Strawberry Launches Environmental Impact Report for Conferences and Events

As part of the company's strategy to achieve carbon neutrality in its operations by 2030, they are now introducing an Environmental Impact Report to reduce their own emissions and help their customers reduce theirs. This report is among the first of its kind in the Nordic region, covering CO2, energy, and water usage.

The figures in the report are based on the specific conference facility and event, demonstrating how customer choices influence environmental impact. The aim with this report is not only to be transparent about the environmental impact of conferences held with us but also to raise awareness of how, together with our customers, we can reduce this impact.

- As one of the leading players in events and conferences in the Nordics, we aim to provide both data and insights by offering our customers a separate environmental report. New legal requirements increase pressure on companies' own environmental reporting, allowing us to contribute to reducing our overall environmental footprint and helping customers reduce theirs. Hopefully, it will become an industry standard for customers to receive an environmental report after completing a conference, says Elin Penttilä, Sustainability Manager at Strawberry.

In the company's climate strategy, two areas stand out as having the greatest potential to make a positive difference: buildings and food and beverage. Food and beverage are typically served in large quantities at conferences, making this a major focus area in developing the report.

- We have been working on environmentally conscious food for several years, deploying a blue and red list system to facilitate responsible sourcing, and we have established a standard that all hotels must follow. We have also developed a close collaboration with procurement, which has been instrumental in this journey, says André Johansson, Head of Executive Chefs Nordic at Strawberry.

Customers at Strawberry are seeing an increased demand for more sustainable menus and locally sourced food. Working sustainably with food does not mean the entire menu will become vegetarian in the future; however, the goal is for the animal products served to be as sustainable as possible.

- The reports can be used for our customers' own sustainability reporting. However, what we truly hope for is that they will be used to learn how we can create even more environmentally friendly conferences in the future, concludes Elin Penttilä, Sustainability Manager at Strawberry.

The report will be launched at all of the company's hotels with conference and meeting facilities on April 22, 2024.