Mar 19 2026
Hinxton Hall Conference Centre achieves GOLD Green Meetings Award
Two and a half years after achieving the silver award, Hinxton Hall Conference Centre has been awarded the top Green Meetings award from Green Tourism, the world’s leading sustainability certification.
To meet Green Tourism’s independently-verified gold standard, the Conference Centre team ‘has a strong and broad environmental ethos and can provide excellent examples of best practice across all sustainability goals, have made significant changes to their work practices, and continue to review and maintain these practices.’
Achieving a Gold Green Meetings award means our venue has ‘demonstrated exemplary leadership in environmental stewardship and holds the highest standard of sustainability within the meetings and events industry. It is a…endorsement of the venue's commitment to sustainable, responsible, and ethical practices, marking them as a leader in green quality.’
Hinxton Hall’s assessor for the award, Anna MacDonald, highlighted that the venue is particularly strong in its people goals, scoring full marks on the health and wellbeing category (protecting and supporting staff and customer health and wellbeing) and awareness category (excellent knowledge and awareness of all aspects of sustainability on show throughout), as well as how we promote responsible behaviour while attending an event or meeting with us. Our work towards equality, diversity and inclusion also scored highly.
Here is how we scored in every section:
Our Systems and Process Manager, Kat Mace, developed the submission, and answered some questions about the process for us:
Q: What was it like putting the submission together?
Putting the submission together took around six months. As we’re part of a scientific research campus, I worked closely with a number of internal teams including facilities, grounds, sustainability, as well as our maintenance and catering contractors.
The process required gathering a significant amount of detailed and often very specific information, so it involved looking closely at how different parts of the Campus and venue operate in order to bring everything together. We’re very grateful to everyone on site who supported us with information, advice and encouragement along the way. It’s a privilege to be part of such a collaborative campus, and the process really highlighted the scale of the work being done across departments to champion sustainability, wellbeing, environmental awareness and equality, diversity and inclusion.
Q: How does it feel to have won
Fantastic! There is growing recognition across the events industry that events need to be more sustainable, environmentally responsible and inclusive, so receiving this award is a real achievement for us. It places our venue at the forefront of best practice and recognises the progress we’ve made so far. We’re incredibly proud of the team effort that made it possible.
Q: How will the Conference Centre benefit from this award?
This independent certification confirms that our environmental practices meet a high standard, covering everything from how we manage energy and waste to how we support people and the local environment. In short, it shows that our commitment to sustainability is real, measurable, and continuously improving. This allows our clients to have confidence in us. Many organisations now prioritise venues with verified sustainability credentials, and the gold award reassures event planners that their meetings and conferences can be delivered responsibly.
The award also reflects the kind of events we want to host – thoughtful, high-quality experiences that respect the environment and support a more sustainable future – and we believe it will attract like-minded organisations.
Most importantly, it also helps us keep getting better. The process encourages us to review how we use resources such as energy, water and food, helping us reduce waste, improve efficiency and lower our environmental impact.
Q: What did it take to move from a silver to a gold award?
Achieving Gold required a significant increase in both performance and evidence across the sustainability framework, taking our overall score from 65% in 2023 to 82% in 2026. The process involved strengthening existing initiatives, improving documentation, and embedding sustainability more clearly across operations and communication.
One of the biggest improvements was in how we communicate about what we do to make our venue, and events held here, more sustainable. Our score for communication increased from 10% to around 85%, demonstrating that sustainability is now clearly embedded in how we engage with clients, delegates and staff. This includes clearer messaging, guidance for event organisers, and visible sustainability practices across the venue.
We also improved in the community category from 57% to 86%, reflecting greater engagement with local suppliers, partnerships and wider social responsibility, such as partnering with the food sharing app, Olio.
Q: What’s next for Hinxton Hall in terms of sustainability?
We would like to continue working more closely with organisers to promote better practices. We are also active participants in Meet Cambridge’s sustainability forums, where we share what we are doing and hopefully inspire others in Cambridge to do the same.
If you would like to delve into the details of our work towards environmental and social sustainability, please follow the links below:
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