Who we are
The Corporation of the Church House was founded as a charity in 1888 by Royal Charter. Located in Dean’s Yard, the building was designed to be a home for the Church Assembly (now the General Synod) of the Church of England. The multi-purpose events venue, Church House Westminster, was launched in 1990 and is a wholly-owned trading subsidiary of the Corporation.
The policy has been created to reflect the operations of the whole of the Corporation of the Church House, including its subsidiary. It further follows that the commitment to the future development of the policy is supported by the entire team of the Corporation, including its subsidiary.
Background
We are conscious of our social responsibilities with regards to helping the environment through our working practices. Our objective is to sustain our environment for our descendants and rehabilitate any damage previously done. We believe that our corporate responsibilities go beyond our property borders and therefore every effort will be made to conserve resources throughout our operations.
We will not only meet existing environmental laws and regulations but will endeavour to go beyond the status quo, seek out and adopt techniques and approaches that position us ahead of our fellow industry peers.
The Grade II listed building from which we operate was built in 1937, which does place constraints on us regarding what can be achieved from a technical perspective.
Our growth depends on our abilities to minimise or eliminate our impacts on our surroundings. Our ultimate success depends on the environment of England, without a beautiful country, our clients and tenants will cease to come. Our future and the future of our environment are interconnected.
We actively seek to minimise and manage the environmental impact of our operations and offerings.
We wish to...
- Integrate environmental management into our everyday operations
- Improve our environmental efficiency
- Help our clients and tenants reduce their carbon footprint using our building
Our Sustainable Refurbishment
1. Awareness and commitment
Our policy towards the environment will be readily available and promoted to tenants, clients, staff, and stakeholders. We will endeavour to make sure staff and clients are familiar with and implement our environmental commitment and objectives.
- The Environmental policy will be available on our websites
- The Environmental policy will be shared with all clients, tenants, and wider stakeholders
- The Environmental policy will be included as part of any agreement with a third-party supplier including our catering partner, cleaning company, and security team.
- We commit to monitoring and complying with all relevant environmental laws and relevant standards and practices
- We pledge to continue to actively seek out and adopt new sustainable and green technology
- We will have an open line of communications with other corporate institutions to share ideas and look at centres of excellence.
2. TRANSPORT
Wherever possible, we will look to reduce the impact on the environment with regards to transport.
- For out of hours of travel, only use ‘green’ taxi companies are used
- Bike racks have been fitted in the venue’s garage for use by staff and delegates and information on local ‘Santander’ bike stations are available
- We offer an interactive virtual tour for event organisers to explore the venue online, saving travel miles to and from the venue.
We will
- Seek and employ local products and services to reduce transport costs
- Our team will avoid unnecessary travel and will use energy-efficient vehicles and driving styles, where possible
- Encourage the use of public transport, cycle, or walking
- Limit, where possible, the use of motor vehicles
- Look for ways to support the expanding electric vehicle’s network
3. WATER
We will look to reduce water usage in all of our operations.
- Sensory taps have been fitted in key areas of the building and this will be extended to all areas over the coming years
- Urinals have been updated to the latest water-saving technology.
Future projects will include
- Reducing the buildings infrastructure water used, with smart installations and monitoring
- Recording and monitoring the water usage on a regular basis
4. Energy and carbon
We will recommend all new installations and refurbishment of our spaces, as well as spaces utilised by tenants, fits the most energy-efficient and sustainable products and devices as possible. Our major goal is to have a carbon-neutral building by 2030 at the latest. This will include a major renovation of the fabric and ornaments of the building as well as renewal of energy and mechanics of the site. Future activities include
- Replacing gas equipment with green-energy appliances
- Sourcing of certified green energy only
- Temperature control in all areas of the building
- Measurement and metering of all office space
- Motion-sensitive lighting
- Exclusive use of LEDs
- Reducing lift use through signage and staff and client behaviour change
- Reducing heat loss by increasing thermal insulation within the systems
- Implementing heat reclaim systems to reduce energy usage
- Looking at cutting-new-edge technologies to support the policy
- Integrating smart-energy management systems to improve the overall control
5. FOOD
Church House Westminster has looking after our planet at the heart of the way of working as well as the sourcing and cooking of food. The catering partner will commit to
- Utilising an in-house water bottling facility that uses reusable glass bottles. Water jugs will also be offered to clients.
- Sourcing seasonal and local produce, wherever possible
- Banning the use of straws
- Eliminating the use of plastic
- Increasing the range of plant-based menu options on offer
- Procuring food from sustainable sources and only using high welfare meat
- Offering only fair-traded hot beverages
- Diverting any surplus food to the local community
- Collecting used coffee grounds, to be sent away to be made into briquettes for use as fuel and recycling used crisp packets into garden furniture utilising a Teracycle scheme
6. MATERIALS AND WASTE
Our teams are trained to work in the most sustainable way possible, minimising the use of energy and production of waste wherever possible.
- All printers are…
WELL-BEING
Our event spaces are designed with well-being in mind with most rooms offering plenty of natural daylight and stunning views of Westminster Abbey and tranquil Dean’s Yard, providing an oasis of peace and quiet to visitors. Event spaces also offer great flexibility for an array of informal layouts and event formats, and with 19 rooms the opportunity is there to allocate quiet rooms for your event for use during breaks or for meditation. Event organisers can theme the venue spaces and our in-house audio visual team can offer plenty of creative ideas to transform our rooms with innovative and ambient lighting options.
Our Head Chef has created a well-being working lunch menu featuring good mood foods that are healthy with sustained energy-giving properties to avoid that dreadful energy slump in the afternoon.
COMMUNITY
We care deeply for our Westminster neighbourhood and actively participate in local community activities, from giving children’s toys to local nurseries to donating food items to local food banks. We realise that we are stronger when we work together and collaborate, as we continue to partner with other Westminster venues and local hotels to secure conferences and events in Westminster.
We undertake a number of charity fundraising causes every year. Our charity for 2020 is Re-engage, a charity based in Westminster that tackles loneliness and social isolation amongst older people in the UK.
We commit to providing an inclusive welcome and accessibility to the largest audience possible. We have made all reasonable efforts to comply with the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to provide an accessible venue for those attending events at Church House.
We have clear guidelines in place detailing how we use your data in line with our privacy policy and we have also detailed our website’s cookie policy.
We provide a safe working environment for our teams including work stations fitted with fully adjustable chairs, computer screens, and footrests to ensure a comfortable working environment. All members of the team take part in compulsory safety training for the working environment.
We treat our team fairly and in a respectful manner following the guidelines set ou
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INNOVATION
We pledge to continue to actively seek out and adopt new event technology applications as and when these are developed to enhance the guest experience of events.
We encourage organisers to choose digital for event marketing in order to reduce the impact of events on the environment. Dedicated event websites, event apps, online registration and virtual check-ins can provide real data-driven events.
With new Covid-secure events we continue to evolve our in-house virtual and hybrid event technology and we also recommend using contact tracing tools such as the miaTrusted Trace tool.
ECOLOGY
We grow herbs for our kitchen and we have a plan to plant wildflowers and keep bees in the little garden on the 1st floor, next to the Bishop Partridge Hall.
We offer a range of live natural plants for hire which is not only cost-effective but great for well-being. Where floral arrangements are a must, our florist will use seasonal flowers.