples:

Food and Catering:

• Guests preselected their menu option and portion size thereby reducing food wastage, electricity, transport and fuel consumption;

• Most of the food on the menu was regionally sourced reducing transport and fuel consumption;

• Being the only carbon neutral winery in South Africa, Backsberg supplied the wine.

Venue:

• Power usage was reduced throughout the event by keeping all lights and air conditioning off in the venue during setup;

• During the event, windows and curtains were kept open rather than using air-conditioning, where possible;

• The majority of tableware and centerpieces were made out of fully recycled or recyclable material (log centerpieces on all the tables came from a tree that was hit by lightening!).

Transport:

• A strict co-opted delivery policy was implemented whereby suppliers from similar areas shared delivery vehicles so as to reduce fuel consumption

• Hybrid vehicles were used to transport guests to and from Sasol

Waste:

• All glass, paper, plastic, metal and biodegradable material brought to the venue by suppliers was separated, weighed and recycled off site or offset.

Going through this list, makes one think that changes can be affected on so many different levels, and those changes all add up. Moreover, the key point that both Backsberg and Conceptspark are trying to get across is that acting in an environmentally conscious way, doesn’t need to mean compromising on quality and style - at all.

SB

Note: You can email Conceptspark on marc[at]conceptspark[dot]com

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This post was written by:

Simon Back- who has written 56 posts on the Back Chat Blog. After finishing up studying economics at UCT in 2007, Simon has joined his family wine farm, Backsberg. When he is not trying to figure out what marketing wine means, he is authoring his blog, Back Chat.

Author's web site: Backsberg

Read more in Environment, Featured.

Last 3 posts by Simon Back

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