COP26 - Alumni Delivering a Net-Zero Event

Alumni Mark Bannister (‘97), Head of Production and Operations, COP26 and Simon Dunnell (‘95), Head of Major Events at Identity were astonished to find they had both attended Trinity School when they met at the Conference of the Parties (COP26) in November.

Identity delivered the largest event Her Majesty’s Government has ever hosted in the UK and unlike any event the team had ever worked on before.

The company was in charge of designing and project managing the whole event over a vast area in Glasgow. They planned the space and fitted out existing venues, designed, built and fitted out temporary structures, provided facilities for media and broadcasting companies, created virtual platforms, facilitated meetings and were responsible for security management.

COP26 had to be a carbon-neutral conference with sustainability at its core. Mark told us how they achieved this in a variety of ways.

“We reused or hired items, reclaimed or recycled materials and ensured everything was repurposed or recycled afterwards. We consolidated transport across all our suppliers, with hundreds of trucks all running on HVO (hydronated vegetable oil), sourced materials locally where possible, and specified particular materials for packaging. For example, scenic panels arrived with paper and corrugated card between them as opposed to cling film, which we had banned. Left over exhibition carpet was used as packaging or was recycled post event.

Where possible, components were made from natural materials and anything new was sourced responsibly by working with our supply chain to ensure that materials held the relevant certification.

Surplus and reusable goods were donated to local charities and groups that needed them. Our aim was also to leave a positive legacy to the local community through delivering lessons, lectures at local universities, charitable giving and by using paid interns from universities at the event.

We were mindful of our carbon footprint throughout the event. We continually assessed our energy consumption, water and waste, by reducing emissions as much as possible. The heating system ran on HVO fuel and the crew travelled by train, bus or on foot as the vast majority were local.”

The Scottish Event Campus (SEC) shared a video of Simon on LinkedIn as the conference started: “Hosting an event as huge and complex as COP26 – UN Climate Change Conference, is no mean feat, but Simon Dunnell from Identity has found the campus, the suite and the city to be more than up for the challenge.”

Before

After

In the video, Simon said: “It is absolutely brilliant for us to be coming to Glasgow for this event. There’s such a wealth and breadth of experience amongst the people and the companies within Glasgow. We came here knowing that we can deliver a world class, technically complex event.

Like the saying goes ‘people make Glasgow’ and I think the attendees found the Glaswegians very friendly, very welcoming, very proud of their city, very proud of their history and always very forward-facing, very excited about the future and very committed to the COP26 project.”