Hundreds of industry professionals will gather in London on September 25 to celebrate the 2023 Business Travel People Awards. 

The event is being held at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden.  

Working with the venue and other industry partners, here are just some of the measures we’ve put in place this year to help reduce the environmental footprint of the event.  

Don’t miss out on the party of the year. Buy tickets for the ceremony now.

Plane, train or automobile

All guests at this year’s ceremony are being asked to complete a form in advance detailing their return mileage and what form of transport they will be taking so that one of our key sponsors, ATPI Direct, can offset their travel.

The venue, in central London, is well served by public transport, encouraging more guests to ditch their cars and travel by rail.

With purposeful travel in mind, the form also encourages guests to make their attendance to the evening ceremony count by arranging other meetings around it.  

On the menu

We don’t want to give too much away about what you’ll be tucking into on the night, but we can confirm that guests at this year’s ceremony will enjoy a delicious vegan starter and a white meat main course, or can opt for a vegan alternative that will work for both vegetarians and vegans. There will also be a vegan option for dessert.

De Vere, which manages the Grand Connaught Rooms, has adapted its conference menus in line with the rise of veganism, acknowledging the positive environmental impact this lifestyle affords its guests. Across all of its hotels and conference venues, it has saved 31,936Kg of greenhouse gas in the last 12 months, using plant-based ingredients that use fewer natural resources, which is an improvement of over 50% year on year.

It is also stocking more British products, particularly drinks, and encourages its chefs to use locally-sourced ingredients to reinvest in their local businesses and communities. When it can’t source local products, De Vere adopts a ‘just in time’ ordering process through its procurement partner to address food waste. When food wastage is unavoidable, it is collected and taken to anaerobic digesters to create biogas and compost.  

One for the trophy cabinet

For the first time, our People Awards winners will be presented with newly-designed awards made from wood, not plastic. We’ve seen a sneak preview and we can assure you they’re super stylish and will look great wherever our winners decide to display them. 

Please take your seats

This year, place names for our sit-down dinner will be printed on handmade seed paper made from pre-consumer recycled cotton, which degrades naturally in soil and is packed with bee-friendly flower seeds, including Sweet Alyssum, Baby’s Breath, Poppy, Rudbeckia & Cosmos, so make sure you take yours home. Not only will it be a reminder of a fantastic night, you’ll be giving something back.

The awards programmes on each table will also be printed on recycled paper, while our table plans will be displayed on digital screens. 

Table decorations

Rather than printing new table numbers with sponsor branding, we will be using those provided by the Grand Connaught Rooms, along with the venue’s existing tea lights and mirror plates for the centre pieces. We’re also using the in-house table cloths, napkins and seat covers, which are all reusable.  

Taking centre stage

Artwork for our awards presentation stage will be kept to a minimum with one single piece of artwork. Digital screens will be used to display all other essential information, such as the names of the shortlisted finalists, the winners and the sponsors.