SEC to Plant Trees for Meetings at IMEX

The Scottish Event Campus has pledged to plant a tree for every meeting the company hosts at IMEX next week. The venue, which recently announced its ambition to achieve net zero by 2030, will also be sharing other sustainable initiatives taking place at the SEC since it hosted the globally recognized COP26 conference last year.

Already this year, the OVO Hydro, one of the three main venues on the SEC campus became the world’s first arena to achieve the ‘A Greener Arena Certification’. Additionally, the company has also introduced sustainable ‘stack cups’, available for live events, which will reduce the venue’s carbon emissions by 1,500 tonnes over 10 years.

In recent years, the SEC has made further significant moves to reduce its carbon footprint. 100% of the venue's electricity comes from renewable sources and the business continues to work towards activities that encourage sustainable behaviour across every facet of its operations.

As part of this, the SEC will plant a tree in the Caledonian Forest on behalf of every person that the team meets at IMEX. The business already has an existing relationship with the local charity, Trees for Life, which it has worked with for the last 15 years, contributing to the growth of 170,000. Through the meetings next week, the venue is looking to continue to build on that figure.

“We’ve set our ambition for net zero by 2030 and its something both ourselves and our clients want to talk about,” commented Kathleen Warden, Director of Conference Sales, Scottish Event Campus. “The Trees for Life initiative at IMEX underlines that we’re threading sustainability into everything we do, from our operations to our sales and marketing. It’s also a way to do something positive for the people we meet at the event.”

A spokesperson from Trees for Life added, “Planting trees is a core element of our rewilding work and has myriad benefits including and beyond carbon capture. Restoration provides habitat, answering the urgent need to address biodiversity collapse. Tree planting also helps to reduce localised flooding and through our volunteering programme planting trees helps people reconnect to nature with benefits for their well-being.”