Environmental Policy

This environmental policy is intended to provide clear and robust voluntary minimum standards for sustainability for all involved in Glasgow Coffee Festival (GCF) - event organisers, exhibitors, suppliers and venue. It represents a science-based approach aligned with all relevant frameworks and initiatives where possible - global, local and sector specific.

GCF’s mission is to deliver exceptional coffee festivals in Glasgow that make a positive contribution to society and our shared future. We are committed to manage our operations with pioneering environmental practices and social responsibility at their core. We strive toward playing a leadership role, inspiring audiences and the wider coffee & festival community to make positive changes that contribute to a liveable future on the planet.

These minimum standards are expected to provide clear support for all actions. It is understood that relevance varies depending on involvement. The GCF intends to adhere to the following principles:

Principles

  1. We need to act urgently regarding the climate crisis

  2. We will act based on evidence - scientific research and industry knowledge

  3. We are in this together - we commit to knowledge sharing within the industry

  4. We will be transparent and will report annually our impact

  5. We will be ambitious and realistic, accepting that not all climate-positive decisions will provide a cost benefit in the short term, and striving to improve year on year

  6. We are committed to having the lowest possible negative impact to the environment, and endeavour to make a net positive contribution for our emissions. Whilst we see compensation not as a solution we do want to invest in climate protection.

Overall Aim

To adhere to these principles we set ourselves the following target.

Commit to a minimum reduction in greenhouse gases of 50% by 2030* (Scope 1,2 & 3)

*Baseline year 2023 of data available

This breaks down to the following objectives:

  • Actively measuring and monitoring environmental impacts

  • Minimising the overall carbon (CO2e) impact(s)

  • Reducing waste and managing disposal responsibly

  • Reducing supply chain impacts of all types

  • Inspire positive change in behaviour with audiences, exhibitors, supply chain, partners and sponsors, staff and local community

  • Develop partnerships and/or creative programming on environment and climate themes 

We identified that our festival has several key areas of negative impacts including:

  • Audience, exhibitor and contractor travel

  • Energy and fuel consumption

  • Waste production and management

  • Coffee supply chain and sourcing

GCF recognises that reducing impacts is an on-going process of improvement, and that resource and budget constraints will necessitate a pragmatic approach and prioritisation. However, we are committed to a process of reviewing our performance annually in order to identify successes and improvements, informing changes to strategy.


This Environmental Policy will be brought to the attention of GCF Team and made publicly available on the GCF website. This should be read in conjunction with your contract.


GCF Team is committed to review this policy annually with a reconfirmation.

We are all in this together.

With best regards,

The GCF Team

Following closely to industry standards by the Green Events Code of Conduct and Kambe’s Environmental Policy.