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An events company has chosen to give delegates vegetarian meals by default in a bid to reduce its carbon impact.

Beaconhouse Events, based in Newcastle's Hoults Yard, was behind the recent TechNExt Festival in the North East which saw hundreds of attendees presented with vegetarian food with the option to request meat-based dishes. The firm co-founded the festival alongside Sunderland Software City and Dynamo, and designed catering for the week-long celebration of the region's tech sector, which included meat-free buffet options at its main stage and festival party events along with a vegetarian by default menu for the 120 guests attending the conference dinner.

The result was 55% of attendees at the dinner choosing the meat-free options, as opposed to the average of only 10% the team would see at a usual event. Beaconhouse said the move helped it to significantly reduce the carbon impact of the event.

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Sarah Thackray, co-founder and director of the agency, which has ambitions to reduce its carbon emissions by 5% year-on-year, said: "We believe that great events don’t have to cost the earth, and as part of our five-year ESG strategy we have been examining how we create experiences that move us towards our aim of becoming, and remaining, a carbon responsible business, while still maintaining a fantastic experience for our delegates.

"As an office of foodies, we know that the catering options are a corner stone of any event, but the amount of meat consumed was having a major impact on how sustainable our events could be. So we got our heads together and came up with a simple solution – what would happen if you had to opt-in for a meat option, rather than opt out?

"The climate impact of meat is enormous – roughly equivalent to all the driving and flying of every car, truck and plane in the world. This one simple change allowed us to do better for our planet during the week-long festival while still providing a delicious dinner for the guests to enjoy.

"The key to creating impact isn’t simply switching to a veggie or vegan menu, the trick is to communicate the importance of why. Going meat-free was just one element of our ‘Good Festival’ ambition and ‘for good’ was a core value that ran through everything throughout the week. That meant a focus on quality, inclusivity, diversity, accessibility, and sustainability, all of which we communicated the impact of to our delegates in the lead up to the festival."

Beaconhouse says it is not alone in offering meat-free events, citing moves by Oxford Council to go vegan at events, alongside similar moves by Cambridge, Exeter and Norwich councils. Its catering efforts sit alongside other measures to reduce carbon impact such as use of digital solutions to limit single-use print and supply chain engagement.

Ms Thrackray added: "It is our job as a responsible employer and business to forge the path of what is possible and to collaborate with other organisations, both in and outside of the event sector, to learn from, and inspire, each other. We are seeing an increased demand for environmental reporting from our clients and are proud to be early adopters of TRACE, a digital carbon measurement platform to help the event industry reach Net Zero.

"TRACE helps us to gather data on our carbon impact at each event, which in turn gives us the ability to work with clients to benchmark and track success alongside their ESG strategy. There is still relatively low adoption for sustainable change across the sector, but with consistent and considered steps we can make real change together."