Monaco’s largest events venue, the Grimaldi Forum, has achieved record breaking results in reducing its environmental impact. The ‘event factory’ hosts around 80 professional and cultural events each year, and its sustainable practices can serve as a blueprint for similar-sized institutions throughout the world.
The results of the Grimaldi Forum Monaco’s Act Green Policy are in. Last year, the venue achieved its best environmental results since the implementation and monitoring of its ISO 14001 standard in October 2008.
For the past decade, the Grimaldi Forum has been committed to reducing the impact on the environment of the general maintenance of the building and of the events that take place within it, focusing primarily on sustainable and optimised water and energy management, waste sorting and recycling, an eco-responsible purchasing policy, good risk management, as well as event-driven communication.
With around 250,000 visitors per year, the ratio between annual water consumption, which has remained stable at 7,800 m3, and the increasing inflow of visitors, has never been so low.
It has also recorded an impressive decline in annual electricity consumption, dropping below eight million kWh for the first time since indicators were in play.
The venue stepped up its sustainable efforts in 2017 with the commissioning of a task force and the implementation of new high performance equipment, including the air conditioning system. New seawater exchange control valves on the Grimaldi Forum’s own thermo-refrigeration production, as well as a change in the control system for this production, led to additional savings of 5.4% on their electricity consumption in 2018.
While paper consumption has been stable, an objective to reach 50% recycling of this material was met and exceeded, from 44.5% in 2016 to 52.9% in 2018.
As part of the Grimaldi Forum’s ISO 14001 certification, sorting is at the centre of many new initiatives, aimed in particular at reducing the use of plastic in general.
Further projects and actions are being implemented in 2019 including the replacement of a heat pump.