Ulster Hall, Waterfront Hall and ICC Belfast

In October 2023 we were awarded a Gold Award from Green Tourism which reflected work across our entire business to improve our sustainability.

In December, 5 Hydration Stations were installed at ICC Belfast to encourage staff and patrons at our venues to be properly hydrated to improve their health and wellbeing, to reduce single use plastic water bottles and to encourage use of reusable bottles.

We have started measuring the carbon footprint of some of the events we host including what happens in the venue (eg energy use, hospitality served etc) and also how people travel to the venue. We are starting to use this data as a means of benchmarking various processes to help manage our journey to net zero.

We are increasingly using efficient LED lighting (around 60% of our lighting is LED), we have motion sensitive lighting and we recently installed solar film that reduces heat loss from our glazing.

Our hospitality uses produce that is 90% locally sourced and is 100% delicious and we produced a video that showcases some of the sustainability initiatives in our hospitality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWDqIevtWfw

We regularly host events that showcase globally significant decarbonisation projects including local innovators that are decarbonising transport (Artemis developing electric boats in Belfast, Wrightbus manufacturing hydrogen buses in Ballymena and Catagen that produce sustainable e-fuels for aviation). In december we hosted the annual meeting of the British Ecology Society who highlighted work with restoring peatlands around Garron which should sequester 17 000 tons of Carbon emissions a year.

Our sustainability story over the last 30 years is the story of the transformation of a wasteland by a stinky river in the midst of The Troubles to a global beacon of peace, hope and prosperity that has attracted £billions of investment and thousands of jobs. We have created a stage by a healthy river for cultural icons from around the world to perform and inspire. The beautiful kingfisher that is regularly spotted nearby perhaps best represents this transformation.

For what's on at ICC click here.