Sustainable Wedding Alliance

Sustainable Wedding Summit 2022

The Sustainable Wedding Summit will took place on Monday 25th & Tuesday 26th April 2022. It was a mix of virtual and in person events.

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Sustainable Wedding Summit

Thank you to all those that joined us for the 2022 Sustainable Wedding Summit.
It was an amazing two days.

The Summit is no longer available for general viewing, but members have lifetime access to sessions on the membership platform.

“The Sustainable Wedding Summit was really eye opening, full of action taking information and really welcoming. All the talks were helpful and interesting and I’d recommend all wedding suppliers get involved in the next one no matter what stage of your sustainable journey your on.”

Sustainable Wedding Alliance

Our Speakers

Our second Sustainable Wedding Summit was bigger and better than 2021 and yet again, we had an awesome line up of speakers. 

All speakers graciously gave up their time to join summit and are committed to driving sustainable change in the wedding industry. 

Adam is the founder of Small99. Small99 breaks down the journey for micro and small businesses to net zero into a series of manageable, bite size steps to follow.

Having spent a decade working with and in small businesses, he understands the challenges owners have with limited resources and time. Most owners feel overwhelmed with the amount of information about net zero, and Small99 was founded to cut through all the noise.

With 99% of the economy made up of small businesses, Small99 provides practical guidance on how they can reach net zero quickly and accelerate the transition to net zero.

They have a goal to guide 1 million businesses to net zero by 2025.

Small99 guides business to net zero through a series of small, manageable steps. With practical guidance, they reduce the overwhelming amount of information out there to empower owners to take action and build more resilient, successful businesses.

99% of businesses in the UK are micro or small businesses, and existing net zero guidance is focused on larger organisations. In trying to do the right thing, many founders have been left with information overload or trying to follow inappropriate guidance. 

Small99 was founded to cut through the noise and get owners to take action, with a goal to guide 1 million small businesses to net zero by 2025.

Small99 offers affordable, accessible action through their private community, alongside a Net Zero directory, free Net Zero assessment tool and regular topical advice through blogs, podcasts and events.

Alison Hargreaves

Alison Hargreaves has founded numerous successful wedding brands over the past 31 years and is the Director of Guides for Brides. She uses online data combined with industry insights from her extensive network to advise and inform wedding businesses aiming for fast growth in a competitive market. 

Alison speaks at conferences and training events including The National Hotel Marketing Conference, National Wedding Show, Wedaway, NAWP, Bridelux Symposium, Goldman Sachs 10KSB. 

 

Guides for Brides is a UK market leader in putting consumers in touch with wedding venues and suppliers. Their directory-based website is the go-to for couples and wedding planners and is supported with advice, inspiration and essential information from the most knowledgeable team in the wedding industry. 

“It’s no longer a question of if or when, but how”. “

Over the past years we’ve seen the attitude of wedding businesses changing from feeling they can’t afford to work sustainably, to knowing they can’t afford not to.    
It’s no longer a question of “if” or “when”, but “how”. 

Katherine Tubb

Katherine Tubb is the Rewilding Business Manager for SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, a charity that works to drive the recovery of nature across Scotland through rewilding, in response to the growing climate and biodiversity crises.

Before joining SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, Katherine founded her own enterprise that placed thousands of volunteers globally, and advised charities on new business development to innovate in their response to social and environmental challenges.

Carina Jandt

Working with high profile clients at companies such as the experiential marketing agency GPJ, Carina was able to witness first hand the growing desire for her clients to become more sustainable. On the flip side, over the 10 years as a technical production manager, she would also see all the items that were sent into skips and off to landfill. 

Over the years of volunteering, she quickly noticed the increasing demand for donations with charities and felt that there was a need to combine the two. Her new venture Event Cycle does just that – turning event waste into donations for charities, community groups and social enterprises. She hopes to be able to support the events industry in the transition into a more circular economy and to help those most in need in the process.

Event Cycle repurpose and redistribute items that are no longer needed to charities and community groups as well as back into the events industry. From graphics to giveaways, planks of wood to plants, there’s a new home waiting for them all. We want to lead the events industry into a circular economy where landfill waste is avoided and by doing so a social impact is made.

Rachel McCaffery

Rachel McCaffery has over 15 years of experience in tourism and sustainability. One of the founders of Travel Without Plastic, she used her experience of working with businesses to overcome problems to establish GreenerGuest.com  – a knowledge hub and marketplace to help hospitality businesses reduce plastic and source more sustainable alternatives. Rachel has driven sustainability strategy and supply chain management for commercial tour operators such as Airtours, Virgin Holidays, STA Travel and Virgin Atlantic. She was heavily involved in the creation of ABTA sustainability Tools such as the Travelife Sustainability System, the Global Animal Welfare Guidelines and Responsible Volunteering Guidelines and works with visitor attractions, hotels, destinations and other tourism businesses to implement and promote sustainable tourism. 

Greener Guest has collected sustainable versions of the products hospitality businesses use, into a B2B marketplace,  which also provides sustainability tips and other practical sustainability advice for users. It offers a one-stop shop for information on sustainability, single-use plastic reduction and the sourcing of sustainable alternatives. 
Sustainable Wedding Alliance Ambassador

Fleur Record-Smith

Hayne House was founded in 2010 when I took on what had once been my family home to convert it into a wedding venue. 

Recently, I completed a Sustainability Business Course from Cambridge University which has given me more knowledge and determination to bring change to the venue and beyond.

I feel fortunate that I can align what I am passionate about with my vision for Hayne House, and that my team is as dedicated as I am to making it a sustainable venue. We still have a way to go but I hope we can inspire others to join us on this challenging but rewarding journey.

Sustainable Wedding Stationery

Simone Carr

Simone is the owner, designer and creator of Ellie and Liv a sustainable wedding stationery and design studio. Simone’s background is in graphic design with over 20 years of brand and corporate design experience, what really means she has developed a deep love for all things paper.
 
Endlessly inspired by the natural world, and passionate about protecting it, Simone sources and uses sustainable, recyclable materials of exquisite quality, and keeps her processes as kind to the environment as possible. As well as specialising in elegant wedding stationery Simone considers the full cycle of stationery, making sure everything is recyclable, biodegradable or reusable after the day.
Sustainable Wedding Business

Celia Gaze

Celia Gaze left a senior role in the NHS after frustration and work-related stress made her question her life and became the springboard to start her own business. Over the next few years she transformed a neglected hill farm in Bolton into a multi award-winning wedding and events venue – The Wellbeing Farm. She unites savvy business understanding with a passion for self-development that can’t fail to inspire you to transform your own life.

The Wellbeing Farm is now the first independent events and wedding venue to be a Certified B Corporation® (or B Corp™).

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