FRIENDS
HOUSE

SUSTAINABILITY

At Friends House, we are committed to sustainability. We want to reduce our impact on the environment while procuring goods and services in an ethical way. We take action to reduce our carbon emissions, cut our waste, choose local sourcing and preserve our ecosystem. With us, events don’t cost the earth.

Our initiatives have had some very visible results and a positive impact on our business. We have listed some of our sustainability policies and achievements below:

Awards and accreditations

  • We are one of just a few London venues to receive a Green Tourism Gold accreditation.
  • We are one of the founding members of the Camden Climate Change Alliance.
  • We received our Carbon Smart Gold Certification in 2019 for our efforts in carbon reduction.
  • Our restaurant, Seed Kitchen, has been awarded three-star Food Made Good by the Sustainable Restaurant Association.

Energy saving

  • We have installed motion-activated lighting in common areas to reduce wasted energy.
  • We replaced our boilers with new energy efficient models to help reduce our energy needs.
  • We have fitted solar film to external windows to help keep our building cooler during the summer months.
  • Friends House may be a Grade II listed building built in the 1920s, but all our windows are secondary-glazed.
  • Whilst refurbishing our meeting rooms and offices, we have insulated all of our external walls.
  • We have automatic closers on our external doors to help keep heat in during the colder months.
  • We installed a building management system (BMS) to control our heating and ventilation.
  • We have high-performance hand dryers that only use around ⅕ of the energy of conventional dryers.
  • We upgraded our printers to devices with one of the lowest energy consumption levels in the industry.
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Catering and procurement

  • Where possible we use organic, Fairtrade and locally sourced ingredients in our meeting rooms, café and restaurant.
  • We were one of the first venues to be given a Good Egg Award and a Good Chicken Award by Compassion in World Farming. This means that all the eggs and poultry in our food come from farms where chickens were cage-free.
  • We only use MSC fish for the fillings of our sandwiches in our meeting rooms.
  • We have reduced the amount of animal products in our meeting rooms catering. At a minimum, our menus are 40% vegetarian and vegan.
  • Our Seed Kitchen restaurant only serves vegetarian and vegan food. We switched to meat-free meals as a way to limit our impact on the environment.

Water management

  • In 2016, we installed a rainwater harvesting system in our garden.
  • To reduce our water usage, we have installed dual-flush toilets, and motion sensors on taps and urinals.
  • We bottle and filter our own water.
  • We have water dispensers on every floor of the venue.

Green energy

  • We only purchase green energy, including 100% renewable electricity from Good Energy.
  • Our energy is free from any form of fossil fuels or nuclear energy sources.
  • Where possible, we have replaced all our light fittings with energy efficient LED bulbs.

Carbon reduction

  • We work with Carbon Smart, an environmental consultancy, to capture our carbon footprint.
  • We have reduced our carbon footprint by 29% since 2009.
  • The carbon footprint per delegate per day has been reduced by 30% since 2017.
  • We use biogas to heat the building.
  • We have reduced our heating emissions by 91% since 2017.

Waste minimisation

  • We have a zero waste to landfill policy and have managed year on year to maintain our zero waste objective.
  • All our waste is recycled and treated by our supplier First Mile.
  • Our staff are encouraged to recycle in the building. There are recycling points on every floor of the venue and in every office space.
  • We signed the Meetings Industry Association 20% less pledge – committing to reduce our use of single-use plastics by a further 20% by 2025.
  • We removed all the single-use plastic from our meeting rooms a few years ago.
  • We removed plastic straws from our café and offer paper straws on request.
  • We use bio-film in the packaging of the sandwiches we sell in our café (when they are made in-house).

Conservation and ecosystem

  • Relandscaped in 2016, our garden is an oasis of peace in the city and is accessible to all.
  • We have three beehives on our roof. The bees contribute to the Euston ecosystem by pollinating the flowers and trees in the area, beginning with our own garden.
  • Find out more about beekeeping at Friends House in this Eustontowner article.

Travel

  • There are excellent public transport links to reach our venue. Go to the “Visit” page to see how to get to the venue.
  • There is a safe cycle parking in our courtyard for visitors and staff.
  • There is a cycle to work scheme available for all our staff.

Get in Touch

Cant find what you are looking for?
No worries our team at Friends House are always here to help.

Events team on 020 7663 1100 or events@quaker.org.uk

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