Sustainability was front and centre of LS Events work on the UEFA Champions League Final City Operations in London 2024. LS Events delivered two Fan Meeting Points that welcomed 80,000 fans alongside the simultaneous delivery of the UEFA Champions Festival across five locations; Trafalgar Square, Regent Street, Somerset House, South Bank and Potters Field Park.
LS Events were contracted by the Greater London Authority (GLA) in early September to begin working on the UEFA Champions League Final City Operations in London 2024. As part of the 4-day free family festival there were concerts, a Giant Trophy activation, the Champions tournament and engaging partner activations. At its peak, this project saw over 50 people working in the planning and over 180 people for the delivery across 7 venues.
LS Events worked with the A Greener Future (AGF) Event Sustainability Framework to scope and gather data for the event Carbon footprint analysis, create a sustainable event policy, and formulate an Event Sustainability Action Plan to allocate tasks and track status throughout the event, waste management planning, and consultancy and support covering procurements, food and beverage, serveware, merchandise, communications, and more.
Waste reduction efforts included extensive material reductions and reuse programmes – reusable cups for bars, dedicated dry mixed recycling (DMR) waste streams, providing back-of-house (BOH) food waste bins across all sites to increase segregation, and separating unavoidable soft plastics from packaging, that were collected to be turned into furniture by MyGroup.
Sustainability efforts included charity donations with a significant food salvage operation resulting in almost 770 kg of food being salvaged by City Harvest, equating to approximately 1,824 meals provided to charities, soup kitchens, and more. Other donated items included 420 sqm of carpets, 2400 sqm of scrim, and over 450 lanyards, were given to charities supporting families in need, child development through play therapy, and children hospice centres.
CO2 analysis was another crucial aspect of initiatives, with detailed analysis covering the CO2 output of energy, transport, waste, water and food and drink, this resulted in action plans to improve efficiencies for future events.
Steve Reynolds, Co-CEO, LS Events, says: “At LS Events, we are deeply committed to constantly challenging ourselves and to strive for continuous improvement in our sustainable initiatives. Through our extensive work with AEG Presents, Formula E and our public sector clients, such as the GLA, we ensure we are at the cutting edge of viable initiatives that are designed into our events from the outset. We are so proud to design and deliver meaningful solutions with the support and guidance of our friends at A Greener Future.”
This case study originally appeared in our July 2024 Vision: 2025 newsletter. Sign up to receive monthly event sustainability news, case studies and guest blogs direct to your inbox.