The ACC Liverpool Group has launched its Social Value Plan aimed at creating positive social, economic and environmental impact.
The strategy focuses on five key areas – community; environment, sustainability and climate action; procurement with purpose; event industry impact and people.
Commitments include supporting the delivery of the government’s pledge to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 – a vow the organisation has already initiated by signing the Net Zero Carbon Events pledge, a joint responsibility across the events and meetings industry to achieve the targets laid out in the Paris Climate Accord.
Other responsibilities set out in the plan include maintaining zero to waste status; supporting the development of super low carbon events and the delivery of diversity and inclusion targets across event programming and recruitment. The ACC Liverpool Group aims to support, influence and manage its supply chain to deliver against its commitments and work with service partners to support the delivery of the plan.
Faye Dyer, managing director of The ACC Liverpool Group, said: “We are part of a complex, fast moving, international industry. The world of events is constantly evolving and we want to be in the vanguard of businesses using these developments in the most positive way. We plan to adopt areas and ideas from across the most relevant global, industry and regional plans to create something which is unique to us, deliverable and rooted in who we are, the things we care about most and is most impactful to the environment, people and communities around us.
“We will use our industry networks, memberships and influence to encourage and aid behaviours and practices as well as taking best practice from others to shape our strategy. For example we plan to support and assist our clients to build a Social Value element or objective into their events. The plan is about looking at success in different ways such as what it can mean for society on a global and local level – not just about profit and loss.”
The ACC Liverpool Group is establishing a Community Advisory Group to ensure it has a formalised process in which to engage with a diverse and inclusive range of stakeholders and groups across its local community.
Community aims for 2022 include delivering more than 200 hours of volunteering in the community each year via its new Staff Volunteering Policy; a series of donations to local foodbanks, charities and community groups - either financially through its Foundation, food items or lost property. The company also plans to deliver educational and career support sessions with higher education institutions and provide a number of apprenticeships. Installing LED lights across the campus and achieving ISO150001 are among environmental commitments for next year.
Meanwhile The ACC Liverpool Group plans to provide service partners and suppliers with a Social Value Charter to support its Social Value Commitments for 2022. The plan also extends to the welfare of The ACC Liverpool Group staff including a Wellbeing Strategy and introducing new policies such as Agile Working.
Dyer added: “We are pleased to have already set some of our commitments in motion such as starting to create a Community Advisory Group, as well as developing a Community Engagement Plan as part of this, to ensure our decision making and plans are fully informed and that we build a business that truly represents the diverse communities that we serve.
“We appreciate that our organisation and the events industry are still in pandemic recovery mode but we have set ourselves measurable targets which we are committed to implementing and delivering. We want to be a company that strives to do the right thing and contributes to society.”
The ACC Liverpool Group’s Social Value Impact Plan can be viewed here - https://www.accliverpool.com/media/4475271/acc-social-value-strategy-full-version.pdf