Well I am sure we are looking forward to a hot summer having had such a long and cold winter. No doubt it will throw up the usual problems with transport and possibly even hose pipe bans!! So I thought I would share some top tips with you all on saving water.
It seems ironic to think as an island we are surrounded by water but water is becoming far scarcer as the population grows. Major industry companies like Unilever are not only looking at ways of reducing their water consumption in the manufacturing of their products, they are also looking at ways to raise awareness with households.
How much water do you think you use a day? Having a shower, cooking your dinner and flushing the loo all adds up – to an average of 150 litres daily for every person in the UK. That does not include all the water that you don’t see that goes into producing the things we buy and use, from smartphones to chocolate bars and trainers. Did you know it takes about 130 pints (74 litres) of water – the total amount needed to grow the ingredients and run all the processes that make the pint of beer? A cup of coffee embeds about 140 litres (246 pints) of water, a cotton T-shirt about 2,000 litres, and a kilogram of steak 15,000 litres.
Here are some top tips to save water.
1. Turn off the taps – Leaving a tap running while brushing teeth uses 6 litres of water a minute. And by fixing a dripping tap you can save over 60 litres of water a week. If you do have a dripping tap and are waiting to get a new washer, collect the water and then feed it to your plants.
2. Boil what you need – Only boil as many cups of water as you need for your tea round – you’ll be saving money and energy.
3. Shower with less – It’s easy to linger in the shower when you’re sleepy in the morning – four-minute timers can help. And switching to an efficient shower head will allow you to lather up in less water, and of course you could also share a shower and make it more fun!
4. Save up your dirty clothes – Washing a full machine load of clothes uses less water and energy than two half-loads. This means lower bills as well.
5. Get a low-flush toilet – or fit volume adjusters to toilet cisterns. The average UK household flushes the loo 5,000 times per year. Modern dual-flush systems use just six litres – or four with a reduced flush – much less than the 13 litres for each old-style single flush. You could also take heed to that old adage “If its yellow …………………..
6. Eat less meat – Rearing animals for meat and dairy is incredibly water-intensive. By cutting down on the amount of meat you eat; you could reduce your water use drastically.
7. Steam your veggies – As well as using less water than boiling, this retains more nutrients. If you do boil, try adding the water as tasty stock to soups, or water house or garden plants once it’s cooled.
8. Reduce food waste – It takes a lot of water to produce our cereal, fruit and other food. More than half of the 7.2 million tonnes of food and drink UK households bin every year could have been eaten. Plan a week’s menu and go shopping with a list, use leftovers to create new meals and check use-by dates. This will help you waste less food – and save the average household £480 a year.
9. Time your gardening – Water outdoor plants in the early morning or at the end of the day stops water evaporating straight away in sunlight and heat. Also, watering onto the soil rather than leaves makes sure the liquid goes straight to the roots where it’s needed.
10. Catch rainwater – Installing water butts saves you turning on the tap – and your plants will thank you for rainwater rather than treated tap water. You can cut also water use by 33% by watering plants manually instead of using automatic sprinklers.
Client: Unite Marketing & Promotions Ltd, Debbie Flannagan MD
Dates of Events: 3 days in March 2013
Event: Unite series of events:
1/ Unite Indian Ocean, Africa & Middle East – 80 exhibitors, 120 buyers
2/ Unite Caribbean – 80 exhibitors, 120 buyers
3/ Unite Pacific, Australasia & Far East – 50 exhibitors, 70 buyers
Location: Newgate Suite, Mezzanine, Foyer & Upper River Room
Company background: The Caribbean event was initiated whilst Debbie Flanagan was working on a freelance basis for an airline. When the airline closed in 2006, Debbie continued to run this whilst operating as a sole trader. This event was then re-branded and at that point the other two events were subsequently added. At that point ‘Unite Marketing & Promotions Ltd’ was formed in 2008. All three events have successfully grown over the years. In 2013, it was Unite Caribbean’s 13th event; Unite Pacific, Australasia & Far East’s 6th year and Unite Indian Ocean, Africa & Middle East’s 5th year of operation.
The brief/purpose of event: A ‘one-stop-shop’ event for UK and European based tour operators to hold pre-booked, one-to-one meetings with tourist boards, hoteliers, representation companies, airlines, ground handlers and car hire companies. This brings together suppliers (exhibitors) with the tour operators (buyers) that have programmes from each region. At these meetings rates are contracted for the following year as well as giving both parties the opportunity to initiate any new marketing ideas for the remainder of the year. There is a good mixture on both sides, of big chain names and small niche companies/hotels.
The challenge: Finding a centrally located venue with lots of natural daylight, with sufficient space to caterer for the numbers of table top exhibitors and buyers. Keeping an even balance of suppliers and buyers is always testing.
The execution: Suppliers and Buyers are invited; all buyers are provided with B2B contact files and timetable which they all work from. The day is run very much like a speed networking event. Each supplier is given 20 minute slots throughout the day and all the appointments are made directly between suppliers and buyers. Refreshments are available all day long, so delegates can choose when/if they want to take a coffee break. Lunch is also provided for an hour, but some delegates choose to ‘work through’ to make the most of every possible meeting slot.
Client feedback: I have held my events at The Mermaid for the last 9 years and have no plans to change this for the future. The location is perfect with a choice of underground stations close by, mainline rail station at Blackfriars, a national car park and a choice of hotels of varying star ratings.
Working with the operations team at The Mermaid is like having an extended team of my own. They now know all of my ‘oddities’ and are an absolute pleasure to work with. If ever any changes need to be made to my original plans, they come prepared with a choice of options and I always come away happy with the final results!
Knowing that you have the support and assistance of such a well-managed and good team around you, certainly reduces the stress in running events.
The Mermaid is delighted to announce that we have been shortlisted in the Best Medium Conference Venue category (capacity 300 – 1000) at the Conference Venue and Supplier Awards. The winners will be revealed at the luncheon which takes place on 7th June 2013 at The Brewery. Jo Brand the BAFTA winning comedienne will be hosting the ceremony. The Conference Awards have established themselves as the most prestigious fixture in the conference calendar. Designed to celebrate success and champion excellence the awards are widely considered to be the most significant annual gathering for the conference industry.
Alicia Duncan, General Manager, commented “2012 has been an exciting year for The Mermaid with various refurbishments taking place. Being nominated for this award is testament to all the staff that have worked tirelessly throughout the year to deliver a service that meets and surpasses expectations“.
On Saturday the 11th of May we will be presenting…
‘Autism’s Got Talent’. This will be a great evening of entertainment and some amazing stories.
All those appearing on stage that night are people on the Spectrum or linked to autism. This is a great opportunity for us to raise awareness and show EVERYONE just how talented those on the Autistic Spectrum can be.
Pineapple Studios are once again supporting us in this event so it is guaranteed to be a great success!
The Mermaid Theatre in London will be the venue for this show and we urge people to book tickets well in advance as they are already selling!!
Call 01895 619734 to buy tickets now or for enquiries email lisa.robins@thevines.org.uk
The Mermaid has appointed Stacey Boyce as Business Development Executive. Her extensive sales career started in 2005, working with some well known hotel chains; Holiday Inn, DeVere and more recently The Hilton.
Stacey joins The Mermaid in a proactive role to help generate new business and exposure for the venue. She is looking forward to the challenge of the role as well as the move from hotels to venues. Stacey says “I am delighted to have joined the team here and to be taking on this new position that has been created”
This year at Confex we decided to do something different, a prize draw for a £10,000 party in our fantastic River Rooms. This was a great success and 160 buyers entered the competition over the three days. A week on from Confex and we are delighted to announce that our winner is Claire Wilby from Jersey Finance. Congratulations to Claire, we look forward to welcoming you to The Mermaid!
Over three days in late December 2012 filming took place at The Mermaid for one of the new plays in Sky Arts second season of Playhouse Presents. Playhouse Presents is a series of eleven self-contained TV plays. The short play called Hey Diddly Dee, written and directed by Hustle star Marc Warren will be shown on Sky Arts. The one-off show is being made by Sprout Pictures, the production company founded by Stephen Fry and Sandi Toksvig.
For every star that is born…one has to die. When the star of the show suffers a tragic accident who is to blame? The understudy? A faulty trap door? Or the theatre’s lucky cat? A dark comedy-drama about drama starring Kylie Minogue, Mathew Horne, Peter Serafinowicz, David Harewood, Paul Kaye and Lee Boardman.
Incipio Academy – April 27th at The Mermaid
Tickets available HERE
Renown speaker, educator, author, activist and minister, Eric Thomas is rising to National prominence by delivering high energy messages that encourage people to live up to their full potential by breaking the cycles of crime, hopelessness and despair that many face daily.
Known for his engagingly personal approach, his messages are both dynamic and inspiring.
Formerly a high school drop-out, he obtained his Masters degree in 2005 and is presently pursuing his PhD in Education Administration at Michigan State University. While consulting at Michigan State, he developed The Advantage Program, an undergraduate retention program targeting academically high-risk students of colour.
Eric’s representation of the merits of higher education, coupled with his knowledge of the pains of life, inspire people of all walks to break bad habits and reach for new levels of personal achievement.
Head of PR, Carol Anderson joined the Mermaid in 1998 and over the years has seen the Mermaid’s transformation from a rundown theatre into a vibrant, award-winning multi-function facility that it is today. Carol has played an integral part in this transformation, helping to attract prestigious clients such as the BBC, IPC Media, IAB and Unilever to name but a few. A major part of her new role is to develop the sustainability of the business . This is how it’s taking shape…
‘When I first started this project a year ago, I was quite apprehensive about the task that lay before me; this was of course, over time, replaced with a plethora of Google results as I attempted to gather as much information as possible whilst looking for a starting point. It is so easy to get lost amongst the wide array of information available on the web.
My first breakthrough came when I clicked into ‘Heart of the City’. Reading through their website everything was laid out in an easy to understand way. I knew help was at hand, it seemed like the universe had listened to me. (Those that know me, know I am a great believer in asking the universe for help!) .
Heart of the City is a charity which provides free support to businesses that are looking to start or to grow Corporate Social Responsibility programmes. As The Mermaid is based in the City of London, I was on the phone within seconds trying to find out more. I arranged an appointment and was visited by one of their team who sat down and went through the information and how I and The Mermaid could benefit from it.
The programme is run over a period of 18 months and consists of workshops, one-to-one coaching with other experienced CSR professionals as well as networking opportunities, with all the online tools needed to start and develop a policy. All of this, plus much more; so I signed up instantly.
To get me started I sent a short environmental survey out to all the staff, partly to start engaging them in the process and raising their awareness, as well as trying to establish what they thought we were already covering from the 4 areas that a CSR covers Environment, Workplace and Marketplace and Community. Once I had looked in more depth at what we needed to achieve within each category I was pleasantly surprised to see we were in fact covering quite a lot of the requirements. The area that needed the most work was the Community section, trying to find a partner we could engage with.
Again through research (good old Google) I found a group called City Action who help businesses in the City of London partner up with various charities. After much discussion, and the opportunity to go and visit several of these charities, we decided to work with City Brokerage. They are an independent charity providing young people in London with a ‘Pathway’ of opportunities into employment, working in partnership with employers, schools and volunteers at every stage. This we felt would sit well with our business as it showed young people that there are other career paths that could be considered within the City of London.
After months of writing and researching when I felt everything was in place, I sat down with the GM and MD and went through the policy to ensure that they were in agreement with everything. We tweaked a couple of sections but by and large they were as happy, as was I.
From this we then drew up an Environmental policy again keeping it simple setting a couple of targets to achieve rather than too many. We decided the two biggest challenges were to increase what we recycled (identifying more of what we can recycle) and at the same time maintaining the balance of reusing and reducing (especially our paper consumption and toner usage). This target of trying to achieve 75% recycling coupled with trying to reduce our energy consumption by 10%.
So a year further on we a have a CSR and Environmental policy established. Whilst the basic principles of any CSR policy have to be stable I am always looking for new ideas and ways we can improve. There is a lot to understand but breaking it all down and taking small steps make it so much easier. The whole experience has fuelled my passion for sustainability even more and making sure I develop a good business ethos for The Mermaid.
If you would like to find out more about
Heart of the City http://www.theheartofthecity.com/
City Action http://www.city-action.org/
City Brokerage http://www.thebrokerage.org.uk/
Client: GP Update
Event: The GP Update Course
Group Size: 400
Location: Auditorium
Date: 2 day event March 2013 (course repeated on a second day for a different cohort)
Company background: The GP Update Course is run entirely by GPs for GPs. We trawl through all the journals and do all the legwork to bring GPs up to speed on the latest issues, literature, research and guidelines in General Practice to help them stay up to date and deliver excellent care to their patients. The one day GP Update Course has been accredited by the RCGP since February 2012 and is designed to be very relevant to clinical practice and to help GPs to meet the requirements for appraisal and revalidation.
The brief/purpose of event: The event is an intensive 6 hour lecture based course run from 9.30 am to 4.45 pm including breaks.
The challenge: Providing a spacious comfortable lecture theatre with modern technology and a refreshing, healthy lunch and catering breaks delivered smoothly in a short amount of time to add value to the days experience and not detract from the high standard of the course
The execution: The staff team at The Mermaid make our job on the day very easy and go the extra mile in all that they do. The facilities are great for our requirements and the food is first class. They are slick and efficient at marshalling our delegates through the building to get them fed and watered within the short breaks.
Client feedback: We pin our reputation on the quality of the venues we use for our courses and we ask for extensive feedback from our delegates. All of our courses at the Mermaid score very highly with brilliant feedback.
The Mermaid Conference & Events Centre, Puddle Dock, Blackfriars, London, EC4V 3DB
Telephone: 020 7236 1919 Fax: 020 7236 1819
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